Georges Perec
Encyclopedia
Georges Perec was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist and essayist. He is a member of the Oulipo
group. (Oulipo membership continues after death.)
during World War II, died in 1940 from unattended gunfire or shrapnel
wounds, and Perec's mother perished in the Nazi
Holocaust
, probably in Auschwitz
after 1943. Perec was taken into the care of his paternal aunt and uncle in 1942, and in 1945 he was formally adopted
by them.
He started writing reviews and essays for La Nouvelle Revue française
and Les Lettres nouvelles, prominent literary publications, while studying history and sociology
at the Sorbonne
. In 1958/59 Perec served in the army (XVIIIe Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes), and married Paulette Petras after being discharged. They spent one year (1960/1961) in Sfax
(Tunisia
), where Paulette worked as a teacher.
In 1961, Perec began working at the Neurophysiological Research Laboratory in the unit's research library funded by the CNRS and attached to the Hôpital Saint-Antoine as an archivist
, a low-paid position which he retained until 1978. A few reviewers have noted that the daily handling of records and varied data may have had an influence on his literary style. In any case, Perec's work on the reassesment of the academic journals under subscription was influenced by a talk about the handling of scientific information given by Eugene Garfield
in Paris and he was introduced to Marshall McLuhan
by Jean Duvignaud
. Perec's other major influence was the Oulipo
, which he joined in 1967, meeting Raymond Queneau
, among others. Perec dedicated his masterpiece, La Vie mode d'emploi (Life: A User's Manual
) to Queneau, who died before it was published.
Perec began working on a series of radio plays with his translator
Eugen Helmle and the musician Philippe Drogoz in the late 60s; less than a decade later, he was making films. His first work, based on his novel Un Homme qui dort, was co-direct
ed by Bernard Queysanne, and won him the Prix Jean Vigo
in 1974. Perec also created crossword
puzzles for Le Point
from 1976 on.
La Vie mode d'emploi (1978) brought Perec some financial and critical success—it won the Prix Médicis
—and allowed him to turn to writing full-time. He was a writer in residence at the University of Queensland
, Australia in 1981, during which time he worked on the unfinished 53 Jours (53 Days). Shortly after his return from Australia, his health deteriorated. A heavy smoker, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died the following year, only forty-five years old; his ashes are held at the columbarium
of the Père Lachaise Cemetery
.
, lists and attempts at classification
, and they are usually tinged with melancholy.
Perec's first novel, Les Choses (Things: A Story of the Sixties
) was awarded the Prix Renaudot
in 1965.
His most famous novel, La Vie mode d'emploi (Life: A User's Manual
), was published in 1978. Its title page describes it as "novels", in the plural, the reasons for which become apparent on reading. La Vie mode d'emploi is an immensely complex and rich work; a tapestry of interwoven stories and ideas as well as literary and historical allusions, based on the lives of the inhabitants of a fictitious Parisian apartment block. It was written according to a complex plan of writing constraints, and is primarily constructed from several elements, each adding a layer of complexity. The 99 chapters of his 600-page novel, move like a knight's tour of a chessboard around the room plan of the building, describing the rooms and stairwell and telling the stories of the inhabitants. At the end, it is revealed that the whole book actually takes place in a single moment, with a final twist that is an example of "cosmic irony". It was translated into English by David Bellos in 1987. Some critics have cited the work as an example of postmodern fiction.
Perec is noted for his constrained writing
: his 300-page novel La disparition (1969) is a lipogram
, written without ever using the letter "e". It has been translated into English by Gilbert Adair
under the title A Void (1994). The silent disappearance of the letter might be considered a metaphor for the Jewish experience during the Second World War. Since the name "Georges Perec" is full of "e"s, the disappearance of the letter also ensures the author's own "disappearance". His novella Les revenentes (1972) is a complementary univocalic
piece in which the letter "e" is the only vowel used. This constraint affects even the title, which would conventionally be spelt Revenantes. An English translation by Ian Monk
was published in 1996 as The Exeter Text: Jewels, Secrets, Sex in the collection Three. It has been remarked by Jacques Roubaud
that these two novels draw words from two disjoint sets of the French language, and that a third novel would be possible, made from the words not used so far (those containing both "e" and a vowel other than "e").
