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relationship with fellow French philosopher and

writer Simone de BEAUVOIR, Jean-Paul Sartre was

born in Paris on June 21. The son of a naval offi-

cer who died when Sartre was very young, he spent

his early years living with his mother and his

grandfather. After his mother’s remarriage in 1917,

he moved to La Rochelle, where he attended

school. He graduated from the École Normale

Supérieure in 1929. He was a student at the time

of his first meeting with de Beauvoir, and their re-

lationship, along with Sartre’s studies and exposure

to other existential philosophers, proved to be im-

portant influences on both his life and his works.

After graduation, Sartre secured employment as

a teacher. In 1945, he left teaching to devote his

time exclusively to writing. He also traveled exten-

sively in Egypt, Greece, Italy, and Berlin, where he

studied the works of German philosophers Mar-

tin Heidegger and Edmund Husserl. At this time,

Heidegger’s most important work, Being and Time

(1927), had been released. Uniting Søren

Kierkegaard’s and Friedrich NIETZSCHE’s views on

existentialism with Husserl’s concept of phenom-

enology, Sartre began developing his own existen-

tial philosophy. During the late 1930s, Sartre began

to gather around him a small group of intellectu-

als; together, they spent hours at cafés on the Left

Bank, discussing philosophy and the importance

of freedom.

In 1939, Sartre was drafted to serve in World

War II. Less than a year later, he was captured and

imprisoned in Germany, where he remained until

1941. Here, Sartre experienced firsthand the rami-

fications of the loss of what he valued most, his

personal freedom. On returning to Paris, he joined

the French Resistance Movement and put his

growing talents as a writer to good use penning

articles about the Resistance for magazines such as

Les Lettres Française and Combat.

Sartre was deeply affected by his experience in

the war and when it was over, decided to devote

himself full-time to writing and political activism.

He founded Le Temps Modernes (1946– ), a

monthly journal dedicated to literature and poli-

tics. Although he never became a member of the

Communist Party, he worked closely with Com-

munists in hopes of finding a solution to the prob-

lems of poverty and the poor social conditions of

the working class. In his writing, he spent a great

deal of time and effort trying to reconcile existen-

tialism with marxism.

Aside from his work as a writer, Sartre exempli-

fied his own beliefs by speaking out for freedom

for oppressed peoples, such as the Hungarians in

the mid- to late 1950s and the Czechoslovakians

in the late 1960s. He became involved in numerous

humanitarian causes and, as a result, twice had

bombs set off in his place of residence. In 1967, he

served as leader of the war-crimes tribunal, which

investigated the actions of U.S. soldiers in In-

dochina, and, in 1968, he supported the student

anti-Vietnam War protestors. He was also arrested

in 1970 for selling an underground newspaper

publication.

In 1975, Sartre’s eyesight began to fail, and his

health declined rapidly. No longer able to write, he

nevertheless remained vocal and active; toward the

end of his life, he was completely blind. He died

on April 15 in Paris. His legacy remains as one of

the strongest and most influential voices of the ex-

istentialist movement.

Critical Analysis

Sartre’s first novel, La Nausée (1938), was greatly

influenced by Husserl’s concept of phenomenol-

ogy, a movement devoted to describing experi-

ences exactly as they present themselves with no

reliance on theories, assumptions or deductions.

Transferring this concept to human existence,

Sartre’s novel explores the idea that life has no es-

sential purpose and that the main character is

haunted by feelings of horror and nausea as he at-

tempts to come to terms with the banality of life.

During this period, Sartre also published a collec-

tion of short stories and a novella, Le Mûr (1938;

published in English as Intimacy), which dealt with

similar themes of identity and freedom.

Sartre’s nonfiction work L’Étre et le néant (Being

and Nothingness, 1943) begins to formulate the

foundation of his own philosophy. He relates the

388 Sartre, Jean-Paul

idea of existence to his belief that it is composed

of two distinct parts. In the first part are those

things that exist simply because they are. They

exist “en-soi” or in themselves. Human beings,

however, belong to the second part, existing “pour-

soi” or for themselves. According to Sartre, the de-

marcation between the two parts of existence is

based on the fact that humans possess conscious-

ness, in particular an awareness of mortality; thus,

human beings exist in a constant state of dread.

Sartre’s premise, which he examines in later works,

was this: To give meaning to those things that exist

“en-soi,” it is necessary for humans first to detach

themselves from those things.

