René Étiemble, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

René Étiemble

French academic

Date of Birth: 26-Jan-1909

Place of Birth: Mayenne, Pays de la Loire, France

Date of Death: 07-Jan-2002

Profession: writer, historian, university teacher

Nationality: France

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius


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About René Étiemble

  • René Ernest Joseph Eugène Étiemble (26 January 1909 in Mayenne, Mayenne – 7 January 2002 in Vigny) was an essayist, scholar, novelist, and promoter of Middle Eastern and Asian cultures.
  • Known commonly by his family name alone, Etiemble held the coveted Chair of Comparative Literature, in 1955, at the Institute of General and Comparative Literature in the pre-1968 Sorbonne University and continued in his post as a tenured Professor (and after retirement in September 1978 as an Honorary Professor) at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle University from 1956 to 1978.
  • His doctoral dissertation on the Myth of Rimbaud and his influences world-wide won him fame in 1952.
  • However, Étiemble's derisive tone and some ill-founded conjectures about Rimbaud's later life undermine the book's credibility today.
  • During World War II, he taught at the University of Chicago and was attached to the Office of War Information in New York in 1943.
  • After the War, he taught French literature at the University of Alexandria, from 1944 to 1948, and thereafter at the University of Montpellier, France.
  • He was the author of some sixty works (and edited the celebrated UNESCO Oriental Series for Gallimard publishers) Among his more popular works: Connaissez-vous la Chine? (Do you know China?), Gallimard 1964, and Quarante ans de mon maoïsme (1934-1974) (Forty years of my Maoism) Gallimard 1976.He enjoyed a formidable reputation as a literary critic and daring polemicist, recognition for which came late in the guise of an official prize from the French Academy.
  • He also published three novels, one of which Blason d'un corps.
  • [Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1961] is still remembered and read avidly.
  • He is also remembered for his translations of Lawrence of Arabia's works into French. In his youth, a militant communist and anti-fascist, he became interested in the Chinese communist movement.
  • Together with the Chinese poet Dai Wangshu ??? (1905-1950) he produced a number of translations of the works of left-wing Chinese writers and published these in a special issue of Commune (February 1934), organ of the French anti-fascist writers' and artists' association (Association des Écrivains et Artistes Révolutionnaires).In his later years, he was a vehement defender of human rights and his book detailing and denouncing the increasing anglicization of the French language, Parlez-vous franglais? (Do you speak Franglais?), attracted a wide readership. In 1988, he was awarded the Balzan Prize for comparative literature.

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