NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Alfred Jarry

Alfred Jarry (September 8, 1873 – November 1, 1907) was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany; he was of Breton descent on his mother's side. September 8 is the 251st day of the year (252nd in leap years). ... 1873 (MDCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Laval is a commune in the Mayenne dÃ©partement of France. ... Mayenne is a dÃ©partement in northwest France named after the Mayenne River. ... Brittany has an expansive coastline Flag of Brittany (Gwenn-ha-du) Historical province of Brittany rÃ©gion of Bretagne, see Bretagne. ... Brittany has an expansive coastline Flag of Brittany (Gwenn-ha-du) Historical province of Brittany rÃ©gion of Bretagne, see Bretagne. ...

Best known for his play Ubu Roi (1896), which is often cited as a forerunner to the theatre of the absurd, Jarry wrote in a variety of genres and styles. He wrote plays, novels, poetry, essays and speculative journalism. His texts present some pioneering work in the field of absurdist literature. Sometimes grotesque or misunderstood (i.e. the opening line in his play Ubu Roi, "Merdre!", has been translated into English as "Shittr!", "Shikt!", and "Pschitt!"), he invented a science called 'pataphysics. Romeo and Juliet by Ford Madox Brown A play, written by a playwright, or dramatist, is a form of literature, almost always consisting of dialog between characters, and intended for performance rather than reading. ... Ubu Roi (King Ubu) is a play written by Alfred Jarry in 1896 that is widely acknowledged as a theatrical precursor to the Absurdist, Dada and Surrealist art movements. ... Year 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar). ... The Theatre of the Absurd or Le ThÃ©Ã¢tre de lAbsurde is a phrase used in reference to particular plays written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as to the style of theatre which has evolved from their work. ... Pataphysics, a term coined by the French writer Alfred Jarry, is a philosophy dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics. ...

Biography and works

A precociously brilliant student, Jarry enthralled his classmates with a gift for pranks and troublemaking.

At the lycée in Rennes when he was 15, he led of a group of boys who devoted much time and energy to poking fun at their well-meaning, obese and incompetent physics teacher, a man named Hébert. Jarry and classmate Charles Morin wrote a play they called Les Polonais and performed it with marionettes in the home of one of their friends. The main character, Père Heb, was a blunderer with a huge belly; three teeth (one of stone, one of iron, and one of wood); a single, retractable ear; and a misshapen body. In Jarry's later work Ubu Roi, Père Heb would develop into Ubu, one of the most monstrous and astonishing characters in French literature. Some medieval houses, such as these at Champ-Jacquet, can still be found in the center of Rennes. ... Marionette in Prague A marionette is a type of puppet moved by strings, as in a puppet show. ... Ubu Roi (King Ubu) is a play written by Alfred Jarry in 1896 that is widely acknowledged as a theatrical precursor to the Absurdist, Dada and Surrealist art movements. ...

At 17 Jarry passed his baccalauréat and moved to Paris to prepare for admission to the École Normale Supérieure. Though he was not admitted, he soon gained attention for his original poems and prose-poems. A collection of his work, Les minutes de sable mémorial, was published in 1893. For other uses of Baccalaureate, see Baccalaureate (disambiguation). ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du TrocadÃ©ro. ...

That same year, both his parents died, leaving him a small inheritance which he quickly spent.

Jarry had meantime discovered the pleasures of alcohol, which he called "my sacred herb" or, when referring to absinthe, the "green goddess". A story is told that he once painted his face green and rode through town on his bicycle in its honour (and possibly under its influence). A reservoir glass filled with a naturally colored verte next to an absinthe spoon. ...

Drafted into the army in 1894, his gift for turning notions upside down defeated attempts to instill military discipline. The sight of the small man in a uniform much too large for his less than 5-foot frame—the army did not issue uniforms small enough—was so disruptively funny that he was excused from parades and marching drills. Eventually the army discharged him for medical reasons. His military experience eventually inspired the novel, Days and Nights.

Jarry returned to Paris and applied himself to drinking, writing, and the company of friends who appreciated his witty, sweet-tempered, and unpredictable conversation. This period is marked by his intense involvement with Remy de Gourmont in the publication of L'Ymagier, a luxuriously produced "art" magazine devoted to the symbolic analysis of medieval and popular prints. Symbolism as an art movement was in full swing at this time and L'Ymagier provided a nexus for many of its key contributors. Jarry's play Caesar Antichrist (1895) drew on this movement for material. This is a work that bridges the gap between serious symbolic meaning and the type of critical absurdity with which Jarry would soon become associated. Using the biblical Book of Revelation as a point of departure, Caesar Antichrist presents a parallel world of extreme formal symbolism in which Christ is resurrected not as an agent of spirituality but as agent of the Roman Empire that seeks to dominate spirituality. It is a unique narrative that effectively links the domination of the soul to contemporaneous advances in the field of Egyptology such as the 1894 excavation the Narmer Palette, an ancient artifact used for situating the rebus within hermeneutics. Rémy de Gourmont (April 4, 1858 - September 27, 1915) was a French Symbolist poet and influential critic. ... Visions of John of Patmos, as depicted in the TrÃ¨s Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. ... This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ... Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The soul, acording to many religious and philosophical traditions, is a self-aware ethereal substance particular to a unique living being. ... Egyptology is the study of Ancient Egypt and Egyptian antiquities and is a regional and thematic branch of the larger disciplines of ancient history and archeology. ... Front and Back Sides of Narmer Palette, this facsimile on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto, Canada. ... Rebus Principle (Linguistics) is using the existing symbols, such as pictograms, purely for their sounds regardless of their meaning, to represent new words. ... Hermeneutics may be described as the development and study of theories of the interpretation and understanding of texts. ...