The importance of accepting responsibility for

one’s own actions is, therefore, also an essential

part of Sartre’s philosophy. His first dramatic

work, Les Mouches (The Flies, 1943), examines this

theme against the backdrop of ancient Greece,

using the mythological characters of Electra and

Orestes. Orestes, choosing to act by killing his

murderous mother, rejects the guilt that has para-

lyzed his city since Agamemnon’s death. His sec-

ond play, Huis-clos (No Exit, 1944), presents three

characters in a room with no way out, learning to

face the truth that “Hell is other people.”

Sartre also wrote works of literary criticism that

explore the responsibility of artists in relation to

their art, beginning with Qu’est-ce la Littérature?

(What Is Literature?, 1947). He followed this in the

same year with a study of

BAUDELAIRE, and in 1952

he published a biography of Jean GENET, Saint-

Genet, Comédien et Martyr (Saint Genet, Actor and

Martyr). Sartre admired Genet for being free of the

constraints of convention and making his own

personal distinctions between right and wrong.

Sartre was among a group of writers (including Al-

bert CAMUS and Jean COCTEAU) who in 1948 suc-

cessfully petitioned for Genet’s release from a life

sentence for burglary. From 1960 to 1971, he

worked on a massive critical biography of Gustave

FLAUBERT, L’Idiot de la famille (The Family Idiot).

The work reached five volumes but remained un-

finished, as in the last years of his life Sartre’s fail-

ing eyesight prevented him from writing.

In 1963, Sartre published his memoir of child-

hood, Les Mots (The Words), in which he explored

how language and literacy changed the conscious-

ness of the growing child. In that year, the Nobel

committee chose to honor Sartre with the Nobel

Prize in literature, but Sartre refused to accept the

award, feeling that it represented bourgeois values

he rejected. Nonetheless, his reputation continued

to grow, and his funeral drew thousands of

mourners.

Other Works by Jean-Paul Sartre

Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism. Translated by Steve

Brewer, Azzedine Haddour, and Terry McWilliams.

London: Routledge, 2001.

Notebook for an Ethics. Translated by Davis Pellauer.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Truth and Existence. Translated by Adrian van den

Hoven. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1992.

Works about Jean-Paul Sartre

Gordon, Haim. Sartre’s Philosophy and the Challenge

of Education. Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mellen Press,

2001.

Howells, Christina, ed. The Cambridge Companion to

Sartre. New York: Cambridge University Press,

1992.

Kamber, Richard. On Sartre. Belmont, Calif.:

Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2000.

McBride, William L., ed. Sartre’s Life, Times and Vi-

sion-du-Monde. New York: Garland Press, 1997.

Satyanarayana, Visvanatha (1895–1976)

poet, novelist, dramatist

Visvanatha Satyanarayana was born in Andhra

Pradesh, India. He wrote in Telugu and is the au-

thor of more than 100 works. This alone places

him among the most important figures in Telugu

fiction. He has also rewritten ancient Hindu epics

such as the The Ramayana, which dates from the

fourth century B.C. When his version of the epic,

Ramayana—The Celestial Tree appeared in 1953,

it was seen as controversial because of his transfor-

Satyanarayana, Visvanatha 389

mation of the original, formal Sanskrit into a more

conventional style. This translation, however,

made it accessible to a wider audience, and in 1971,

it won him the Jnanpith Award (India’s highest

literary award).

Satyanarayana was widely read in European

literature. One of his novels, Veyipadagalu (A

Thousand Hoods, 1933–34), was inspired by the

novels on industrialization by British writers

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) and D. H. Lawrence

(1885–1930). Satyanarayana saw in their work his

own belief that great literature is not only about is-

sues but also form. Like them, Satyanarayana be-

lieved important themes such as social reform

should not overshadow the mechanics of the liter-

ary genre and that the social message should not

subsume the aesthetic element of the literary work.

Satyanarayana’s literary legacy includes poetry,

short stories, essays, plays, and novels. In 1970, he

was made a Fellow of the Sahitya Akademi, which

is reserved for the “immortals of Indian Litera-

ture.”

A Work about Visvanatha Satyanarayana

S. P. Sen, ed. History in Modern Indian Literature. Cal-

cutta, India: Institute of Historical Studies Press,

1975.

scapigliatura

A mid-19th-century Italian bohemian movement

in art and literature, often associated with the

French DECADENCE movement, scapigliatura takes

its name from the title of a novel by one of the

group’s founding members, Cletto Arrighi, The

Scapigliatura and February 6th (1862). In the book,

the term refers to the restlessness and independ-

ent spirit of its characters, all ranging in age from

25 to 30 years old. Founded in Milan, the move-

ment was greatly influenced by the works of

BAUDELAIRE, and Edgar Allan Poe, as well as those of

the French symbolist poets and German romantic

writers (see SYMBOLISM and ROMANTICISM).

