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Émile Nelligan
Émile Nelligan (December 24, 1879 – November 18, 1941) was a French Canadian Symbolist poet influenced by Romanticism. Although he almost entirely ceased writing poetry after being institutionalized at the age of nineteen, Nelligan remains an iconic figure in Quebecois culture and was considered by Edmund Wilson to be the greatest Canadian poet in any language.
Nelligan was born in Montreal on December 24, 1879 at 602, rue de La Gauchetière (Annuaire Lovell's de 1879). He was the eldest son of David Nelligan, who arrived in Quebec from Dublin at the age of seven or eight. His mother was Émilie Amanda Hudon, a French Canadian from Rimouski. At home, he spoke in French to his mother and English to his father. He generally preferred speaking in French. He had two sisters, Béatrice Eva (1881-1954) and Gertrude Freda (1883-1925).
His childhood was spent between his home in Montreal and a summer residence in Cacouna. Much of his early education was received from Hudon, with whom he shared a profound bond.
From 1890 through 1893, he studied at the Collège Mont-Saint-Louis; afterwards, in September of the latter year, he entered classical college at the Collège de Montréal. He failed the first year of his course, with the need to work on his Latin. His syntax course continued in 1895, at the Collège Sainte-Marie de Montréal; however, he was an indolent student who often cut classes, instead focusing on plays, poems and prose. In March 1897, Nelligan failed his examinations, subsequently withdrawing from education entirely.
During his adolescence, Nelligan was considered precocious, like Arthur Rimbaud. He identified as a follower of Symbolism, conceiving poetry influenced by Octave Crémazie, Louis Fréchette, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Georges Rodenbach, Maurice Rollinat and Edgar Allan Poe. On 13 June 1896, following his victory in a poetry contest, the Montreallais newspaper Le Samedi released his first published poem, Rêve fantasque (Fantastical Dream), under the pseudonym Émile Kovar.
Some of Nelligan's most famous poems include La Romance du vin (The Romance of Wine), Soir d'hiver (Winter Evening), and Le Vaisseau d'Or (The Ship of Gold). All these works date to his youth.
In 1899, Nelligan began exhibiting unusual behaviour. He loudly declaimed poetry to passing strangers, slept in chapels, and experienced hallucinations, culminating in a suicide attempt. At his parents' request, he was committed, aged nineteen, to the Retraite Saint-Benoît-Labre, a mental hospital run by the Brothers of Charity. There, he was diagnosed with dementia praecox (now referred to as schizophrenia). He wrote little poetry after being hospitalized.
Contemporary speculation suggested that he went insane because of the vast cultural and language differences between his mother and father. However, more recently, various literary critics theorized that Nelligan may have been a homosexual. Some of these sources allege that he became mentally ill due to inner conflict between his sexual orientation and his Catholicism. Others suggest that he was never insane at all, but was dishonestly committed to the asylum by his family to avoid potential homophobia.
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Émile Nelligan
Émile Nelligan (December 24, 1879 – November 18, 1941) was a French Canadian Symbolist poet influenced by Romanticism. Although he almost entirely ceased writing poetry after being institutionalized at the age of nineteen, Nelligan remains an iconic figure in Quebecois culture and was considered by Edmund Wilson to be the greatest Canadian poet in any language.
Nelligan was born in Montreal on December 24, 1879 at 602, rue de La Gauchetière (Annuaire Lovell's de 1879). He was the eldest son of David Nelligan, who arrived in Quebec from Dublin at the age of seven or eight. His mother was Émilie Amanda Hudon, a French Canadian from Rimouski. At home, he spoke in French to his mother and English to his father. He generally preferred speaking in French. He had two sisters, Béatrice Eva (1881-1954) and Gertrude Freda (1883-1925).
His childhood was spent between his home in Montreal and a summer residence in Cacouna. Much of his early education was received from Hudon, with whom he shared a profound bond.
From 1890 through 1893, he studied at the Collège Mont-Saint-Louis; afterwards, in September of the latter year, he entered classical college at the Collège de Montréal. He failed the first year of his course, with the need to work on his Latin. His syntax course continued in 1895, at the Collège Sainte-Marie de Montréal; however, he was an indolent student who often cut classes, instead focusing on plays, poems and prose. In March 1897, Nelligan failed his examinations, subsequently withdrawing from education entirely.
During his adolescence, Nelligan was considered precocious, like Arthur Rimbaud. He identified as a follower of Symbolism, conceiving poetry influenced by Octave Crémazie, Louis Fréchette, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Georges Rodenbach, Maurice Rollinat and Edgar Allan Poe. On 13 June 1896, following his victory in a poetry contest, the Montreallais newspaper Le Samedi released his first published poem, Rêve fantasque (Fantastical Dream), under the pseudonym Émile Kovar.
Some of Nelligan's most famous poems include La Romance du vin (The Romance of Wine), Soir d'hiver (Winter Evening), and Le Vaisseau d'Or (The Ship of Gold). All these works date to his youth.
In 1899, Nelligan began exhibiting unusual behaviour. He loudly declaimed poetry to passing strangers, slept in chapels, and experienced hallucinations, culminating in a suicide attempt. At his parents' request, he was committed, aged nineteen, to the Retraite Saint-Benoît-Labre, a mental hospital run by the Brothers of Charity. There, he was diagnosed with dementia praecox (now referred to as schizophrenia). He wrote little poetry after being hospitalized.
Contemporary speculation suggested that he went insane because of the vast cultural and language differences between his mother and father. However, more recently, various literary critics theorized that Nelligan may have been a homosexual. Some of these sources allege that he became mentally ill due to inner conflict between his sexual orientation and his Catholicism. Others suggest that he was never insane at all, but was dishonestly committed to the asylum by his family to avoid potential homophobia.