SOURCE: Durham, Scott. “Genet's Shadow Theatre: Memory and Utopian Phantasy in Un captif amoureux.” L'Esprit Createur 35, no. 1 (spring 1995): 50-60.

In the following essay, Durham explores the role of utopia and collective memory in the political rebellion described by Genet in Un captif amoureux.

In Un Captif Amoureux, Genet describes the encounter of two conflicting figures of collective memory. Its site, a place once called Maaloul, is to be found in some olive groves near Nazareth. Every year, Israelis return there with their children to see the forest they have sown. Each tree, a memorial to those who made the desert bloom, bears the name of the one who planted it. But there are other visitors as well. These are Palestinians, the former inhabitants of Maaloul.

They, too, have come back to remember. Somewhere beneath the soil in which these trees are rooted lie the remains of their former...