Jean Sénac, Poet of the Algerian Revolution

203 Pages·2017·1.32 MB·English

CCiittyy UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff NNeeww YYoorrkk ((CCUUNNYY))
CCUUNNYY AAccaaddeemmiicc WWoorrkkss
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center
10-2014
JJeeaann SSéénnaacc,, PPooeett ooff tthhee AAllggeerriiaann RReevvoolluuttiioonn
Kai G. Krienke
Graduate Center, City University of New York
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Jean Sénac,
Poet of the Algerian Revolution

by

Kai Krienke

A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Comparative Literature in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,
The City University of New York.
2014
© 2014
KAI KRIENKE
All Rights Reserved
ii
This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in
Comparative Literature in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Dr. Ammiel Alcalay

9/12/14
Date Chair of Examining Committee

Dr. Giancarlo Lombardi

9/11/14
Date Executive Officer

Dr. Ammiel Alcalay
Dr. Andrea Khalil
Dr. Caroline Rupprecht
Supervisory Committee

THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
iii
Abstract

Jean Sénac, poet of the Algerian Revolution

by

Kai Krienke

Advisor: Ammiel Alcalay

The work presented here is an exploration of the poetry and life of Jean Sénac, and through
Sénac, of the larger role of poetry in the political and social movements of the 50s, 60s, and
early 70s, mainly in Algeria and America. While Sénac was part of the European community in
Algeria, his position regarding French rule changed dramatically over the course of the Algerian
War, (between 1954 and 1962) and upon independence, he became one the rare French to
return to his adopted homeland. I will argue, sometimes polemically, that Sénac was and should
be considered a properly Algerian poet even though he was (and in many ways still is)
considered an outsider because of his European origins, because he had no particular ties to
either the Arab or Berber cultures, because he was gay and more fundamentally because he
was claiming the right to be an Algerian poet “who had unequivocally chosen the Algerian
nation”. I will also argue that there are important ties to consider between the Algerian and
American poetic contexts, which illuminate the larger era of post-colonialism through the poetic
expression of popular movements, which often inspired poets in their use of language and their
relation to the political space poetry came to occupy.

iv
Acknowledgments

Five years ago I was about to abandon graduate school altogether. Disillusioned with
academia, frustrated with the department, losing touch with the practice of writing, a PhD was
looking increasingly like a pipe dream. Instead I decided to focus my attention on my family and
two children who were my inspiration, and on the Comparative Literature courses I was teaching
at Queens College.
There, during one of my many conversations with Chris Winks, Jean Sénac and his
correspondence with Albert Camus came up and sparked my interest in their 10-year friendship.
A year later, in 2010, I visited Hamid Nacer-Khodja, the most generous, dedicated and
knowledgeable academic on Sénac, in Algeria, and came back more inspired than ever, by the
poet, by the country, and by a project that has carried me for the past four years.
This dissertation is dedicated to Roberto Butinof, life long friend and mentor who passed
away in 2012 as I was close to submitting my proposal. He believed that the university was
much more than the institution itself. It was a practice that one carried everywhere, especially in
the most solid friendships, which is what I first saw between Sénac and Camus. My parents
were an essential financial support during years of economic hardship. My two children, Jan and
Äya have been most patient with the third member of our family, “the dissertation”. I would also
like to thank Karen Rester, a faithful companion in times of doubt and darkness who understood
as a writer that one often doesn’t see the horizon until one gets there.
While my studies at the Graduate Center were often less than inspiring, I cannot express
enough my gratitude to those who provided me with the necessary oxygen. First and foremost
Ammiel Alcalay whose teaching of 20th century American poetics opened up a completely new
ground that went far beyond the classroom, into every facet of culture and friendship. His
engagement with the project of my dissertation has been extraordinary and has restored in me
v
the confidence to move forward and onward with my writing and thinking. I also owe much to the
“rebellious three”, Bhakti Shringarpure, Flavio Rizzo and Veruska Cantelli, for being the anti-
establishment commando in the Orwellian world of Comp Lit. I would also like to thank Benjamin
Hollander for insights that in many ways gave “a purer meaning” to my endeavor and Katia
Sainson for her generous support.
It was an honor to be part of a truly global Comparative Literature department at Queens
College for 10 years, with Professors Ali Ahmed, Chris Winks, Charles Martin, Clare Carroll,
Andrea Khalil, Caroline Rupprecht, and the adjunct faculty that give life to the CUNY system.
I would finally like to thank those in Algeria who welcomed me so warmly during my
visits and made me discover the country that Sénac had cherished.
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER
 1:
 INTRODUCTION
  1