The main characteristics of the movement in-

clude an intense aversion to the sentimentalism

and conformity of romanticism. In particular,

artists of the scapigliatura movement held a com-

mon conviction that truth was the only valid form

of poetry and art; anything less than brutal hon-

esty was seen as substandard and unimportant.

The works that came from this school featured

bizarre and often pathological elements, as well as

direct, realistic narration and vivid, often

grotesque description, a theme held in common

with French decadent writers. A second aim of

scapigliatura, similar to many avant-garde and bo-

hemian movements, was the rejection of bourgeois

values and of the right to ownership of property.

The group was never large, consisting only of a

select few artists, poets, and musicians. Its primary

leader was Iginio Ugo Tachetti, who began his ed-

ucation in classical studies and was well acquainted

with English literature. After a brief stint in the

army, he began writing short stories and spending

his free time in Milan, where he met with other

members of the group, including the novelists and

chief spokespeople for the movement, Giuseppe

Rovani and Emilio Praga. Tachetti’s works exem-

plified much of what the group sought to attain.

He died young, at age 30, refusing to the end to ac-

cept hypocrisy, tradition, or conventions.

In the end, the group’s most lasting influence on

world literature came in its advancement of the

avant-garde. The writers associated with the move-

ment were largely considered isolated avant-garde

writers who chose to live their lives and dedicate

their art to revolt against middle-class conformity.

A Work about Scapigliatura

Del Principe, David. Rebellion, Death, and Aesthetics

in Italy: the Demons of Scapigliatura. Madison,

Wisc.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996.

Schiller, Friedrich von (1759–1805) play-

wright, essayist, poet

Friedrich von Schiller was born in Marbach, Würt-

tenberg (present-day Germany), to Johannes Kas-

par Schiller, an army officer and surgeon, and

Elizabeth Schiller. Johannes Schiller was a pious

390 scapigliatura

Lutheran and a harsh disciplinarian. He disap-

proved of his son’s interests in literature and the-

ater and many times forbade him to write poetry.

At age 14, Schiller entered an academy to study

law but subsequently decided to study medicine

instead. His medical education was short-lived,

however: He was expelled in 1780 for writing a

controversial essay, On Relation Between Man’s

Animal and Spiritual Nature, which openly ques-

tioned the official theological dogma of the

church.

On his return to Marbarch, Schiller was forced

to join his father’s regiment of the army. Despite

his father’s strong efforts to suppress this “foolish”

activity, Schiller continued to write. Schiller did

not find the life of the soldier appealing and con-

sciously avoided his duties as much as possible.

Thoroughly resisting his father, Schiller continued

to write and was almost arrested for neglecting his

military duties.

Schiller’s first play, The Robbers (1781), depicts

a noble outlaw, Karl Moor, who violently and pas-

sionately rejects the conservative and reactionary

notions of his father in his quest for justice. The

play simultaneously reflected Schiller’s own con-

flict with his father and the ideological struggle

between the conservative and liberal political

forces in Germany. The play was warmly greeted

not only in Germany, especially among the uni-

versity students, but also among the romantic

writers in England. The play remains a ground-

breaking work in the corpus of German romanti-

cism. The major theme of liberty that appears in

The Robbers permeates virtually all of Schiller’s

major works. The play Don Carlos (1787) simi-

larly depicts a conflict between a father and son.

Don Carlos is set during the reign of Philip II of

Spain. It portrays the inner struggle of his eldest

son, torn between passionate love and the vile

political intrigues of his father’s ministers in the

court.

Between 1783 and 1784, Schiller worked as a

playwright and stage manager for the theater in

Mannheim. With the assistance of Johann Wolf-

gang

GOETHE, Schiller was appointed professor of

history at the University of Jena in 1789. For the

next three years, Schiller worked almost exclusively

on history, writing an account of the Thirty Years

War. Schiller had to give up the professorship be-

cause of declining health. He worked as an assis-

tant to Goethe, then the director of the theater at

the Weimar Court.

Schiller also distinguished himself as a poet.

“Ode to Joy” (1785), later set to music by Ludwig

van Beethoven, is currently the anthem of the Eu-

ropean Union. In Wilhelm Tell (1804), Schiller de-

scribes the close relationship with nature shared by

the Swiss hero. The characteristics of Schiller’s

works—in their attention to nature, human emo-

tions, and the ideals of liberty and political free-

dom—became the working definition of

ROMANTICISM.

