Editing Jean Genet (section)

===Writing and activism===
By 1949, Genet had completed five novels, three plays, and numerous poems, many controversial for their explicit and often deliberately provocative portrayal of homosexuality and criminality. Sartre wrote a long analysis of Genet's [[existentialism|existential]] development (from vagrant to writer), entitled ''[[Saint Genet]]'' (1952), which was anonymously published as the first volume of Genet's complete works. Genet was strongly affected by Sartre's analysis and did not write for the next five years.

Between 1955 and 1961, Genet wrote three more plays as well as an essay called "What Remains of a [[Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn|Rembrandt]] Torn into Four Equal Pieces and Flushed Down the Toilet", on which hinged [[Jacques Derrida]]'s analysis of Genet in his seminal work ''[[Glas (book)|Glas]]''. During this time, Genet became emotionally attached to Abdallah Bentaga, a tightrope walker. However, following a number of accidents and Bentaga's [[suicide]] in 1964, Genet entered a period of [[Depression (mood)|depression]], and even attempted suicide himself.<ref>Brian Gordon Kennelly, ''Unfinished Business: Tracing Incompletion in Jean Genet's Posthumously Published Plays'' (Rodopi, 1997) p22</ref>

From the late 1960s, starting with an homage to [[Daniel Cohn-Bendit]] after the events of [[May 1968 events in France|May 1968]], Genet became politically active. He participated in demonstrations drawing attention to the living conditions of immigrants in France. Genet was censored in the United States in 1968 and later expelled when he was refused a visa. In an interview with Edward de Grazia, professor of law and First Amendment lawyer, Genet discusses the time he went through Canada for the Chicago congress. He entered without a visa and left with no issues.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=de Grazia|first=Edward|last2=Genet|first2=Jean|date=1993|title=An Interview with Jean Genet|jstor=743530|journal=Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature|volume=5|issue=2|pages=307–324|doi=10.2307/743530}}</ref>

In 1970, the [[Black Panthers]] invited him to the United States, where he stayed for three months giving lectures, attended the trial of their leader, [[Huey Newton]], and published articles in their journals. Later the same year he spent six months in [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]] [[Palestinian refugees|refugee camps]], secretly meeting [[Yasser Arafat]] near [[Amman]]. Profoundly moved by his experiences in the United States and [[Jordan]], Genet wrote a final lengthy memoir about his experiences, ''[[Prisoner of Love (book)|Prisoner of Love]]'', which would be published posthumously.

Genet also supported [[Angela Davis]] and [[George Jackson (Black Panther)|George Jackson]], as well as [[Michel Foucault]] and [[Daniel Defert]]'s Prison Information Group. He worked with Foucault and Sartre to protest [[police brutality]] against [[Algerian people|Algerians]] in Paris, a problem persisting since the [[Algerian War of Independence]], when beaten bodies were to be found floating in the [[Seine]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}} Genet expresses his solidarity with the [[Red Army Faction]] (RAF) of [[Andreas Baader]] and [[Ulrike Meinhof]], in the article "Violence et brutalité", published in ''[[Le Monde]]'', 1977.

In September 1982, Genet was in [[Beirut]] when the massacres took place in the Palestinian camps of [[Sabra and Shatila Massacre|Sabra and Shatila]]. In response, Genet published "Quatre heures à Chatila" ("Four Hours in Shatila"), an account of his visit to Shatila after the event. In one of his rare public appearances during the later period of his life, at the invitation of Austrian philosopher [[Hans Köchler]], he read from his work during the inauguration of an exhibition on the massacre of Sabra and Shatila organized by the [[International Progress Organization]] in Vienna, Austria, on 19 December 1983.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://i-p-o.org/genet.htm|title=Jean Genet with Hans Köchler -- Hotel Imperial, Vienna, 6 December 1983|website=i-p-o.org}}</ref>

In the early summer of 1985, the year before his death, Genet was interviewed by the BBC. He told the interviewer controversial but not surprising details of his life such as he disliked France so much that he supported the Nazis when they invaded Paris. He compared the BBC interview to a police interrogation.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}