Jean genet, le poete travesti portrait d'une oeuvre

Jean genet, the poet in disguise portrait of a lifework

• Auteur / Autrice : Marie Redonnet
• Direction : Jean-Pierre Sarrazac
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Littérature française
• Date : Soutenance en 1998
• Etablissement(s) : Paris 3

Résumé

Le point de depart de cette these, c'est "le grand probleme" que genet, par l'aventure de la poesie, cherche a resoudre dans son oeuvre. Ecrire pour reussir sa legende est la premiere reponse du poete au grand probleme qu'il a a resoudre. Genet ne peut etre poete que travesti. Travesti en romancier ecrivant une fausse autobiographie qui serait sa legende, il ecrit une fausse legende a partir de laquelle il tente l'aventure de la poesie. C'est pourquoi il double sa fausse legende de la legende du travesti divine. Autant que divine, le poete est travesti. Comme elle, il s'echappe des images du miroir pour inventer une nouvelle image. En faisant par le theatre se rencontrer la question de la poesie et celle de la revolution. Genet tente d'apporter une nouvelle reponse au grand probleme que son oeuvre a a resoudre. Le theatre, porteur de la question revolutionnaire, peut-il liberer la poesie de son histoire de funerailles ? la rencontre de la poesie et du theatre est une grande noce le temps des funerailles. Mais ni la legende ni le theatre ne sont pour genet une terre d'asile. Il s'en echappe apres les avoir glorifies et saccages, pour rester vivant envers et contre tout. En donnant voix dans son theatre aux damnes de la terre. Genet s'est fait aimer de ceux, black panthers et palestiniens, qui ne peuvent vivre sans la revolution, meme si la revolution est impossible. Le poete en temoin se fera leur defenseur. Il fera le proces de leur ennemi qui est aussi le sien. La poesie se met au service de la realite et quitte le monde de la fable. Un captif amoureux est la derniere reponse du poete au grand probleme qu'il a a resoudre. En ecrivant son livre de souvenirs sur la revolution palestinienne, il plonge dans sa memoire perdue qui est aussi la memoire perdue de sa langue. Le dernier livre devient l'aventure d'une naissance et d'une metamorphose, au seuil de la mort, afin que s'invente un nouvel heritage, pour les maudits et les damnes.

THE STARTING POINT OF THIS THESIS IS "THE GREAT PROBLEM" GENET ENDEAVOURS TO RESOLVE THROUGHOUT HIS ENTIRE WORKS BY EMBARKING ON THE ADVENTURE OF POETRY. TO WRITE SO AS TO SUCCEED IN CREATING HIS OWN LEGEND IS THE FIRST ANSWER THE POET FINDS TO THIS GREAT PROBLEM. GENET CAN ONLY BE A POET BY ADOPTING A DISGUISE. IN THE GUISE OF A NOVELIST WRITING A FAKE AUTOBIOGRAPHY THAT WOULD BE HIS LEGEND, HE CREATES A FAKE LEGEND FROM WHICH HE LAUNCHES FORTH INTO THE ADVENTURE OF POETRY. THIS IS THE REASON WHY HE "LINES" HIS FAKE LEGEND with THAT OF THE TRANSVESTITE DIVINE. LIKE DIVINE, THE POET IS A DISGUISED PERSON, A TRANSVESTITE. LIKE DIVINE, HE BREAKS THROUGH THE MIRROR-IMAGE IN ORDER TO CREATE A NEW SELF-IMAGE. BY BRINGING POETRY AND REVOLUTION TOGETHER THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF THEATRE, GENET ATTEMPS TO FIND YET ANOTHER RESPONSE TO THE GREAT PROBLEM HIS WORKS MUST RESOLVE. SINCE THEATRE CONTAINS THE ACT OF REVOLUTION ITSELF, CAN IT FREE POETRY FROM HISTORY THAT WOULD CONFINE IT IN A ENDLESS SUCCESSION OF FUNERALS ? THE ENCOUNTER OF POETRY AND THEATRE IS A GREAT WEDDING CELEBRATION THAT SUBVERTS THESE FUNERALS. YET NEITHER THE LEGEND NOR THEATRE SUCCEED IN BEING A PROTECTIVE HAVEN FOR GENET; WILLING TO STAY ALIVE AT ALL COSTS, HE GLORIFIES AND TRASHES THEM BOTH BEFORE HE EVENTUALLY FORSAKES THEM. BY GIVING HIS VOICE TO THE DAMNED OF EARTH, GENET FOUND THE WAY TO MAKE HIMSELF LOVED BY THOSE (BLACK PANTHERS AND PALESTINIANS) WHO COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT A REVOLUTION, EVEN THOUGH REVOLUTION IS IMPOSSIBLE. THE POET WILL BEAR WITNESS AS THEIR DEFENDER, PUTTING THEIR ENEMY ON TRIAL - AN ENEMY WHICH IS ALSO HIS VERY OWN. POETRY ENTERS THE SERVICE OF REALITY, LEAVING THE REALM OF THE FABLE. UN CAPTIF AMOUREUX IS THE POET'S LAST ANSWER TO THE GREAT PROBLEM HE MUST RESOLVE. IN WRITING HIS MEMOIRS ABOUT THE PALESTINIAN REVOLUTION, HE DIVES INTO HIS OWN LOST MEMORY, WHICH IS ALSO THE LOST MEMORY OF HIS TONGUE. HIS LAST BOOK THUS BECOMES THE ADVENTURE OF A BIRTH AND A METAMORPHOSIS ON THE VERY THRESHOLD OF DEATH, IN ORDER FOR A NEW INHERITANCE TO COME ONTO BEING ON BEHALF OF THE CURSED AND THE DAMNED.