Schiller’s interest in history resulted in several

historical plays. Mary Stuart (1800) describes the

turbulent relationship between Elizabeth I and

Mary Queen of Scots in the final days before

Mary’s execution. The captive, wild environment

of the castle of Fothernghay provides a dark,

melancholy background that amplifies Mary as a

tragic, romantic figure in the play. The dramatic

trilogy Wallenstein (1796–1799) depicted Ger-

many during the Thirty Years’ War. Schiller cap-

tured the deep fragmentation of society along the

lines of religion. The German national identity and

the idea of nationhood is juxtaposed against the

ruinous conflict created by the religious strife and

political scheming of the rulers.

Schiller also wrote essays on topics ranging

from religion and politics to art and humanity’s re-

lationship with nature. Many of Schiller’s ideas

were influenced by the works of the famous 18th-

century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. In

On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1795) Schiller

deals with the bloody aftermath of the French Rev-

olution and how it changed an understanding of

notions of freedom. The key to freedom, the essay

argues, is the fundamental aesthetic development

of the individual and society. According to the

essay, the experience of the sublime and the beau-

tiful—two important philosophical categories in

Schiller, Friedrich von 391

the works of Kant—is truly fundamental to one’s

education. A true sense of freedom and liberty is

tightly connected to this experience.

In On the Naïve and Sentimental in Literature

(1795), Schiller creates a series of dialectical di-

chotomies, such as feeling and thought, nature and

culture, finitude and infinity, and finally sentimen-

tal and naïve modes of writing. Although describ-

ing himself as a sentimental or “reflective” writer,

Schiller paid homage to his close friend Goethe,

whom he described as the ultimate archetype of

the naïve genius. Here, naïve is not used in the con-

ventional sense of the word, but rather as a philo-

sophical term that describes something that is

utterly pure and good and closely connected with

nature.

Critical Analysis

Friedrich von Schiller is considered today to be

one of the foremost German writers. His drama

and poetry are significant contributions to the lit-

erature of the romantic movement, although his

reputation and legacy is recognized significantly

more in Europe than it is in the United States. His

magnificent control and elegant use of the Ger-

man language inspired generations of readers,

writers, and poets, and his works have had a long-

lasting impact on the formation of the German

national literature, as well as the German national

identity.

Other Works by Friedrich von Schiller

Essays. New York: Continuum, 1993.

Schiller’s Five Plays: The Robbers, Passion and Politics,

Don Carlos, Mary Stuart, and Joan of Arc. Trans-

lated by Robert McDonald. New York: Consor-

tium Books, 1998.

Works about Friedrich von Schiller

Carlyle, Thomas. The Life of Friedrich Schiller: Com-

prehending and Examination of His Works. Port-

land, Ore.: University Press of the Pacific, 2001.

Sharpe, Lesley. Friedrich Schiller: Drama, Thought,

and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1991.

Scherzer, Rosalie

See AUSLANDER, ROSE.

Schmitz, Ettore

See SVEVO

, ITALO.

Schwarz-Bart, Simone (Simone

Bruman)

(1938– )

novelist

Simone Schwarz-Bart was born Simone Bruman

in Charente-Maritime, France, to a governess and

a military man, according to a 1973 Elle interview;

however, the novelist has since named the Guade-

loupean capital Pointe-à-Pitre as her birthplace.

Bruman was educated at Pointe-à-Pitre, Dakar,

and Paris, where she met and married her hus-

band, novelist André Schwarz-Bart, in the early

1960s.

Simone and André Schwarz-Bart coauthored

Un Plat de porc aux bananes vertes (A Dish of Pork

with Green Bananas, 1967), which employs non-

linear narratives, and La mulâtresse Solitude (A

Woman Named Solitude, 1972), a fictional biogra-

phy of a mulatto female struggling to exist in soci-

ety. In 1972, Simone Schwarz-Bart also published

Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle (The Bridge of Be-

yond, 1972), in which Télumée, the novel’s female

heroine, explores and consequently revises the

painful history of her people.

One year after her return to Guadeloupe in 1978,

Schwarz-Bart published Ti Jean L’Horizon (Between

Two Worlds, 1979). In this novel, she uses

MAGIC

REALISM

(elements of dreams, magic, fantasy, or

fairy tales) and science fiction to tell the adventures

of Ti Jean, a Guadeloupean folk hero, and to decon-

struct traditional myths of Antillean identity.

