Victor Séjour facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Victor Séjour
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| Born | Juan Victor Séjour Marcou et Ferrand June 2, 1817 New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Died | September 20, 1874 (aged 57) Paris, France |
| Resting place | Père Lachaise Cemetery Paris, France |
| Occupation | Writer, novelist, playwright |
| Genre | Fiction |
Juan Victor Séjour Marcou et Ferrand (June 2, 1817 – September 20, 1874) was an American Creole of color and expatriate writer. Born in New Orleans, he spent most of his career in Paris. His fiction and plays were written and published in French. Although mostly unknown to later American writers of the nineteenth century, his short story "Le Mulâtre" ("The Mulatto") is the earliest known work of fiction by an African American author. In France, however, he was known chiefly for his plays.
Biography
Juan Victor Séjour was born on June 2, 1817, in New Orleans to François Marcou, a free man of color from Saint-Domingue (today's Haiti), and Eloisa Philippe Ferrand, a New Orleans-born quadroon. His parents were wealthy and had him educated in a private school. There were no public schools for people of color in New Orleans, and the society as a whole was segregated.
At the age of nineteen Séjour moved to Paris to continue his education and find work. Other free people of color from the US, whose families were wealthy enough, also studied in Paris. There he met members of the Parisian literary elite, including Cyrille Bissette, publisher of the black-owned journal La Revue des Colonies.
Bisette published "Le Mulâtre" (in French), Séjour's first work, in 1837. The story of a loyal slave exacting revenge on his cruel white master and father for the death of the slave's wife, "Le Mulâtre" contains an indictment of New World slavery that is found in none of Séjour's subsequent work.
Séjour turned away from writing fiction, composing an ode to Napoleon in 1841. He published the verse drama The Jew of Seville, which was premiered in 1844. The latter established his reputation as a playwright. He wrote Richard III, a Shakespeare-inspired costume drama about Richard III of England, which became Séjour's most acclaimed work. Toward the end of his life, however, Séjour's plays fell out of favor, resulting in a decline in his status.
Written in French, "Le Mulâtre" had little influence on American literature of the period. It was not translated into English until the late 20th century, when Séjour became the subject of new academic studies in the United States. Its condemnation of slavery, however, anticipates the work of such 19th-century African-American writers publishing in English as Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown.
The Brown Overcoat (1858)
Unlike in his fiction, Séjour tended to leave discussions of race out of his plays. This is best exemplified by his play The Brown Overcoat, a typical artificial comedy of the time period with witty comments and puns, avoiding race and social commentary entirely. Despite this, Séjour is still recognized as a great African-American playwright, who had a successful career in France.
Personal life
Séjour was Catholic.
See also
In Spanish: Victor Séjour para niños
