Jacques Roubaud
Encyclopedia
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. He is a retired Poetry professor from EHESS and a member of the Oulipo
group, he has also published poetry
, plays, novels, and translated English poetry and books into French such as Lewis Carroll
's The Hunting of the Snark
. French poet and novelist Raymond Queneau
had Roubaud's first book, a collection of mathematically-structured sonnets, published by Éditions Gallimard
, and then invited Roubaud to join the Oulipo as the organization's first new member outside the founders.
Roubaud's fiction often suppresses the rigorous constraints of the Oulipo (while mentioning their suppression, thereby indicating that such constraints are indeed present), yet takes the Oulipian self-consciousness of the writing act to an extreme. This simultaneity both appears playfully, in his Hortense novels, Our Beautiful Heroine, Hortense in Exile, and Hortense is Abducted, and with gravity and reflection in The Great Fire of London, considered the pinnacle of his prose. The Great Fire of London (1989) and The Loop (1993) are the first two volumes of a long, experimental, autobiographical work known as "the project" (or "the minimal project"), and the only volumes of "the project", at present, to have been translated into English. Seven volumes of "the project" have been completed and published in French. To compose The Loop, Roubaud began with a childhood memory of a snowy night in Carcassonne
and then wrote nightly, without returning to correct his writing from previous nights. Roubaud’s goals in writing The Loop were to discover, "My own memory, how does it work?", and to "destroy" his memories through writing them down.
Roubaud has participated in readings and lectures at the European Graduate School (2007), the Salon du Livre de Paris (2008), and the "Dire Poesia" series at Palazzo Leoni Montanari in Venice (2011).
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
.
Jacques Roubaud is a professor of poetry at the European Graduate School
European Graduate School
The European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland is a privately funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies. Its German name is Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien...
in Saas-Fee
Saas-Fee
Saas-Fee is the main village in the Saastal, or the Saas Valley, and is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland...
, Switzerland, and he was a professor of Mathematics at University of Paris X. He is a retired Poetry professor from EHESS and a member of 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...
group, he has also published poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, plays, novels, and translated English poetry and books into French such as Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's The Hunting of the Snark
The Hunting of the Snark
The Hunting of the Snark is usually thought of as a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll in 1874, when he was 42 years old...
. French poet and novelist 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...
had Roubaud's first book, a collection of mathematically-structured sonnets, published by Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard is one of the leading French publishers of books. The Guardian has described it as having "the best backlist in the world". In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1418 titles....
, and then invited Roubaud to join the Oulipo as the organization's first new member outside the founders.
Roubaud's fiction often suppresses the rigorous constraints of the Oulipo (while mentioning their suppression, thereby indicating that such constraints are indeed present), yet takes the Oulipian self-consciousness of the writing act to an extreme. This simultaneity both appears playfully, in his Hortense novels, Our Beautiful Heroine, Hortense in Exile, and Hortense is Abducted, and with gravity and reflection in The Great Fire of London, considered the pinnacle of his prose. The Great Fire of London (1989) and The Loop (1993) are the first two volumes of a long, experimental, autobiographical work known as "the project" (or "the minimal project"), and the only volumes of "the project", at present, to have been translated into English. Seven volumes of "the project" have been completed and published in French. To compose The Loop, Roubaud began with a childhood memory of a snowy night in Carcassonne
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century,...
and then wrote nightly, without returning to correct his writing from previous nights. Roubaud’s goals in writing The Loop were to discover, "My own memory, how does it work?", and to "destroy" his memories through writing them down.
Roubaud has participated in readings and lectures at the European Graduate School (2007), the Salon du Livre de Paris (2008), and the "Dire Poesia" series at Palazzo Leoni Montanari in Venice (2011).
Works in translation
- Our Beautiful Heroine. Trans. David Kornacker. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1987.
- Hortense is Abducted. Trans. Dominic Di Bernardi. Elmwood Park, IL : Dalkey Archive PressDalkey Archive PressDalkey Archive Press is a publisher of fiction, poetry, and literary criticism in Illinois in the United States, specializing in the publication or republication of lesser known, often avant-garde works...
, 1989. - Some Thing Black. Trans. Rosmarie WaldropRosmarie WaldropRosmarie Waldrop is a contemporary American poet, translator and publisher. Born in Germany, she has lived in the United States since 1958. She has lived in Providence, Rhode Island since the late 1960s...
. Photographs by Alix Cleo Roubaud. Elmwood Park, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1990. - The Great Fire of London: A Story with Interpolations and Bifurcations. Trans. Dominic Di Bernardi. Elmwood Park, IL, USA: Dalkey Archive Press, 1991.
- Hortense in Exile. Trans. Dominic Di Bernardi. Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1992.
- The Princess Hoppy, or The Tale of Labrador. Trans. Bernard Hœpffner. Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1993.
- The Plurality of Worlds of Lewis. Trans. Rosmarie WaldropRosmarie WaldropRosmarie Waldrop is a contemporary American poet, translator and publisher. Born in Germany, she has lived in the United States since 1958. She has lived in Providence, Rhode Island since the late 1960s...
. Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1995. - The Form of a City Changes Faster, Alas, than the Human Heart: 150 Poems, 1991-1998. Trans. Rosmarie WaldropRosmarie WaldropRosmarie Waldrop is a contemporary American poet, translator and publisher. Born in Germany, she has lived in the United States since 1958. She has lived in Providence, Rhode Island since the late 1960s...
and Keith WaldropKeith WaldropKeith Waldrop is the author of numerous books of poetry and prose, and has translated the work of Claude Royet-Journoud, Anne-Marie Albiach, and Edmond Jabès, among others. A recent translation is Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal .With his wife Rosmarie Waldrop, he co-edits Burning Deck Press...
. Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 2006. - Poetry, etcetera: Cleaning House. Trans. Guy Bennett. Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2006.
- The Loop. Trans. Jeff Fort. Champaign, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 2009.
- Exchanges on Light. Trans. Eleni Sikélianòs. Iowa City: La Presse, 2009.
External links
- Jacques Roubaud Faculty Page at European Graduate SchoolEuropean Graduate SchoolThe European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland is a privately funded graduate school founded by the non-profit European Foundation of Interdisciplinary Studies. Its German name is Europäische Universität für Interdisziplinäre Studien...
. (Biography, bibliography and video lectures) - Documentation critique sur J. Roubaud / commented bibliography about Jacques Roubaud
- Jacques Roubaud reading an English translation of one of his poems