All of Schwarz-Bart’s novels have been interna-

tionally well received in multiple publications, in-

cluding The New York Times Book Review, Savacou,

and Nouvelle Revue Française. Her fictional

retelling of personal Caribbean histories con-

tributes to international contemporary expressions

and examinations of the painful repercussions of

patriarchal domination and exile.

392 Scherzer, Rosalie

Another Work by Simone Schwarz-Bart

Your Handsome Captain. Translated by Jessica Harris.

In Plays by Women: An International Anthology.

Edited by Francoise Kourilsky and Catherine

Temerson. New York: Ubu Repertory Theatre

Publications, 1989.

Works about Simone Schwarz-Bart

Karamcheti, Indira. “The Geographics of Marginal-

ity: Place and Textuality in Simone Schwarz-Bart

and Anita Desai.” In Feminist Explorations of Liter-

ary Space. Edited by Margaret R. Higonnet and

Joan Templeton. Amherst: University of Massa-

chusetts Press, 1994: 125–46.

McKinney, Kitzie. “Memory, Voice, and Metaphor in

the Works of Simone Schwarz-Bart.” In Postcolo-

nial Subjects: Francophone Women Writers. Edited

by Mary Jean Green et al. Minneapolis: University

of Minnesota Press, 1996: 22–41.

Seferiadis, Giorgos

See SEFERIS, GEORGE.

Seferis, George (Giorgos Seferiadis)

(1900–1971) poet

George Seferis was born Giorgos Seferiadis in

Smyrna, Turkey. As a child, he attended school in

Smyrna and at the Gymnasium in Athens and, in

1918, moved with his family to Paris, where he at-

tended the University of Paris to study law and

where he also developed an interest in literature.

After graduating, Seferis returned to Athens in

1925. One year later, he was admitted to the Royal

Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition to

his success as a writer, he had a long and successful

diplomatic career. His final diplomatic post was as

Royal Greek Ambassador to Great Britain from

1957 to 1962. Throughout his career, Seferis re-

ceived numerous awards and recognitions. In-

cluded among these were honorary doctoral

degrees from Cambridge University in 1960, Ox-

ford University in 1964, the University of Salonika

in 1964, and Princeton University in 1965.

His background in law and diplomacy, com-

bined with his love of literature, allowed Seferis to

make a profound impact on Greek poetry. His

travels throughout the world gave him numerous

ideas and provided the rich backgrounds for many

of his works. What he experienced through war

and through political negotiation influenced his

decision to write poetry, almost exclusively with

the themes of alienation, wandering, and death.

Seferis’s poetry is often surrealistic and always

highly symbolic, sometimes to the point of being

cryptic and difficult to interpret. He often invokes

classical Greek themes as a means of exploring

20th-century Greek lifestyles and social conscious-

ness.

Seferis’s earliest poetry collections exist in two

volumes. Strophe (Turning Point, 1931) consists of

rhymed lyrical poems that were strongly influenced

by the symbolist movement (see

SYMBOLISM). His

second collection, E Sterma (The Cistern, 1932),

portrays through vivid imagery the idea that hu-

mankind must keep its true nature hidden from the

everyday world that seeks to alienate and ignore

humanity.

In his later poetry, Seferis shifts his focus to in-

clude a pervasive sense of awareness of the past, in

particular Greek history. This awareness is not

merely that of a historian but rather is indicative of

the poet’s desire to relate past events to those of the

present and, ultimately, the future. This theme first

becomes apparent in Mythistorema (1935; trans-

lated 1960), a collection consisting of 24 short

poems that, when read as a group, translate the

Odyssean myths into modern situations and cir-

cumstances. Seferis continued to develop these

themes, using Homer’s Odyssey as his symbolic

basis, in several subsequent collections: Book of Ex-

ercises (1940), Logbook I (1940), Logbook II (1944),

Thrush (1947), and Logbook III (1955). One no-

table exception to his use of Odysseus as a solitary

source, however, occurs in “The King of Asine,”

one of the poems in Logbook. This poem is con-

sidered by many critics to be Seferis’s greatest

achievement because of its historical importance.

This historical source consists of a single reference

Seferis, George 393

in Homer’s Iliad to the King of Asine, who remains

otherwise an all-but-forgotten character in Greek

history.

Seferis did not limit himself to poetry and

diplomatic relations, however. In addition to his

collected poetic works, he published one book of

essays, Dokimes (1944; translated Essays on the

Greek Style, 1962). He also translated several works

by T. S. Eliot and produced Copies (1965), a collec-

tion of translations from American, English, and

French poets.