W ou le souvenir d'enfance, (W, or the Memory of Childhood, 1975) is a semi-autobiographical work which is hard to classify. Two alternating narratives make up the volume: one, a fictional outline of a totalitarian island country called "W", patterned partly on life in a concentration camp; and the second, descriptions of childhood. Both merge towards the end when the common theme of The Holocaust
is explained.
"Cantatrix sopranica L. Scientific Papers" is a spoof scientific paper detailing experiments on the "yelling reaction" provoked in sopranos by pelting them with rotten tomatoes. All the references in the paper are multi-lingual pun
s and jokes, e.g. "(Karybb
& Szyla
, 1973)".
David Bellos
, who has translated several of Perec's works, wrote an extensive biography of Perec: Georges Perec: A Life in Words
, which won the Académie Goncourt
's bourse for biography in 1994.
The Association Georges Perec has extensive archives on the author in Paris.
no. 2817
, discovered in 1982, was named after Perec. In 1994, a street in the 20th arrondissement of Paris was named after him, rue Georges-Perec. The French postal service
issued a stamp in 2002 in his honour; it was designed by Marc Taraskoff
and engraved by Pierre Albuisson
. For his work, Perec won the Prix Renaudot in 1965, the Prix Jean Vigo in 1974, the Prix Médicis in 1978.
Film
Criticism
Oulipo
Oulipo is a loose gathering of French-speaking writers and mathematicians which seeks to create works using constrained writing techniques. It was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais...
group. (Oulipo membership continues after death.)
Life
Perec was born the only son of Icek Judko and Cyrla (Schulewicz) Peretz – Polish Jews who had emigrated to France in the 1920s – in a working-class district of Paris. He was a distant relative of the Yiddish writer Isaac Leib Peretz. Perec's father, who enlisted in the French ArmyFrench Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
during World War II, died in 1940 from unattended gunfire or shrapnel
Fragmentation (weaponry)
Fragmentation is the process by which the casing of an artillery shell, bomb, grenade, etc. is shattered by the detonating high explosive filling. The correct technical terminology for these casing pieces is fragments , although shards or splinters can be used for non-preformed fragments...
wounds, and Perec's mother perished in the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, probably in Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
after 1943. Perec was taken into the care of his paternal aunt and uncle in 1942, and in 1945 he was formally adopted
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
by them.
He started writing reviews and essays for La Nouvelle Revue française
Nouvelle Revue Française
La Nouvelle Revue Française is a literary magazine founded in 1909 by a group of intellectuals, including André Gide, Jacques Copeau, and Jean Schlumberger...
and Les Lettres nouvelles, prominent literary publications, while studying history and sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
at the Sorbonne
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
. In 1958/59 Perec served in the army (XVIIIe Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes), and married Paulette Petras after being discharged. They spent one year (1960/1961) in Sfax
Sfax
Sfax is a city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD 849 on the ruins of Taparura and Thaenae, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate , and a Mediterranean port. Sfax has population of 340,000...
(Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
), where Paulette worked as a teacher.
In 1961, Perec began working at the Neurophysiological Research Laboratory in the unit's research library funded by the CNRS and attached to the Hôpital Saint-Antoine as an archivist
Archivist
An archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to information determined to have long-term value. The information maintained by an archivist can be any form of media...
, a low-paid position which he retained until 1978. A few reviewers have noted that the daily handling of records and varied data may have had an influence on his literary style. In any case, Perec's work on the reassesment of the academic journals under subscription was influenced by a talk about the handling of scientific information given by Eugene Garfield
Eugene Garfield
Eugene "Gene" Garfield is an American scientist, one of the founders of bibliometrics and scientometrics. He received a PhD in Structural Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1961. Dr. Garfield was the founder of the Institute for Scientific Information , which was located in...
in Paris and he was introduced to Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan, CC was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar—a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist...
by Jean Duvignaud
Jean Duvignaud
Jean Duvignaud was a French novelist and sociologist.Duvignaud was a secondary school teacher at Abbeville then at Étampes where he taught Georges Perec. After submitting his doctoral thesis he taught at the University of Tours...
