Malcolm de Chazal
Encyclopedia
Malcolm de Chazal was a Mauritian
writer, painter, and visionary, known especially for his Sens-Plastique, a work consisting of several thousand aphorisms and pensées. He was born in Vacoas of a French family long established in Mauritius
and wrote all his works in French. Except for six years at Louisiana State University
, where he received an engineering degree, he spent most of his time in Mauritius where he worked as an agronomist on sugar plantations and later for the Office of Telecommunications.
In 1940 he began to publish in Mauritius a series of volumes consisting of hundreds of numbered thoughts and ideas entitled Pensées. In 1945, a seventh volume of Pensées, bound with another collection of unnumbered aphorisms entitled Sens-Plastique appeared, and two years later a separate Sens-Plastique, Volume II, appeared. It was this latter volume on which the Gallimard edition of 1948 was based that brought Chazal into prominence in France. The following examples may illustrate the novelty and variety of Sens-Plastique.
In the prefaces and afterwords of the various editions of Sens-Plastique Chazal explained his method of thinking and writing as follows.
Chazal's other writings include notably La Vie Filtrée (1949), a collection of essays that elaborate upon the ideas found in Sens-Plastique, Sens Magique (1957) and Poémes (1968 ), gnomic
verses that dramatize the experiences described in Sens-Plastique, and Petrusmok (1951), the spiritual history of Mauritius found in its natural surroundings.
Chazal took up painting in the 1950s at the suggestion of Georges Braque
. Unlike the speculative aphoristic character of his best-known writings, his paintings concentrated on natural forms and landscapes in a primitive, emblematic style.
Sens-Plastique has been translated into English by Irving Weiss in a volume published by Green Integer (2008) as Sens-Plastique.
French writers such as André Breton
and Jean Paulhan
praised de Chazel's work.
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
writer, painter, and visionary, known especially for his Sens-Plastique, a work consisting of several thousand aphorisms and pensées. He was born in Vacoas of a French family long established in Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
and wrote all his works in French. Except for six years at Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
, where he received an engineering degree, he spent most of his time in Mauritius where he worked as an agronomist on sugar plantations and later for the Office of Telecommunications.
In 1940 he began to publish in Mauritius a series of volumes consisting of hundreds of numbered thoughts and ideas entitled Pensées. In 1945, a seventh volume of Pensées, bound with another collection of unnumbered aphorisms entitled Sens-Plastique appeared, and two years later a separate Sens-Plastique, Volume II, appeared. It was this latter volume on which the Gallimard edition of 1948 was based that brought Chazal into prominence in France. The following examples may illustrate the novelty and variety of Sens-Plastique.
In the prefaces and afterwords of the various editions of Sens-Plastique Chazal explained his method of thinking and writing as follows.
Chazal's other writings include notably La Vie Filtrée (1949), a collection of essays that elaborate upon the ideas found in Sens-Plastique, Sens Magique (1957) and Poémes (1968 ), gnomic
Gnomic
A gnomic aspect , sometimes called a neutral, generic or universal aspect or tense, is a grammatical aspect that expresses general truths or aphorisms—such as birds fly, sugar is sweet, a mother can always tell...
verses that dramatize the experiences described in Sens-Plastique, and Petrusmok (1951), the spiritual history of Mauritius found in its natural surroundings.
Chazal took up painting in the 1950s at the suggestion of Georges Braque
Georges Braque
Georges Braque[p] was a major 20th century French painter and sculptor who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art style known as Cubism.-Early Life:...
. Unlike the speculative aphoristic character of his best-known writings, his paintings concentrated on natural forms and landscapes in a primitive, emblematic style.
Sens-Plastique has been translated into English by Irving Weiss in a volume published by Green Integer (2008) as Sens-Plastique.
French writers such as André Breton
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
and Jean Paulhan
Jean Paulhan
Jean Paulhan was a French writer, literary critic and publisher, director of the literary magazine Nouvelle Revue Française from 1925 to 1940 and from 1946 to 1968. He was a member of the Académie Française...
praised de Chazel's work.