Char, René

Char, René rənāˈ chärˈ [key], 1907–88, French poet. His writing reflects both his Provençal origins and his years of active participation in the French resistance. At first attracted to surrealism, Char soon went his own way, constructing a verse marked by extreme stylistic economy. His poems and aphorisms express an effort to endow language with an authenticity lost in its everyday use.

See Selected Poems (1982); studies by M. A. Caws (1977) and J. Lawler (1978).

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