. Perec's other major influence was the Oulipo
Oulipo
Oulipo is a loose gathering of French-speaking writers and mathematicians which seeks to create works using constrained writing techniques. It was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais...
, which he joined in 1967, meeting Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau was a French poet and novelist and the co-founder of Ouvroir de littérature potentielle .-Biography:Born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, Queneau was the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot...
, among others. Perec dedicated his masterpiece, La Vie mode d'emploi (Life: A User's Manual
Life: A User's Manual
Life A User's Manual is Georges Perec's most famous novel, published in 1978, first translated into English by David Bellos in 1987. Its title page describes it as "novels", in the plural, the reasons for which become apparent on reading...
) to Queneau, who died before it was published.
Perec began working on a series of radio plays with his translator
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
Eugen Helmle and the musician Philippe Drogoz in the late 60s; less than a decade later, he was making films. His first work, based on his novel Un Homme qui dort, was co-direct
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
ed by Bernard Queysanne, and won him the Prix Jean Vigo
Prix Jean Vigo
The Prix Jean Vigo is an award in the Cinema of France given annually since 1951 to a French film director in homage to Jean Vigo. It was founded by French writer Claude...
in 1974. Perec also created crossword
Crossword
A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of white and shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages that are written left-to-right, the answer...
puzzles for Le Point
Le Point
Le Point is a French weekly news magazine. It was founded in 1972 by a group of journalists who had, one year earlier, left the editorial team of L'Express, which was then owned by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, a député of the Parti Radical...
from 1976 on.
La Vie mode d'emploi (1978) brought Perec some financial and critical success—it won the Prix Médicis
Prix Médicis
The Prix Médicis is a French literary award given each year in November. It was founded in 1958 by Gala Barbisan and Jean-Pierre Giraudoux. It is awarded to an author whose "fame does not yet match his talent."...
—and allowed him to turn to writing full-time. He was a writer in residence at the University of Queensland
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
, Australia in 1981, during which time he worked on the unfinished 53 Jours (53 Days). Shortly after his return from Australia, his health deteriorated. A heavy smoker, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died the following year, only forty-five years old; his ashes are held at the columbarium
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
of the Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France , though there are larger cemeteries in the city's suburbs.Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement, and is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the...
.
Work
Many of his novels and essays abound with experimental word playWord play
Word play or wordplay is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement...
, lists and attempts at classification
Categorization
Categorization is the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood. Categorization implies that objects are grouped into categories, usually for some specific purpose. Ideally, a category illuminates a relationship between the subjects and objects of knowledge...
, and they are usually tinged with melancholy.
Perec's first novel, Les Choses (Things: A Story of the Sixties
Things: A Story of the Sixties
Things is a novel by Georges Perec. It received the Prix Renaudot in 1965.It recounts the life of a young couple — both pollsters — in the 1960s...
) was awarded the Prix Renaudot
Prix Renaudot
The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or Prix Renaudot is a French literary award which was created in 1926 by ten art critics awaiting the results of the deliberation of the jury of the Prix Goncourt....
in 1965.
His most famous novel, La Vie mode d'emploi (Life: A User's Manual
Life: A User's Manual
Life A User's Manual is Georges Perec's most famous novel, published in 1978, first translated into English by David Bellos in 1987. Its title page describes it as "novels", in the plural, the reasons for which become apparent on reading...
), was published in 1978. Its title page describes it as "novels", in the plural, the reasons for which become apparent on reading. La Vie mode d'emploi is an immensely complex and rich work; a tapestry of interwoven stories and ideas as well as literary and historical allusions, based on the lives of the inhabitants of a fictitious Parisian apartment block. It was written according to a complex plan of writing constraints, and is primarily constructed from several elements, each adding a layer of complexity. The 99 chapters of his 600-page novel, move like a knight's tour of a chessboard around the room plan of the building, describing the rooms and stairwell and telling the stories of the inhabitants. At the end, it is revealed that the whole book actually takes place in a single moment, with a final twist that is an example of "cosmic irony". It was translated into English by David Bellos in 1987. Some critics have cited the work as an example of postmodern fiction.
Perec is noted for his constrained writing
Constrained writing
Constrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern.Constraints are very common in poetry, which often requires the writer to use a particular verse form....
