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Le Cancre by Jacques Prévert

Le Cancre by Jacques Prévert

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"Le Canccre", composed by Jacques Prévert during the interwar period, a time of profound social upheaval in France, was published in 1946 in the collection Paroles. Rejecting any label, Prévert broke free from Surrealism while maintaining his libertarian spirit, revolutionizing academic norms with accessible and subversive writing. The poem denounces the school of that era, marked by strict discipline and authoritarian teaching. By making the bungler a hero of creative resistance, Prévert transforms his observation into a poetic manifesto: in the face of authority that imposes a "no" of reason, the child responds with the "yes" of his heart. Through free verse, jarring rhythm, and absence of punctuation, the poem embodies this freedom, celebrating emotional intelligence and art as acts of rebellion against uniformity. Still relevant today, The Bungler remains a plea for those who, refusing to be confined, choose to forge their own path.

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Artist

EUGÉNIE BACHELOT-PRÉVERT

EUGÉNIE BACHELOT-PRÉVERT

Eugénie Bachelot Prévert, granddaughter of poet Jacques Prévert, offers a new perspective on "Le Cancre" for Une histoire au mur. Graduated from the Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2000, this artist born in 1974 has always sought to preserve spontaneity and freedom in her art, qualities so dear to childhood. She smiles at the irony that this poem celebrating a rebellious child has become a school classic, sometimes even a source of punishment for those who struggle to memorize it. Inspired by her experience of sharing drawings with her friends from the Beaux-Arts, Eugénie interpreted the poem with her daughter Lila. They chose to depict two women who seem to be in the midst of a whirlwind and to do only what they please. This approach, both respectful of her family heritage and deeply personal, perfectly reflects her artistic journey, where painting, installations, and performances blend together, always with that touch of joyful irreverence that characterizes her popular and free-spirited art.

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