"I recognize in thieves, traitors and murderers, in the ruthless and the cunning, a profound beauty, a submerged beauty." (Jean Genet)"I'm homosexual... How and why are useless questions. It's a bit like wanting to know why my eyes are green." (Jean Genet)A nod of recognition and understanding should descend upon every head who has read Querelle and is aware that Jean Genet is the author after reading the previous two quotes. After all, Genet's narrative may be a coalition of artistically distorted facts. The nod might become more forceful after a quick glance at even the most basic biography of the French writer. It is then that recognition and understanding merge into a generalization that an author's life somehow reflects through his work. It is precisely when the reader becomes aware of Genet's story that Querelle begins to reveal its secrets. Suddenly you can sympathize with the protagonist, Nono's feminine impulses seem consistent with the plot and Genet himself can be glimpsed between the lines. Historicism plays a significant role in the increased appreciation of an artist's composition. Having lived a life of crime from the age of 10, Genet is to a frightening degree Querelle himself. His service at the Mettray reformatory and his life as a thief, burglar and prostitute increase the Querelle in him. Even his hero's name apparently has a trace of his sexual orientation as Sartre points out that Genet himself as a writer is extremely specific about names. His friend shares an account in which Genet mentions how he doesn't like roses but appreciates the name itself. The event in which a person begins to visualize the being of a word in the word itself distinguishes Genet's complex character, once again adding to his g...... middle of paper ......"Jean Genet (1910- 1986).”Kuusankosken kaupunginkirjasto 2008. Web. 27 March 2011. Oswald, Laura. Jean Genet and the semiotics of performance. United States of America: Indiana University Press, 1989. Print.Plotz, John. “Objects of Abjection: The Animation of Difference in the Novels of Jean Genet.” 20th Century Literature 44.1 (1998): 100. Academic research completed. EBSCO. Network. 28 March 2011.Sartre, Jean-Paul. Saint Genetto: actor and martyr. Trans. French, Bernard. New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1963. Print. Stewart, Harry E. and Rob Roy McGregor. "Jean Genet's 'mentalité douteuse'." Romance Quarterly 39.3 (1992): 299. Academic research completed. EBSCO. Network. March 31, 2011.Thody, Philip and Howard Read. "San Genetto." Presentation of Sartre (2005): 130-131. Comprehensive humanities international. EBSCO. Network. March 30. 2011.