Jean Sénac
Encyclopedia
Jean Sénac Born of an unknown father in Béni Saf
in the Oran
region of Algeria
, the "poet who signed with a sun", was murdered in Algiers
on August 30, 1973. His murder remains unsolved. Besides his poems and writings, he was renowned for a long-running relationship and correspondences with Albert Camus
. A portion of his papers are stored at the City Archives in Marseille
, France
.
His own struggles were strongly linked with his quest to better Algeria through poetry: a profound search for identity, both personal and cultural and his struggle to find acceptance in his homosexuality plagued him throughout his life; "This poor body also/ Wants its war of independence", he once wrote. Sénac was a great admirer of the work of such poets as Gérard de Nerval
, Arthur Rimbaud
, Antonin Artaud
and Jean Genêt
.
that lasted from 1947 to 1958. The contents of the letters remain mostly unknown, although Hamid Nacer-Khodja published a few and wrote about the history of the friendship in his essay Le Fils rebelle. many correspondences are of a literary nature, but some also discuss the independence movement in Algeria.
In April 1958 he broke relations with Albert Camus on a sour note blaming him for not supporting the plight of an Algerian student named Taleb executed for his political activities against the French. He did not communicate further with Camus from that day on until Camus' death early 1960.
Béni Saf
Beni Saf is a town in northwestern Algeria, about 80 kilometers southwest of Oran. The town was founded in 1876 as a shipping port for iron ore, which is mined just south of the town. Other products of the town include zinc, marble and onyx, and the fishing industry is extensive.- Sources :...
in the Oran
Oran Province
Oran is a province in Algeria whose seat is the city of the same name.-Geography:It is located in the northwestern part of the country. Its population is 1,584,607 and it covers a total area of 2,114 km²...
region of Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, the "poet who signed with a sun", was murdered in Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
on August 30, 1973. His murder remains unsolved. Besides his poems and writings, he was renowned for a long-running relationship and correspondences with Albert Camus
Albert Camus
Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
. A portion of his papers are stored at the City Archives in Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Career
Jean Sénac was an Algerian francophone poet who remained strongly attached to his Algerian nationality despite the French exodus from Algeria in the aftermath of the war of liberation. His poems were largely songs of revolution, which he hoped would help create a world of beauty and brotherhood in an Algeria that was open to all cultures.His own struggles were strongly linked with his quest to better Algeria through poetry: a profound search for identity, both personal and cultural and his struggle to find acceptance in his homosexuality plagued him throughout his life; "This poor body also/ Wants its war of independence", he once wrote. Sénac was a great admirer of the work of such poets as Gérard de Nerval
Gérard de Nerval
Gérard de Nerval was the nom-de-plume of the French poet, essayist and translator Gérard Labrunie, one of the most essentially Romantic French poets.- Biography :...
, Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
, Antonin Artaud
Antonin Artaud
Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, more well-known as Antonin Artaud was a French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director...
and Jean Genêt
Jean Genet
Jean Genet was a prominent and controversial French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but later took to writing...
.
Friendship with Albert Camus
Jean Sénac had a long-running friendship with French Algerian-born writer and Literary Nobel Prize laureate Albert CamusAlbert Camus
Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
that lasted from 1947 to 1958. The contents of the letters remain mostly unknown, although Hamid Nacer-Khodja published a few and wrote about the history of the friendship in his essay Le Fils rebelle. many correspondences are of a literary nature, but some also discuss the independence movement in Algeria.
In April 1958 he broke relations with Albert Camus on a sour note blaming him for not supporting the plight of an Algerian student named Taleb executed for his political activities against the French. He did not communicate further with Camus from that day on until Camus' death early 1960.
Poetry
- Poèmes, preface by René CharRené CharRené Char was a 20th century French poet.-Biography:Char was born in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Vaucluse department of France, the youngest of four children of Emile Char and Marie-Therese Rouget, where his father was mayor and managing director of the Vaucluse plasterworks...
, Paris, collection Espoir run by Albert CamusAlbert CamusAlbert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
, Gallimard, 1954. - Matinale de mon peuple, following portions of Diwan de l'État-Major and Diwan espagnol, preface by Mostefa Lacheraf, drawings by Abdallah Benanteur, Rodez, Subervie, 1961.
- La Rose et l'ortie, engraved slates by Mohammed KhaddaMohammed KhaddaMohammed Khadda was an Algerian painter and sculptor who is considered to be among the founders of contemporary Algerian painting. He debuted in 1960. His influences included Cubism and Arabic calligraphy. He tended toward the non-figurative or abstract...
, Paris-Alger, Cahiers du monde intérieur, Rhumbs, 1964. - Citoyens de beauté, Rodez, Subervie, 1967; Charlieu, La Bartavelle éditeur, 1997.
- Avant-Corps, including Poèmes iliaques follow-up to Diwan du Noûn, Paris, Gallimard, 1968.