In the later years of his life, Seferis returned to

writing in a style similar to that of his early po-

etry. His final collection of poems, Three Secret

Poems (1966), contains, much like his first collec-

tion Strophe, 28 short lyrical poems that are

highly surrealistic in nature. In 1963, Seferis was

the first Greek writer to win the Nobel Prize

in literature “for his eminent lyrical writing, in-

spired by a deep feeling for the Hellenic world of

culture.”

Other Works by George Seferis

Keeley, Edmund, ed. Complete Poems of George Se-

feris. Translated by Philip Sherrard. Greenwich,

U.K.: Anvil Press Poetry, 1989.

Works about George Seferis

Hadas, Rachel. Form, Cycle, Infinity: Landscape Im-

agery in the Poetry of Robert Frost and George Se-

feris. Cranbury, N.J.: Bucknell University Press,

1985.

Kelley, Edmund, and Philip Sherrard, eds. George Se-

feris. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,

1995.

Tsatsos, Ioanna. My Brother George Seferis. Translated

by Jean Demos. St. Paul, Minn.: North Central

Publishing Company, 1982.

Seifert, Jaroslav (1901–1986) poet

Jaroslav Seifert was born in Prague, Czechoslova-

kia. He quit school at a young age to work for the

Communist newspaper Rudé Pravo, where he ac-

quired an extensive knowledge of Czechoslovakian

history and culture, as exemplified in his first vol-

ume of poetry, The City in Tears (1920). The

poems in this collection are characterized by sim-

plicity and sensuality.

Seifert traveled throughout Europe, where he

became familiar with literary trends. He initially

regarded poetry as a tool for social change, and his

early work expressed support for communism.

Later, influenced by

DADA and FUTURISM, his focus

shifted toward poetry that was guided by sensual

rather than intellectual motivations.

Because of his refusal to conform to orthodox

political beliefs, Seifert’s works were often censored

by the Czechoslovakian government. He co-

founded a society of avant-garde literary figures

in Prague and, in 1929, was finally expelled from

the Communist Party for refusing to oppose the

elected Czechoslovakian government.

Seifert joined the Social Democrats, and his po-

etry began to change once again. The Carrier Pi-

geon (1929) focused on daily life, rejecting

metaphor in favor of

REALISM. During World War

II, the publication of Bozena Nemcová’s Fan

(1939), with its passionate opposition to the Nazi

occupation of Prague, put Seifert back in favor

with the Communist Party, but by 1950 he was

once again evicted from the party and charged

with subjectivism.

Seifert then became a spokesperson for artistic

freedom. In the 1970s, he headed the Union of

Czech Writers and acted to oppose a ban on for-

eign publishing. The Plague Column (1977), which

warned of the dangers of neo-Stalinism, was pub-

lished in Cologne, West Germany, as a result of

Czechoslovakian censorship. His final published

work was his memoir, All the Beauties of the World

(1981).

In 1984, Seifert became the first Czechoslova-

kian to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. Age

and failing health prevented him from traveling to

Stockholm to accept his award in person, and the

Czechoslovakian government would not grant his

son an exit visa to pick up the award for him. He

died in Prague two years later.

394 Seifert, Jaroslav

Other Works by Jaroslav Seifert

Dressed in Light. Translated by Paul Jagasich and

Tom O’Grady. New York: Dolphin-Moon Press,

1990.

The Early Poetry of Jaroslav Seifert. Translated

by Dana Loewy. Evanston, Ill.: Hydra Books,

1997.

Sembène, Ousmane (1923– ) novelist,

screenwriter

Ousmane Sembène was born in Ziguinchor, in

the Casamance region of southern Senegal. The

son of a fisherman who was too poor to put his

son through school, Ousmane left school before

finishing to take various odd jobs, including those

of bricklayer, fisherman, plumber, and appren-

tice mechanic. He was drafted into the French

colonial army during World War II and served in

both Italy and Germany. After the war, he re-

turned to work as a manual laborer, first in Dakar,

Senegal, and later in Marseilles, France. While in

France, he was strongly influenced by French left-

ist thought and eventually became a trade-union

leader. He joined the French Communist Party

and became an active member until 1960 when

Senegal gained its independence. After a year of

instruction in cinema studies in Moscow, he de-

voted most of his attention and time to making

films.

Sembène first made his mark as a novelist with

Le Docker noir (The Black Dockworker, 1956) and

moved into the film industry after 1962. In both

his novels and his screenplays, he develops the

themes of the nationalist struggle against colo-

nialism, corruption, and racial discrimination.