The spring of 1896 saw the publication, in Paul Fort's review Le Livre d'art, of Jarry's 5-act play Ubu Roi—the rewritten and expanded Les Polonais of his school days. Ubu Roi's savage humor and monstrous absurdity, unlike anything thus far performed in French theater, seemed unlikely to ever actually be performed on stage. However, impetuous theater director Aurélien-Marie Lugné-Poe took the risk, producing the play at his Théâtre de l'Oeuvre. Ubu Roi (King Ubu) is a play written by Alfred Jarry in 1896 that is widely acknowledged as a theatrical precursor to the Absurdist, Dada and Surrealist art movements. ...

On opening night (December 10, 1896), with traditionalists and the avant-garde in the audience, King Ubu (played by Firmin Gémier) stepped forward and intoned the opening word, "Merdre!" ("Shittr!"). A quarter of an hour of pandemonium ensued: outraged cries, booing, and whistling by the offended parties, countered by cheers and applause by the more forward-thinking contingent. Such interruptions continued through the evening. At the time, only the dress rehearsal and opening night performance were held, and the play was not revived until 1907. December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, 21 days before the next year. ... Year 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar). ... A work similar to Marcel Duchamps Fountain Avant garde (written avant-garde) is a French phrase, one of many French phrases used by English speakers. ...

The play brought fame to the 23-year-old Jarry, and he immersed himself in the fiction he had created. Gémier had modeled his portrayal of Ubu on Jarry's own staccato, nasal vocal delivery, which emphasized each syllable (even the silent ones). From then on, Jarry would always speak in this style. He adopted Ubu's ridiculous and pedantic figures of speech; for example, he referred to himself using the royal we, and called the wind "that which blows" and the bicycle he rode everywhere "that which rolls". Pluralis Majestatis (Majestic Plural) is the use of the plural pronoun in reference to one individual her-, him-, or itself alone. ...

Jarry moved into a flat which the landlord had created through the unusual expedient of subdividing a larger flat by means of a horizontal rather than a vertical partition. The diminutive Jarry could just manage to stand up in the place, but guests had to bend or crouch. Jarry also took to carrying a loaded pistol. In response to a neighbor's complaint that his target shooting endangered her children, he replied, "If that should ever happen, ma-da-me, we should ourselves be happy to get new ones with you" (though he was not at all inclined to engage with females in the manner implied).

Living in worsening poverty, neglecting his health, and drinking excessively, Jarry went on to write what is often cited as the first cyborg sex novel, The Supermale, which is partly a satire on the Symbolist ideal of self-transcendence. Seven of Nine, a Borg in Star Trek: Voyager The term cyborg, a portmanteau of cybernetic organism, is used to designate an organism which is a mixture of organic and mechanical (synthetic) parts. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Unpublished until after his death, his fiction Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, pataphysician (Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien) describes the exploits and teachings of a sort of antiphilosopher who, born at age 63, travels through a hallucinatory Paris in a sieve and subscribes to the tenets of 'pataphysics. 'Pataphysics deals with "the laws which govern exceptions and will explain the universe supplementary to this one". In 'pataphysics, every event in the universe is accepted as an extraordinary event. Pataphysics, a term coined by the French writer Alfred Jarry, is a philosophy dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics. ...

Jarry once wrote, expressing some of the bizarre logic of 'pataphysics, "If you let a coin fall and it falls, the next time it is just by an infinite coincidence that it will fall again the same way; hundreds of other coins on other hands will follow this pattern in an infinitely unimaginable fashion".

In his final years, he was a legendary and heroic figure to some of the young writers and artists in Paris. Guillaume Apollinaire, André Salmon, and Max Jacob sought him out in his truncated apartment. After his death, Pablo Picasso, fascinated with Jarry, acquired his pistol and wore it on his nocturnal expeditions in Paris, and later bought many of his manuscripts as well as executing a fine drawing of him. Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire (August 26, 1880 â€“ November 9, 1918) was a poet, writer, and art critic. ... AndrÃ© Salmon (October 4, 1881, Paris - March 12, 1969, Sanary-sur-Mer in Provence), French poet, art critic and writer. ... In 1915, Max Jacob and Pablo Picasso Max Jacob (July 12, 1876 â€“ March 5, 1944) was a French poet, painter, writer, and critic. ... Young Pablo Picasso Pablo Picasso (October 25, 1881 â€“ April 8, 1973) was a Spanish painter and sculptor. ...

Jarry lived in his 'pataphysical world until his death in Paris on November 1, 1907 of tuberculosis, aggravated by drug and alcohol use. It is recorded that his last request was for a toothpick. He was interred in the Cimetière de Bagneux, near Paris. November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for Tubercle Bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by the mycobacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Mycobacterium bovis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system, lymphatic system, circulatory system, genitourinary system, bones, joints, and even the... Located to the southwest of the city of Paris, France, the CimetiÃ¨re de Bagneux is located at 44, avenue Marx-Dormoy, in Montrouge, Hauts-de-Seine. ...

Contents

Biography and works

See also

Selected Jarry works

Plays

Novels

Other notable works

Bibliography

External links