Jaime Semprún (26 July 1947 – 3 August 2010) was a French essayist and translator. He was born and died in Paris.
Biography
The son of
Jorge Semprún
Jorge Semprún Maura (; 10 December 1923 – 7 June 2011) was a Spanish writer and politician who lived in France most of his life and wrote primarily in French. From 1953 to 1962, during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, Semprún lived cland ...
and nephew of the writer
Carlos Semprún
Carlos Semprún Maura (23 November 1926 in Madrid – 23 March 2009 in Paris) was a Spanish writer, playwright and journalist, mainly working in the French language.
Biography
The son of the Spanish politician, writer and diplomat José Mar ...
, Jaime Semprún was close to the film director
Philippe Garrel
Philippe Garrel (; born 6 April 1948) is a French director, cinematographer, screenwriter, film editor, and producer, associated with the French New Wave movement. His films have won him awards at Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival.
...
– he appeared in his movie, ''
Le Lit de la Vierge'', 1970 along with
Zouzou and
Valérie Lagrange
Valérie Lagrange (born 25 February 1942) is a French actress and singer. She starred in the 1960 adventure film '' Morgan, the Pirate''.Hughes p.39
Selected filmography
* ''The Green Mare'' (1959)
* '' Morgan, the Pirate'' (1960)
* ''The Cors ...
– and made a short movie himself, ''Le Meurtre du père'' (
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Januar ...
), and a feature-length movie, ''La Sainte Famille'' (1968), he then turned his interest towards social issues and the
Situationist International
The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...
. He contributed articles to ''
L'Assommoir
''L'Assommoir'' , published as a serial in 1876, and in book form in 1877, is the seventh novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series ''Les Rougon-Macquart''. Usually considered one of Zola's masterpieces, the novel — a study of alcoholism
...
'' edited by
Roger Langlais, he published two essays for the
Champ libre
Champ Libre is a French publisher founded in 1969 by Gérard Lebovici in Paris. The name is taken from a phrase which means "free field" (the way is clear).
In 1984, after the assassination of Gérard Lebovici, Champ Libre changed its name and b ...
editions during the 1970s : ''Social War in Portugal'' and ''Précis de récupération''. In 1980 Semprún published ''La Nucléarisation du monde'', an essay in which he denounced the evils of nuclear power. Jaime Semprún was then at the origin of the creation of the Post-Situationist group and journal ''Encyclopédie des Nuisances'', of which he was the main actor. Fifteen issues are published between 1984 and 1992, before it became, in 1991, a publishing house, the
Éditions de l'Encyclopédie des Nuisances.
Jaime Semprún gave a lot of his time, along with
Anne Krief (his partner) and Michel Pétris, to the translation and publication of the writings of
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...
unpublished in France at the time for the
éditions Ivrea
Champ Libre is a French publisher founded in 1969 by Gérard Lebovici in Paris. The name is taken from a phrase which means "free field" (the way is clear).
In 1984, after the assassination of Gérard Lebovici, Champ Libre changed its name and b ...
coedited with the éditions de l'Encyclopédie des Nuisances, a work he started, according to
Christophe Bourseiller
Christophe Bourseiller (; born Christophe Gintzburger; born 27 September 1957 in Paris) is a French actor, writer, freemason and journalist. He began as a child actor and starred in Yves Robert's '' War of the Buttons'' (''La Guerre des boutons'') ...
, « under the auspices » of
Guy Debord
Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationis ...
and
Gérard Lebovici
Gérard Lebovici (25 August 1932 – 5 March 1984) was a French film producer, editor and impresario.
Background
His mother was executed in a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War. While on the verge of embarking on a promising stage ...
. Four volumes of''Essais, articles, lettres'' by
Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitari ...
were published between 1995 and 2001.
Through his own works and the ones he published, Semprún developed a radical critique of the State and industrial society. In this regard, he belongs to
anti-industrialism.
In his book ''Défense et illustration de la novlangue française'' published in 2005, Jaime Semprún analysed the transformation of the French language at the time of the omnipresence of technology and computers.
In 2008, 40 years after
May 68
Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of events, which ha ...
, Semprún published ''Catastrophisme, administration du désastre et soumission durable'', written with
René Riesel
René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus.
René is the masculine form of the name ( Renée being the feminin ...
, in which he developed his critique of contemporary industrial society, including different leftist, activist movements, advocates of curtailing economic growth and state environmentalism. This book contains as an annex the critique of the book by
Anselm Jappe
Anselm Jappe (born 3 May 1962, Bonn) is a German professor of philosophy.
Biography
He grew up in Cologne and in the Périgord. He studied in Paris and Rome where he obtained, respectively, a master's and then a doctorate degree in philosophy. ...
, ''Les Aventures de la marchandise''.
In 2009, he published ''Discours préliminaire de l'Encyclopédie des Nuisances'' with a new previously unpublished foreword, 25 years after its first publication in 1984.
Jaime Semprún died of a
cerebral hemorrhage
Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...
on 3 August 2010 aged 63.
[''Andromaque, je pense à vous !'', p. 27, Éditions de l'Encyclopédie des Nuisances, 2011.]
In January 2011, the
Éditions de l'Encyclopédie des Nuisances published a posthumous essay of his, ''Andromaque, je pense à vous !''. This text, written in 2000 on the occasion of the first anniversary of his mother's death (
Loleh Bellon
Marie Laure Viole Bellon, generally known as Loleh Bellon, (1925–1999) was a French stage and film actress as well as a playwright. In 1949, for her role in Robert Desnos' ''La Place de l'Étoile'', she was awarded the ''Prix des Jeunes comédie ...
1925–1999), is a sentimental dérive in Paris. It is completed by 2 essays, which have remained unfinished, on the painter
Pascal Vinardel
Pascal, Pascal's or PASCAL may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Pascal (given name), including a list of people with the name
* Pascal (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
** Blaise Pascal, Fre ...
and the abolition of art by
mass society
Mass society is a concept that describes modern society as a monolithic force and yet a disaggregate collection of individuals. It is often used pejoratively to refer to a society in which bureaucracy and impersonal institutions have replaced some ...
.
External links
''Catastrophism, disaster management and sustainable submission'' by Jaime Semprun and René RieselOn Jaime Semprún : an interview with Miguel Amoros
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Semprun, Jaime
1947 births
2010 deaths
20th-century French essayists
20th-century French male writers
20th-century French translators
Anarchist writers
French anarchists
French male essayists
French male non-fiction writers
French people of Spanish descent
Green anarchists
Semprún family