: his 300-page novel La disparition (1969) is a lipogram
Lipogram
A lipogram is a kind of constrained writing or word game consisting of writing paragraphs or longer works in which a particular letter or group of letters is avoided — usually a common vowel, and frequently "E", the most common letter in the English language.Writing a lipogram is a trivial task...
, written without ever using the letter "e". It has been translated into English by Gilbert Adair
Gilbert Adair
Gilbert Adair is a Scottish author, film critic and journalist. He won the Author's Club First Novel Award in 1988 for his novel The Holy Innocents. In 1995 he won the Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize for his book A Void, which is a translation of the French book La Disparition by Georges Perec...
under the title A Void (1994). The silent disappearance of the letter might be considered a metaphor for the Jewish experience during the Second World War. Since the name "Georges Perec" is full of "e"s, the disappearance of the letter also ensures the author's own "disappearance". His novella Les revenentes (1972) is a complementary univocalic
Univocalic
A univocalic is a type of constrained writing that uses only one vowel-letter . It can thus be considered a lipogram, excluding the other four vowels....
piece in which the letter "e" is the only vowel used. This constraint affects even the title, which would conventionally be spelt Revenantes. An English translation by Ian Monk
Ian Monk
Ian Monk is a British writer and translator, based in Lille, France.-Biography:Since 1998, he has been a member of the French writing group Oulipo. Among his works in English are the books, Family Archaeology and Other Poems and Writings for the Oulipo...
was published in 1996 as The Exeter Text: Jewels, Secrets, Sex in the collection Three. It has been remarked by Jacques Roubaud
Jacques Roubaud
Jacques Roubaud is a French poet and mathematician.Jacques Roubaud is a professor of poetry at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and he was a professor of Mathematics at University of Paris X...
that these two novels draw words from two disjoint sets of the French language, and that a third novel would be possible, made from the words not used so far (those containing both "e" and a vowel other than "e").
W ou le souvenir d'enfance, (W, or the Memory of Childhood, 1975) is a semi-autobiographical work which is hard to classify. Two alternating narratives make up the volume: one, a fictional outline of a totalitarian island country called "W", patterned partly on life in a concentration camp; and the second, descriptions of childhood. Both merge towards the end when the common theme of The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
is explained.
"Cantatrix sopranica L. Scientific Papers" is a spoof scientific paper detailing experiments on the "yelling reaction" provoked in sopranos by pelting them with rotten tomatoes. All the references in the paper are multi-lingual pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
s and jokes, e.g. "(Karybb
Charybdis
Charybdis or Kharybdis was a sea monster, later rationalised as a whirlpool and considered a shipping hazard in the Strait of Messina.-The mythological background:...
& Szyla
Scylla
In Greek mythology, Scylla was a monster that lived on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite its counterpart Charybdis. The two sides of the strait were within an arrow's range of each other—so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla and vice...
, 1973)".
David Bellos
David Bellos
David Bellos is an English-born translator and biographer. Bellos currently teaches French and Comparative literature at Princeton University in the United States. He is also director of Princeton's Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication....
, who has translated several of Perec's works, wrote an extensive biography of Perec: Georges Perec: A Life in Words
Georges Perec: A Life in Words
Georges Perec: A Life in Words is an authoritative biography of Georges Perec by David Bellos, Professor of French and Comparative Literature and Director of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication at Princeton University, who also translated Perec's major novel Life: A User's...
, which won the Académie Goncourt
Académie Goncourt
The Société littéraire des Goncourt , usually called the académie Goncourt , is a French literary organization based in Paris. It was founded by the French writer and publisher Edmond de Goncourt...
's bourse for biography in 1994.
The Association Georges Perec has extensive archives on the author in Paris.
Honours
AsteroidAsteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
no. 2817
2817 Perec
2817 Perec is a main-belt asteroid discovered on October 17, 1982 by E. Bowell at Flagstaff .- External links :*...
, discovered in 1982, was named after Perec. In 1994, a street in the 20th arrondissement of Paris was named after him, rue Georges-Perec. The French postal service
La Poste (France)
La Poste is the mail service of France, which also operates postal services in the French Overseas Departments of Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana, and the territorial collectivities of Saint Pierre and Miquelon and Mayotte...
issued a stamp in 2002 in his honour; it was designed by Marc Taraskoff
Marc Taraskoff
Marc Taraskoff is a French drawer since the late 1970s and a stamp designer since 1996....
and engraved by Pierre Albuisson
Pierre Albuisson
Pierre Albuisson is a French postage stamp engraver and designer.- Biography :1970's he studied in the École des Beaux-Arts in Mâcon...