- Les Désordres,[poems written between 1953 and 1956], Paris, Librairie Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 1972.
- A-Corpoème, unpublished poems, following Les Désordres, and preceding Jean Sénac, Poète pour habiter son nom, essay by Jean Déjeux, Paris, Editions Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 1981 (ISBN 2243016827).
- Dérisions et Vertiges, trouvures, preface by Jamel Eddine Bencheikh, cover design by Abdallah Benanteur, Arles, Actes Sud, 1983 (ISBN 2903098611).
- Le Mythe du sperme - Méditerranée, Arles, Actes Sud, 1984 (ISBN 2903098913).
- Œuvres poétiques,preface of René de Ceccatty, end notes by Hamid Nacer-Khodja, Editions Actes/Sud, 1999 [collection of 15 articles about the poet].
- .
Autobiography
- Ebauche du père, preface by Rabah Belamri, Paris, Gallimard, 1982 (ISBN 2070714128).
Essays
- Le Soleil sous les armes, Eléments d'une poésie de la résistance algérienne, Rodez, Subervie, 1957.
- Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie algérienne, essai et choix de Jean Sénac, Poésie 1, n° 14, Paris, Librairie Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 1971.
- Journal (janvier-juillet 1954), suivi de Les Leçons d'Edgar, Pézenas, Le Haut-Quartier, collection Méditerranée vivante, Edmond Charlot editor, 1983 (ISBN 290482300X); Saint-Denis, Novetlé, with a preface of Jean PélégriJean PélégriJean Pélégri was a writer and professor of literature. Of French descent, he was born in Algeria, but left as part of the diaspora of French colonists referred to as pied-noirs following the Algerian War....
, 1996. - Visages d'Algérie, Ecrits sur l'art, texts collected by Hamid Nacer-Khodja, preface by Guy Dugas, [writings notably of Mohamed Aksouh, Abdallah Benanteur, Baya, Sauveur Galliéro, Mohammed KhaddaMohammed KhaddaMohammed Khadda was an Algerian painter and sculptor who is considered to be among the founders of contemporary Algerian painting. He debuted in 1960. His influences included Cubism and Arabic calligraphy. He tended toward the non-figurative or abstract...
, Jean de Maisonseul, Maria Manton, Denis Martinez, Louis Nallard], Paris, Paris-Méditerranée / Alger, EDIF 2000, 2002 (ISBN 28427215X).
Works About Jean Sénac
- Jamel-Eddine Bencheikh, L'Homme-poème Jean Sénac (poem), Actes/Sud.
- Jean-Pierre Péroncel-Hugoz, Assassinat d'un poète, followed by an unpublished text of Jean Sénac, Heures de mon adolescence, preface by Tahar Ben JellounTahar Ben JellounTahar Ben Jelloun is a Moroccan poet and writer. The entirety of his work is written in French, although his first language is Arabic.-Life:...
, Marseille, Editions Jeanne Laffitte, 1983 (ISBN 2866040031). - Poésie au Sud, Jean Sénac et la nouvelle poésie algérienne d'expression française [many unpublished materials], Archives de la Ville de Marseille, 1983.
- Le Soleil fraternel, Jean Sénac et la nouvelle poésie algérienne d'expression française (Notes from Rencontres Méditerranéennes de Provence, 1983), Marseille, Editions Jeanne Lafitte, 1985 (ISBN 2866040120).
- Rabah Belamri, Jean Sénac, entre désir et douleur, Etude et choix de textes, Alger, Office des Publications Universitaires, 1989.
- Hommage à Jean Sénac, Paris, Awal, n° 10, 1993.
- Jamel-Eddine Bencheikh et Christiane Chaulet Achour, Jean Sénac: clandestin des deux rives, Paris, Editions Séguier, 1999.
- Dominique Le Boucher, 2002 (ISBN 2914467052).
- Nicole Tuccelli and Emile Temime, Jean Sénac, l'Algérien, preface by Jean DanielJean DanielJean Daniel, is an Algerian-born French-Jewish journalist and author. He is the founder and executive editor of Le Nouvel Observateur weekly.Daniel is a Jewish humanist in the venerable tradition of the French Left...
, Paris, Editions Autrement, 2003. - Hamid Nacer-Khodja, Albert Camus, Jean Sénac, ou le fils rebelle, preface by Guy Dugas, Paris, Editions Paris-Méditerranée, et Alger, EDIF 2000, 2004 (ISBN 284272206X).
- Bernard Mazo, Jean Sénac, Aden, 2005.
Films About Jean Sénac
- Ali Akika, Jean Sénac, Le forgeron du soleil, 58 mn, Paris, Productions La Lanterne, 2003.
- Abdelkrim Bahloul, Le soleil assassiné,85 mn, coproduction Franco-Belge,Pierre Grise Productions,2004.