Jean Genet, Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs [Our Lady of the Flowers]

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Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs

, Jean Genet's first novel, was written in 1941 and 1942 during Genet's time in the Prison of Fresnes. Not only is the work set in a detention centre, it also presents the experience of captivity as its major, all-encompassing theme. The narrator, a prisoner who bears the same name as the author (“…la solitude de la prison me donnait cette liberté d'être avec les cent Jean Genet entrevus au vol chez cent passants…”, Genet 1948: 305) [“… the solitude of prison gave me the freedom to be with the hundred Jean Genets glimpsed in a hundred passers-by..”, Genet 1963: 239], describes his long-term imprisonment and his life as dominated by the solitude of the prison cell, a feeling which is both distressing and ecstatic throughout the novel:

Cette cellule

3265 words

Citation: Sabatini, Federico. "Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 September 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=20277, accessed 28 March 2024.]

20277 Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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