. For his work, Perec won the Prix Renaudot in 1965, the Prix Jean Vigo in 1974, the Prix Médicis in 1978.
Works by Perec
| Year | Original French | English translation |
|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Les Choses: Une histoire des années soixante (Paris: René Juillard, 1965) | Les choses: a story of the sixties, trans. by Helen Lane Helen Lane This article is about the translator. For the cancer patient and originator of the HeLa cell line, see Henrietta Lacks.Helen Lane was a renowned translator of Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian language literary works into English... (New York: Grove Press, 1967); Things: A Story of the Sixties Things: A Story of the Sixties Things is a novel by Georges Perec. It received the Prix Renaudot in 1965.It recounts the life of a young couple — both pollsters — in the 1960s... in Things: A Story of the Sixties & A Man Asleep trans. by David Bellos David Bellos David Bellos is an English-born translator and biographer. Bellos currently teaches French and Comparative literature at Princeton University in the United States. He is also director of Princeton's Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication.... and Andrew Leak (London: Vintage, 1999) |
| 1966 | Quel petit vélo à guidon chromé au fond de la cour? (Paris: Denoël, 1966) | 'Which Moped with Chrome-plated Handlebars at the Back of the Yard? Which Moped with Chrome-plated Handlebars at the Back of the Yard? Which Moped with Chrome-plated Handlebars at the Back of the Yard? is a comic novella by Georges Perec. Perec's second published work, it was originally published in 1966 in French as Quel petit vélo à guidon chromé au fond de la cour? The English translation by Ian Monk was published in Three by... ', trans. by Ian Monk Ian Monk Ian Monk is a British writer and translator, based in Lille, France.-Biography:Since 1998, he has been a member of the French writing group Oulipo. Among his works in English are the books, Family Archaeology and Other Poems and Writings for the Oulipo... in Three by Perec (Harvill Press, 1996) |
| 1967 | Un homme qui dort (Paris: Denoël, 1967) | A Man Asleep A Man Asleep A Man Asleep is a 1967 novel by the French writer Georges Perec. It uses a second-person narrative, and follows a 25-year-old student, who one day decides to be indifferent about the world. A Man Asleep was adapted into a 1974 film, The Man Who Sleeps.-Publication:The novel was published in France... , trans. by Andrew Leak in Things: A Story of the Sixties & A Man Asleep (London: Vintage, 1999) |
| 1969 | La Disparition (Paris: Denoël, 1969) | A Void, trans. by Gilbert Adair Gilbert Adair Gilbert Adair is a Scottish author, film critic and journalist. He won the Author's Club First Novel Award in 1988 for his novel The Holy Innocents. In 1995 he won the Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize for his book A Void, which is a translation of the French book La Disparition by Georges Perec... (London: Harvill, 1994) |
| 1969 | Petit traité invitant à la découverte de l'art subtil du go, with Pierre Lusson and Jacques Roubaud Jacques Roubaud Jacques Roubaud is a French poet and mathematician.Jacques Roubaud is a professor of poetry at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and he was a professor of Mathematics at University of Paris X... (Paris: Christian Bourgois, 1969) |
— |
| 1972 | Les Revenentes, (Paris: Editions Julliard, 1972) | The Exeter Text: Jewels, Secrets, Sex, trans. by Ian Monk in Three by Perec (Harvill Press, 1996) |
| 1972 | Die Maschine, (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1972) | The Machine, trans. by Ulrich Schönherr in "The Review of Contemporary Fiction: Georges Perec Issue: Spring 2009 Vol. XXIX, No. 1" (Chicago: Dalkey Archive, 2009) |
| 1973 | La Boutique obscure: 124 rêves, (Paris: Denoël, 1973) | — |