CHAPTER
 2:
 JEAN
 SÉNAC,
 A
 HISTORY
  14

SOLEIL
 AND
 TERRASSES
  19

CHAPTER
 3:
 THE
 MYTH
 OF
 ALGERIAN
 ORIGINS
  30

RESISTANCE
 TO
 FRANCOPHONIE
  32

THE
 HISTORY
 OF
 ALGERIAN
 LANGUAGES
  37

AN
 ALGERIAN
 LINGUA
 FRANCA
  41

CHAPTER
 4:
 SÉNAC
 AND
 ALGERIAN
 WRITING
  44

LITERATURE
 AND
 COLONIAL
 EXPERIENCE
  46

POETRY
 AS
 THE
 PERSPECTIVE
 OF
 THE
 COLONIZED
  49

ALGERIAN
 POETRY:
 “WIND
 OF
 BEYOND
 OR
 WIND
 OF
 THE
 ROOTS?”
  52

CHAPTER
 5:
 THE
 COMMON
 LANGUAGE
 OF
 REVOLUTIONARY
 POETICS
  61

THE
 POLITICS
 OF
 POETRY
  67

MODERNISM
 AND
 THE
 DIONYSIAN
 TURN
  71

BEAUTY
 AND
 REVOLUTION
  78

THE
 END
 OF
 UTOPIA
  79

BLACK
 ARTS
 AND
 THE
 THIRD
 WORLD
  81

TORTURE,
 INCARCERATION
 AND
 POETRY’S
 RESISTANCE
  87

HOMOSEXUALITY
 AS
 A
 SITE
 OF
 POST-­‐COLONIAL
 POLITICS
  91

CHAPTER
 6:
 AMERICAN
 POETICS
 AND
 THE
 LANGUAGE
 OF
 PLACE
  96

TWO
 EXISTENTIALISMS
  96

BODY
 OF
 RESISTANCE
  99

THE
 NATURE
 OF
 LANGUAGE
  106

POEM,
 BODY
 AND
 WORLD
  110

THE
 MIND
 OF
 POETRY:
 BRINGING
 IN
 THE
 OUTSIDE
  112

THE
 SYNTAX
 OF
 BODYPOEM
  119

EROS,
 THE
 IMPOSSIBLE
 REVOLUTION
  123

vii
CHAPTER
 7:
 ‘LE
 SOLEIL
 SOUS
 LES
 ARMES’
 AND
 THE
 POETRY
 OF
 RESISTANCE
  129

SÉNAC
 REBELS
 AGAINST
 CAMUS
  135

THE
 CRISIS
 OF
 THE
 FRENCH
 LEFT
  142

GIVING
 PURER
 MEANING
 TO
 THE
 WORDS
 OF
 THE
 TRIBE
  147

CHAPTER
 8:
 CONCLUSION
  164

APPENDIX:
 THE
 SUN
 UNDER
 THE
 WEAPONS,
 TRANSLATED
 FROM
 FRENCH
  167

BIBLIOGRAPHY
  186

viii
Chapter 1: Introduction

My dissertation examines the life and career of the Algerian poet and writer Jean Sénac. While
exploring his own particular context as an Algerian of European descent who chose to support
the revolution, I have drastically shifted the ground through which I am viewing his work. Instead
of placing him in the contexts of post-colonial and queer theory, approaches through which he
might now more expectedly be interpreted, I have chosen to view Sénac through the
contemporaneous lens of North American poetics and the thought of poets who found
themselves outside the mainstream consensus of Cold War institutional literary, cultural,
academic, and political frameworks. Given that Sénac himself viewed Americans associated
with the Beats and the Black Arts Movement as revolutionary poets, this framework has proven
very productive in my re-contextualization of Sénac's own forms of resistance in his life and
work.

In 1957 Jean Sénac wrote a remarkable manifesto titled Le soleil sous les armes [The Sun
under the Weapons], during his exile in Paris in the thick of the Algerian war. It is a rare breed of
writing, similar in many ways to Oprhée Noir, Sartre’s introduction to Leopold Senghor’s
Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache, published in 1948. While Sartre was
building on the concept of Négritude, developed by Aimé Césaire, Léopold Senghor and Léon
Damas, to encompass a wide range of poetry emerging from Africa and the Caribbean, Sénac
combined Algerian and French poetry in a common resistance against colonialism (Algeria) and
fascism (France). Written two years after Césaire’s Discourse on Colonialism, Le soleil sous les
armes bears within it the traces of momentous and tragic events, which in many ways sealed
Sénac’s allegiance to Algeria, and to a form of poetry that upheld human dignity and was a
repository of popular resistance in language.
1