Jules Supervielle (16 January 1884 – 17 May 1960) was a Franco-

Uruguayan Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

poet and writer born in

Montevideo Montevideo () is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . Montevideo is situated on the southern co ...

. He was nominated for the

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

three times. He opposed the

surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

movement in poetry and rejected

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spir ...

, although he did adopt other techniques of modern poetry. In so doing he anticipated the literary movements of the late 1940s, including the work of such authors as

René Char René Émile Char (; 14 June 1907 – 19 February 1988) was a French poet and member of the French Resistance. Biography Char was born in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Vaucluse department of France, the youngest of the four children of Emile ...

Henri Michaux Henri Michaux (; 24 May 1899 – 19 October 1984) was a Belgian-born French poet, writer and painter. Michaux is renowned for his strange, highly original poetry and prose, and also for his art: the Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim ...

, Saint-John Perse or Francis Ponge. Amongst his admirers are René-Guy Cadou,

Alain Bosquet Alain Bosquet, born Anatoliy Bisk (russian: Анато́лий Биск) (28 March 1919 – 17 March 1998), was a French poet. Life In 1925, his family moved to Brussels and he studied at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, then at the Sorbonn ...

, Lionel Ray, Claude Roy,

Philippe Jaccottet Philippe Jaccottet (; 30 June 1925 – 24 February 2021) was a Swiss Francophone poet and translator. Life and work After completing his studies in Lausanne, he lived for several years in Paris. In 1953, he moved to the town of Grignan in ...

and

Jacques Réda Jacques Réda (born 24 January 1929 in Lunéville) is a French poet, jazz critic, and ''flâneur''. He was awarded the Prix Valery Larbaud in 1983, and was chief editor of the ''Nouvelle Revue Française'' from 1987 to 1996. Works *''Amen'' (196 ...

Personal life

Supervielle was born in

, Uruguay, to a family in charge of a bank; his father was from

Béarn The Béarn (; ; oc, Bearn or ''Biarn''; eu, Bearno or ''Biarno''; or ''Bearnia'') is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three B ...

and his mother of

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

origin. His parents both died before he was a year old, during a family visit to France, and he was raised first by his grandmother and later, on returning to Uruguay, by his aunt and uncle. He began writing fables at age nine. In 1894 he moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

with his aunt and uncle, and published a collection of poems entitled '' Brumes du passé'' in 1901. He married Pilar Saavedra in Montevideo in 1906; the two had six children.

Career

In 1910 Supervielle submitted his literature thesis on ''The feeling of nature in Spanish-American poetry''. He was conscripted during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and served until 1917, at which time he returned to poetry. The publication of his poems in 1919 drew the attention of

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism ...

and Paul Valéry and put him in contact with the

Nouvelle Revue Française ''La Nouvelle Revue Française'' (; "The New French Review") is a literary magazine based in France. In France, it is often referred to as the ''NRF''. History and profile The magazine was founded in 1909 by a group of intellectuals including An ...

(NRF). He published his first significant collection, '' Débarcadères'', in 1922, and his first novel, '' L'Homme de la pampa'', in 1923. In 1925 he published one of the major collections of French-speaking poetry of the 20th century: '' Gravitations''. Six years later he published a book of short fantasies, ''

L'Enfant de la haute mer L'Enfant may refer to: * ''L'Enfant'' (film), a 2005 Belgian film * L'Enfant (poster), a noted 1987 photographic poster * Pierre Charles L'Enfant, architect and civil engineer credited with planning the city of Washington, D.C. * , a 1943 cargo s ...

'' (five texts published between 1924 and 1930 plus three originals). His first important play, ''

La Belle au bois LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figur ...

'', is also written at this time. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, Supervielle had health and financial difficulties, and temporarily relocated to Uruguay. He was named ''Officier de la

Legion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

'' and received several literary prizes. After the war's conclusion he returned to France as the cultural correspondent to the legation of Uruguay in Paris. He published his first mythological tales under the title ''Orphée'' in 1946. In 1947, Supervielle's ''Shéhérazade'' was one of the three plays directed by

Jean Vilar Jean Vilar (25 March 1912– 28 May 1971) was a French actor and theatre director. Vilar trained under actor and theatre director Charles Dullin, then toured with an acting company throughout France. His directorial career began in 1943 in a sma ...

at the first festival d'Avignon. Supervielle published an autobiographical account entitled '' Boire à la source'' in 1951, followed by his last collection of poetry, '' Le Corps tragique'', in 1959. He was elected ''

Prince des poètes Prince des poètes (French: ''Prince of poets'') is an honorific and unofficial title given in France to poets. Poets who have held the title include Pierre de Ronsard, Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle (1885–1894), Paul Verlaine (1894–189 ...

'' ("Prince of poets") shortly before his death in

in May 1960.

Legacy

In 1990, the city of Oloron-Sainte-Marie created the Jules-Supervielle prize; among the prize winners are major contemporary poets:

Eugène Guillevic Eugène Guillevic (Carnac, Morbihan, France, August 5, 1907 Carnac – March 19, 1997 Paris) () was a French poet. Professionally, he went by the single name ''Guillevic''. Life He was born in the rocky landscape and marine environment of Br ...

, Henri Thomas, Jean Grosjean and Lionel Ray. Supervielle's complete poetic works were published in the Bibliothèque de La Pléiade, by the Gallimard editions, in 1996. The Lycée Français de Montevideo takes his name from him.

Studies about his work

* Claude Roy, ''Supervielle'', Paris, Poésies P., NRF, 1970 * Sabine Dewulf, ''Jules Supervielle ou la connaissance poétique - Sous le soleil d’oubli'', coll. Critiques Littéraires, in two volumes, Paris, éd. L’Harmattan, 2001

English translations

English text with French parallel text: * James Kirkup, Denise Levertov, Kenneth Rexroth and Alan Pryce-Jones, '' Jules Supervielle: Selected Writings '', New Directions, New York, 1967 * George Bogin, '' Jules Supervielle: Selected Poems and Reflections on the Art of Poetry '', SUN, New York, 1985 Les Amis Inconnus/Unknown Friends, Jules Supervielle, translation by Philip Cranston, Scripta Humanistica (162), 2008

References

External links

Jules Supervielle and poetry

* * Jules Supervielle Collection. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Supervielle, Jules 1884 births 1960 deaths Writers from Montevideo 20th-century Uruguayan poets French male poets Uruguayan male short story writers Uruguayan short story writers French male short story writers French short story writers Uruguayan translators Prince des poètes French-language poets French people of Uruguayan descent 20th-century French poets 20th-century French translators Uruguayan male poets 20th-century short story writers 20th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers Uruguayan emigrants to France