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Jorge Semprún

ホルヘ・センプルン・マウラ

Jorge Semprún Maura

Aliases: Federico Sánchez / フェデリコ・サンチェス
Pen Names: Federico Sánchez（Pseudonym used during clandestine activities in Spain (exiled Communist Party work)）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1923-12-10 （Madrid, Spain）
Died
2011-06-07 （Paris, France） age 87
Nationality
Spanish
Languages
French, Spanish, German, English
Residence History
France (long-term residence, mainly Paris) → The Hague, Netherlands (family diplomatic posting) → Madrid, Spain (birthplace)

Career

Occupations
Author, Screenwriter, Politician
Active Years
1942-2011
Affiliations
Communist Party of Spain (exiled branch, former member), Action Against Hunger (honorary chairman, Spanish branch)
Memberships
Académie Goncourt (member)
Influenced By
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, French authors (general influence), Spanish historical and political context
Influenced
Contemporary European writers (influenced debates on memory and testimony), Pablo Daniel Magee (inspired to become a writer)

Education

Lycée Henri-IV
Period: 1930年代後半-1940年代前半（在籍期間の詳細不明）
Country: France
Educated in France as an émigré; later attended the Sorbonne
Sorbonne (University of Paris)
Period: 在籍年不明
Country: France
Details of degree completion uncertain due to wartime and resistance activities

Awards

Jerusalem Prize
1997
Organization: Jerusalem Prize committee
Result: 受賞
Ovid Prize
2002
Organization: Ovid Prize Foundation (Romania)
Result: 受賞（創設時の受賞者）
Premio Planeta
1977
Work: Autobiografía de Federico Sánchez
Organization: Editorial Planeta
Result: 受賞
Prix Formentor
1963
Work: Le grand voyage (The Long Voyage)
Organization: Prix Formentor committee
Result: 受賞
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (nominee)
1970
Work: Z
Category: 脚色賞（Best Adapted Screenplay）
Organization: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Result: ノミネート（受賞は逃す）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Le grand voyage (The Long Voyage / The Cattle Truck)

1963 Novel (fictionalized memoir)

A fragmented, non-linear account based on Semprún's deportation to Buchenwald, shifting between the train journey, resistance memories, and camp experiences.

memoryconcentration campdeportationresistance
Translations
  • Long Voyage / The Cattle Truck (English translations)

Quel beau dimanche! (What a Beautiful Sunday)

1980 Novel (camp-life narrative)

Centers on a single day in Buchenwald but moves backward and forward in time, probing how to convey camp experiences and the effects of memory.

temporal disjunctionmemory and testimonycritique of Stalinism and fascism
Translations
  • What a Beautiful Sunday! (English translation)

L'Écriture ou la vie (Literature or Life / Writing or Life)

1994 Essay / Memoir

An essayistic meditation on the relation between memory and writing, explaining Semprún's choices about how to write about deportation and revisiting scenes from earlier works.

ethics of memory and writingself-reflectionmemory of Europe

Autobiografía de Federico Sánchez

1977 Autobiography / Political memoir

A memoir of his clandestine activities in the exiled Communist Party of Spain and his eventual expulsion, offering an internal critique of party politics during the Cold War.

political memoirparty critiqueindividual vs organization

Bibliography

  • Le grand voyage (Grand voyage)
  • Évanouissement
  • Deuxième mort de Ramón Mercader (Second death of Ramón Mercader)
  • Repérages: Photographies by Alain Resnais
  • Autobiografía de Federico Sánchez
  • Desvanecimiento
  • Quel beau dimanche! (What a Beautiful Sunday)
  • Algarabie
  • Montand, la vie continue
  • Montagne blanche
  • Netchaïev est de retour
  • Le Retour de Carola Neher
  • Pensar en Europa (essays)
  • Une Tombe au Creux des Nuages: Essays on Europe
  • Moi, Eléanor, Fille de Karl Marx, Juive
  • Teatro completo (Complete plays)

Adaptations

  • Film 'Z' (screenplay collaboration)
  • Film 'The Confession' (screenplay collaboration)
  • Participation in screenplays such as 'La Guerre est finie'

Translations of Works

  • Le grand voyage → Long Voyage / The Cattle Truck (English translations)
  • Quel beau dimanche! → What a Beautiful Sunday! (English translation)
  • Autobiografía de Federico Sánchez → Autobiography of Federico Sánchez (English translation)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
non-linear chronologyself-reflexive and autobiographical elementslayered recollection and narrative
Recurring Motifs
memory and forgettingconcentration camp (Buchenwald)trains/deportation journeysEuropean history and identity

Legacy

Known for works that interrogate memory of concentration camp experiences and European history, Semprún wrote primarily in French while gaining international recognition. He also worked as a screenwriter and served in cultural policy; notably the first non-French member of the Académie Goncourt.

Academic Societies

  • Académie Goncourt

In Popular Culture

  • Known for screenplay contributions to politically charged films such as 'Z'.
  • His tenure as Minister of Culture and resistance experience are subjects of biographies and scholarship.

Quotes

  • Writing or life — that question of choice is imposed.
    Source: L'Écriture ou la vie (1994)

Trivia

  • Arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and deported to Buchenwald concentration camp.
  • Used the alias Federico Sánchez while organizing clandestine activities for the exiled Communist Party of Spain (1953–1962).
  • Expelled from the Communist Party in 1964 and thereafter concentrated on writing.
  • Nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay of 'Z' in 1970 (did not win).
  • Elected in 1996 as the first non-French member of the Académie Goncourt.
  • Served as Spain's Minister of Culture from 1988 to 1991.