These are the issues that plagued most African

writers who had firsthand experience of colonial-

ism. What distinguishes Sembène is that he con-

tinues to write and explore these themes long

after the colonial struggle ended. He completed

three novels during the 1950s and 1960s. His

most popular and, arguably, best novel is Les

Bouts de bois de Dieu (God’s Bits of Wood, 1960),

a story that vividly depicts the African workers’

struggle against colonial oppression and exploita-

tion. The book is set during the 1947 and 1948

Dakar-Niger Railway strike, an event that Sem-

bène witnessed. He develops a sophisticated view

of workers’ rights and industrial relations, using a

Marxist approach in this novel. Xala (1973) iron-

ically bespeaks the anguish and disappointment

following the postcolonial independence where

Africans realized that their new leaders were inca-

pable of making genuine progress or fulfilling

promises that they pledged during the struggle.

Sembène’s novels and screenplays are informed

by his own personal experiences and encounters.

He is most effective in depicting the complexities

of the colonial and postcolonial struggle of many

African nations, which, in many cases, did not end

with the gaining of independence. Sembène has

written all his works in French; approximately half

have been translated into English.

Other Works by Ousmane Sembène

The Black Docker. London: Heinemann, 1987.

The Money-Order; with White Genesis. London:

Heinemann, 1972.

Niiwam and Taww. Oxford: Heinemann, 1992.

Tribal Scars and Other Stories. London: Heinemann,

1974.

Films by Ousmane Sembène

Camp de Thiaroye. 1988. With Thiero Faty Sow.

L’Empire Sonhrai. 1963. In French.

Le Mandat (The Money-Order). 1968. In French and

Wolof. English version, 1969.

Xala. 1974. In French and Wolof.

Works about Ousmane Sembène

Conde, Maryse. “Sembène Ousmane-Xala.” African

Literature Today no. 9 (1978).

Peters, Jonathan. “Sembène Ousmane as Griot: The

Money-Order with White Genesis.” African Litera-

ture Today no. 12 (1982).

Pfaff, Françoise. The Cinema of Ousmane Sembène, A

Pioneer of African Film. Westport, Conn.: Green-

wood, 1984.

Sembène, Ousmane 395

Senghor, Léopold Sédar (1906–2001)

poet

Léopold Sédar Senghor was born in the little

coastal town of Joal, Senegal. As a boy, he moved

around the circle of Serere farmers and fishermen

and listened to the tales they told of precolonial

Africa. These stories would greatly influence his

poetry. He attended a Roman Catholic mission

school in French West Africa when he was young

and entered the Collège Libermann in Dakar in

1922 to study for the priesthood. He was, however,

found participating in protests against racism and

expelled from the school. Senghor finally com-

pleted his secondary education in a public school

in 1928 and left Senegal after winning a scholar-

ship to study in France.

Senghor studied contemporary French litera-

ture at the prestigious École Normale Supérieure

in Paris. He was greatly influenced by the vibrant

atmosphere of intellectual ferment in 1930s Paris.

Black African writers were rediscovering their

roots in exile away from their homeland, and this

led them to establish the intellectual movement

called

NÉGRITUDE, which encouraged black stu-

dents, artists, and writers to explore their common

cultural roots and tradition. Senghor and his

writer-friend Aimé CÉSAIRE were the cofounders of

négritude and the newspaper, L’Étudiant noir (The

black student).

Senghor established his literary and political

career in the aftermath of World War II. In 1946,

he and his mentor, Lamine Guèye, were both ap-

pointed as representatives of Senegal in the French

Constituent Assembly in Paris. Senghor managed

to be reelected and served in the assembly until

1958. When Senegal gained its independence in

April 1960, Senghor became its first president. His

rich cultural background and his keen intellect

made him an effective leader, but his success did

not last long. The persistence of Senegal’s eco-

nomic crisis and the futility of Senghor’s pro-

grams led to his forced retirement in 1980. He

resettled in Verson, France, where he spent the rest

of his life.

Senghor’s poems, written in French and trans-

lated into many languages, reflect his inner conflict

between his Western predisposition and his deter-

mination to preserve the wealth of his African her-

itage. The poems in his first book, Chants d’ombre

(Songs of shadow, 1945), are extremely effective in

their dramatization of his search for identity. In

these poems, he manages to extricate himself from

the vicious cycle of self-doubt and find balance by

retreating to his childhood and the past. This

theme of the returning to his origins is best pre-

sented in the poem “Que m’accompagnent kôras

et balaphong” (“To the Music of koras and bal-

aphon”), which also exhibits Senghor’s aptitude

for music. He believed that good musical rhythm

was essential in poetry and often insisted that his

poems should be read to the accompaniment of

African music.