| 1974 | Espèces d'espaces (Paris: Galilée 1974) | Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, ed. and trans. by John Sturrock John Sturrock John Duncan "Jan" Sturrock was an English rower who competed for Great Britain in the 1936 Summer Olympics.He was born and died in Weymouth, Dorset.... (London: Penguin, 1997) |
| 1974 | Ulcérations, (Bibliothèque oulipienne, 1974) | — |
| 1975 | W ou le souvenir d'enfance (Paris: Denoël, 1975) | W, or the Memory of Childhood, trans. by David Bellos (London: Harvill, 1988) |
| 1975 | Tentative d'épuisement d'un lieu parisien Tentative d'épuisement d'un lieu parisien Tentative d'épuisement d'un lieu parisien is a short book by Georges Perec written in October 1974 and published in 1975. It is a collection of observations which Perec wrote as he sat in Saint-Sulpice Square in Paris. Rather than describing impressive or notable things such as the architecture,... (Paris: Christian Bourgois, 1975) |
An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris, trans. by Marc Lowenthal (Cambridge, MA: Wakefield Press, 2010) |
| 1976 | Alphabets illust. by Dado Dado (painter) Dado , was a Yugoslavian-born artist who spent most of his life and creative career in France. He is particularly known as a painter but was also active as an engraver, drawer, book illustrator and sculptor.... (Paris: Galilée, 1976) |
— |
| 1978 | Je me souviens, (Paris: Hachette, 1978) | Memories, trans./adapted by Gilbert Adair (in Myths and Memories London: Harper Collins, 1986) |
| 1978 | La Vie mode d'emploi (Paris: Hachette, 1978) | Life: A User's Manual Life: A User's Manual Life A User's Manual is Georges Perec's most famous novel, published in 1978, first translated into English by David Bellos in 1987. Its title page describes it as "novels", in the plural, the reasons for which become apparent on reading... , trans. by David Bellos (London: Vintage, 2003) |
| 1979 | Les mots croisés, (Mazarine, 1979) | — |
| 1979 | Un cabinet d'amateur, (Balland, 1979) | A Gallery Portrait, trans. by Ian Monk in Three by Perec (Harvill Press, 1996) |
| 1979 | film-script: Alfred et Marie, 1979 | — |
| 1980 | La Clôture et autres poèmes, (Paris: Hachette, 1980) – Contains a palindrome Palindrome A palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction, with general allowances for adjustments to punctuation and word dividers.... of 1,247 words (5,566 letters). |
— |
| 1980 | Récits d'Ellis Island: Histoires d'errance et d'espoir, (INA/Éditions du Sorbier, 1980) | Ellis Island and the People of America (with Robert Bober), trans. by Harry Mathews Harry Mathews Harry Mathews is an American author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays.-Life:Born in New York City to an upper class family, Mathews was educated at private schools there and at the Groton School in Massachusetts before enrolling at Princeton University in 1947... (New York: New Press, 1995) |
| 1981 | Théâtre I, (Paris: Hachette, 1981) | — |
| 1982 | Epithalames, (Bibliothèque oulipienne, 1982) | — |
| 1982 | prod: Catherine Binet's Les Jeux de la Comtesse Dolingen de Gratz, 1980–82 | — |
| 1985 | Penser Classer (Paris: Hachette, 1985) | "Thoughts of Sorts", trans. by David Bellos (Boston: David R. Godine, 2009) |
| 1986 | Les mots croisés II, (P.O.L.-Mazarine, 1986) | — |
| 1989 | 53 Jours, unfinished novel ed. by Harry Mathews Harry Mathews Harry Mathews is an American author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays.-Life:Born in New York City to an upper class family, Mathews was educated at private schools there and at the Groton School in Massachusetts before enrolling at Princeton University in 1947... and Jacques Roubaud Jacques Roubaud Jacques Roubaud is a French poet and mathematician.Jacques Roubaud is a professor of poetry at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and he was a professor of Mathematics at University of Paris X... (Paris: P.O.L., 1989) |
53 Days, trans. by David Bellos (London: Harvill, 1992) |