Senghor’s personal experience as an exile living

in France also influenced his writings. His sense of

alienation derives from his dilemma as an edu-

cated African who felt torn between his black at-

tributes and background and his Western

intellectual inclinations. He felt distinctly the need

to promote his black identity in the margins of

Western society to establish his presence. Senghor’s

volume Hosties noires (Black victims, 1948) con-

tains many poems written in the war years.A com-

mon thread runs through these poems: Senghor’s

growing disappointment and exasperation with

losing his European “heritage.” Senghor knew he

could never be French, but his desire to retain his

“Frenchness” was intermixed with a realization

that his true roots lay in Africa. Senghor’s ingenu-

ity lies in his fluency in French, his extraordinary

exploration of the range of human emotions, and

his intellectual critique of French colonialism in

Africa.

Other Works by Léopold Sédar Senghor

The Collected Poetry. Translated by Melvin Dixon.

Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia,

1991.

Irele, F. A., ed. Selected Poems of Léopold Sédar Seng-

hor. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977.

396 Senghor, Léopold Sédar

Works about Léopold Sédar Senghor

Kluback, William. Léopold Sédar Senghor: From

Politics to Poetry. New York: Peter Lang, 1997.

Spleth, Janet. Léopold Sédar Senghor. Boston: Twayne,

1985.

Vaillant, Janet G. Black, French, and African: A Life

of Léopold Sédar Senghor. Cambridge, Mass.:

Harvard University Press, 1990.

Serote, Mongane Wally (1944– ) poet,

essayist, novelist

Mongane Wally Serote was born in Sophiatown,

South Africa. He received his early education in

Alexandra Township and later attended the Morris

Isaacson High School in Soweto. In 1974, after a

succession of different jobs, he left South Africa

on a Fulbright scholarship, which enabled him to

study for a master’s degree in fine arts at Columbia

University in New York. Before leaving he had been

awarded the Ingrid Jonker Prize for Poetry follow-

ing the publication of his collection Yakhal’inkomo

(1972).

Serote’s most recent novel, Gods of Our Time

(1999), documents the latter years of the libera-

tion struggle in South Africa and conveys the be-

wilderment and uncertainty of those involved in

the historic events of the time. In his text, Serote

mimics the dislocated sensation of living in a

time when people often disappeared without a

trace by using a multitude of characters who

enter the pages in an apparently random manner

and then, inexplicably, disappear again. Much of

Serote’s work chronicles a disconnection with the

past and attempts a realignment and reconfigura-

tion with that past. His collection of poetry The

Night Keeps Winking (1982) was banned in his

home country. It contains vivid imagery of the

cruelty of life under apartheid, but also lyrical

notes:

If life is so simple

why can’t it be lived

if it is so brief

why can’t it be lived

After living in exile in Botswana and Britain, he

returned to South Africa when the end of apartheid

came. In 1991, he received an honorary doctorate

from the University of Natal. He won the Noma

Award for Publishing in Africa in 1993. Mongane

Serote was elected to South Africa’s Parliament in

1994 and became the chair of the Arts, Culture,

Language, Science and Technology Parliamentary

Portfolio committee. Serote continues to chronicle

the history of the South Afican experience.

Another Work by Mongane Wally Serote

To Every Birth Its Blood. Westport, Conn.: Heine-

mann, 1983.

Works about Mongane Wally Serote

Brown, Duncan. “Interview with Mongane Wally

Serote.” Theoria: A Journal of Studies in the Arts,

Humanities and Social Sciences 80 (October 1992):

143–49.

Horn, Peter. “A Volcano in the Night of Oppression:

Reflections on the Poetry of Mongane Serote.”

Available online at http://homepages.com-

puserve.de/PeterRHorn/volcano.htm.

Seth, Vikram (1952– ) novelist, poet

Vikram Seth was born in Calcutta, India, but grew

up in Delhi. His father, Prem Seth, is an executive

in a business company, and his mother, Lalitha

Seth, is a judge. After completing his schooling in

India, Seth went to England and America for fur-

ther studies. At Stanford University in 1975, while

studying for his doctorate in economics but frus-

trated by the tediousness of filling in data for a

project, Seth decided to take a temporary leave

from economics and thought to try writing a novel

instead. He went to a bookstore and was so in-

spired by a

PUSHKIN novel that he decided to write

one himself.

What began as a break became Seth’s lifetime

profession—a cross-cultural exploration of the

question of identity and human relationships. He

has written about North America, Tibet, China,

England, and India: In each instance, he does not

Seth, Vikram 397