| 1989 | L'infra-ordinaire (Paris: Seuil, 1989) | — |
| 1989 | Voeux, (Paris: Seuil, 1989) | — |
| 1990 | Je suis né, (Paris: Seuil, 1990) | — |
| 1991 | Cantatrix sopranica L. et aitres écrits scientifiques, (Paris: Seuil, 1991) | "Cantatrix sopranica L. Scientific Papers" with Harry Mathews Harry Mathews Harry Mathews is an American author of various novels, volumes of poetry and short fiction, and essays.-Life:Born in New York City to an upper class family, Mathews was educated at private schools there and at the Groton School in Massachusetts before enrolling at Princeton University in 1947... (London: Atlas Press, 2008) |
| 1992 | L.G.: Une aventure des années soixante, (Paris: Seuil, 1992) Containing pieces written from 1959–1963 for the journal La Ligne générale: Le Nouveau Roman et le refus du réel; Pour une littérature réaliste; Engagement ou crise du langage; Robert Antelme ou la vérité de la littérature; L'univers de la science-fiction; La perpétuelle reconquête; Wozzeck ou la méthode de l'apocalypse. |
— |
| 1993 | Le Voyage d'hiver, 1993 (Paris: Seuil, 1993) | The Winter Journey, trans. by John Sturrock John Sturrock John Duncan "Jan" Sturrock was an English rower who competed for Great Britain in the 1936 Summer Olympics.He was born and died in Weymouth, Dorset.... (London: Syrens, 1995) |
| 1994 | Beaux présents belles absentes, (Paris: Seuil, 1994) | — |
| 1999 | Jeux intéressants (Zulma, 1999) | — |
| 1999 | Nouveaux jeux intéressants (Zulma, 1999) | — |
| 2003 | Entretiens et conférences (in 2 volumes, Joseph K., 2003) | — |
Film
- Un homme qui dortUn homme qui dortThe Man Who Sleeps and his alienation as he wanders the streets of Paris. His inner musings are narrated in the form of an unwritten diary by Ludmila Mikael. The hero remains silent throughout the film. The film won the Prix Jean Vigo in 1974....
, 1974 (with Bernard Queysanne, English title: The Man Who Sleeps) - Les Lieux d'une fugue, 1975
- Ellis Island (TV film with Robert Bober)
Works on Perec
Biography- Georges Perec: A Life in Words by David BellosDavid BellosDavid Bellos is an English-born translator and biographer. Bellos currently teaches French and Comparative literature at Princeton University in the United States. He is also director of Princeton's Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication....
(1993)
Criticism
- The Poetics of Experiment: A Study of the Work of Georges Perec by Warren Motte (1984)
- Perec ou les textes croisés by J. Pedersen (1985). In French.
- Pour un Perec lettré, chiffré by J.-M. Raynaud (1987). In French.
- Georges Perec by Claude Burgelin (1988). In French.
- Georges Perec: Traces of His Passage by Paul Schwartz (1988)
- Perecollages 1981–1988 by Bernard Magné (1989). In French.
- La Mémoire et l'oblique by Philippe Lejeune (1991). In French.
- Georges Perec: Ecrire Pour Ne Pas Dire by Stella Béhar (1995). In French.
- Poétique de Georges Perec: <<...une trace, une marque ou quelques signes>> by Jacques-Denis Bertharion (1998) In French.
- Georges Perec Et I'Histoire, ed. by Carsten Sestoft & Steen Bille Jorgensen (2000). In French.
- La Grande Catena. Studi su "La Vie mode d'emploi" by Rinaldo Rinaldi (2004). In Italian.
External links
- L'Association Georges Perec, in French
- Je me souviens de Georges Perec – comprehensive site in French by Jean-Benoît Guinot, with extensive bibliography of secondary material and links
- Overview
- Université McGill: le roman selon les romanciers (French) Inventory and analysis of Georges Perec non-novelistic writings about the novel
- Scriptorium – Perec
- Reading Georges Perec, by Warren Motte
- Perec's "Negative Autobiography"
- Récits d'Ellis Island at IMDB
- Un homme qui dort at IMDB
- Les Lieux d'une fuge at IMDB
- Georges Perèc o la Literatura como Arte Combinatoria. Instrucciones de uso | in Spanish | by Adolfo Vasquez Rocca
- Pensar y clasificar; Georges Perèc, escritor y trapecista | in Spanish | by Adolfo Vasquez Rocca PhD