Roubaud, Jacques 1932-
Roubaud, Jacques 1932-
PERSONAL:
Born 1932, in Caluire, France.
ADDRESSES:
Office—Université Paris X Nanterre, 200 avenue de la République, 92001 Nanterre Cedex, France. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Green Integer, 6022 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 2001, Los Angeles, CA 90036.
CAREER:
Writer, poet, translator, and mathematician. Université Paris X Nanterre, Nanterre, France, mathematics teacher, 1970—. Member of Oulipo, experimental writing workshop.
MEMBER:
Association of Georges Perec (president).
WRITINGS:
Voyage du soir (poetry), P. Seghers (Paris, France), 1952.
E., Gallimard (Paris, France), 1967, reprinted, 1988.
Le Destruction, Seuil (Paris,France), 1969.
(With Pierre Lusson and Georges Perec) Petit traité invitant à la découverte de l'art subtil du go,Christian Bourgois Éditeur (Paris, France), 1969, reprinted, 1988.
Mono no aware. Le sentiment des choses. 143 poèmes empruntés au japonais, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1970.
Poèmes, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1970.
La Poétique, la mémoire, Seuil (Paris, France), 1970.
(Editor) Les Troubadours: anthologie bilingue, Éditions Seghers (Paris, France), 1971.
Trente et un au cube (poetry), Gallimard (Paris, France), 1973.
(Editor, with Jean Pierre Faye) Changement de forme, révolution, langage, Union générale d'éditions (Paris, France), 1975.
Mezura: roman moral (novel), D'Atelier (Paris, France), 1975.
Change, monster, poésie, Seghers/Laffont (Paris, France), 1975.
Tombeaux de Pétrarque, Solaire (Issirac, France), 1975.
Autobiographie, chapitre dix: poèmes avec des moments de repos en prose, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1977.
(With Florence Delay) Graal theater: Gauvain et le chevalier vert, Lancelot du Lac, Perceval le Gallois, L'enlèvement de Guenièvre, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1977, reprinted, 2005.
Graal fiction (novel), Gallimard (Paris, France), 1978.
Le Vieillesse d'Alexandre: essai sur quelques états récents du vers français, F. Maspero (Paris, France), 1978, reprinted, Ivrea (Paris, France), 2000.
(Translator, with Didier Premiere and Jean-Pierre Faye) Jerome Rothenberg, Poèmes pour le jeu du silence, Christian Bourgois (Paris, France), 1978.
(With Florence Delay) Gauvain et le Chevalier Vert, J. Lafitte (Marseille, France), 1979.
(With Florence Delay) Merlin l'enchanteur, J. Lafitte (Marseille, France), 1979.
(With Florence Delay) Lancelot du Lac, J. Lafitte (Marseille, France), 1979.
(Presenter) Vingt poètes américains, Choix de Michel Deguy et Jacques Rouband, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1980.
Dors, précédé Dire la poésie, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1981.
La Bibliothèque Oulipienne, Slatkine (Geneva, Switzerland), 1981.
(With Florence Delay) Joseph d'Arimathie et Merlin L'Enchanteur, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1981.
Quelque chose noir: poème, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1981, reprinted, 2001, translation by Rosmarie Waldrop published as Some Thing Black, Dalkey Archive Press (Elwood Park, IL), 1990.
Le roi Arthur au temps des enchanteurs et des chevaliers, Hatchette (Paris, France), 1983.
Les animaux de tout le monde: poèmes, Ramsay (Paris, France), 1983.
Jacques Roubaud (selections), edited by Robert Davreu, Seghers (Paris, France), 1985.
La Fleur inverse: essai sur l'art formel des troubadours, Ramsay (Paris, France), 1986.
(Editor) 98 sonnets français (1550-1625), Action poétique (Paris, France), 1987.
(Compiler, with Florence Delay) Partition rouge: poèmes et chants des indiens D'merique du Nord,Seuil (Paris, France), 1988.
Le grand incendie de Londres: récit, avec incises et bifurcations, 1985-1987 (fiction), Seuil (Paris, France), 1989, translation by Dominic Di Bernardi published as The Great Fire of London: A Story with Interpolations and Bifurcations, Dalkey Archive Press (Elmwood Park, IL), 1991.
(Editor, with Harry Matthews) Georges Perec, "53 jours": roman P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1989, translated by David Bellos, edited by Harry Matthews, Harvill (London, England), 1992.
(Editor) Soleil du soleil: le sonnet français de Marot à Malherbe (French sonnets), P.O.L. (Paris, France), 1990.
Impressions de France: incursions dans la littérature du premier XVIe siècle, 1500-1550, Hatier (Paris, France), 1991.
La princesse Hoppy, ou le conte du Labrador, illustrations by Jean-Claude Castellil, Hatier (Paris, France), 1990, translation by Bernard Hoepffner published as The Princess Hoppy, or The Tale of Labrador, Dalkey Archive Press (Normal, IL), 1993.
Les animaux de personne, Seghers (Paris, France), 1991.
La pluralité des mondes de Lewis: poésie, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1991, translation by Rosmarie Waldrop published as The Plurality of Worlds of Lewis, Dalkey Archive Press (Normal, IL), 1995.
Invention du fils de Leoprepes: poésie et mémoire: cinq leçons de poétique rédigées pour être lues à la Villa Grillet, les mercredi 6 janvier, 3 février, 10 mars, 14 avril et 5 mai 1993, Circé (Saulxures, France), 1993.
La boucle, (title means "The Loop"), Seuil (Paris, France), 1993.
L'image dans le tapis: exposition: oeuvres de Absalon, Jean-Michel Alberola, Jean-Marc Bustamante, Alexandre Calder, Gérard Collin-Thiébaut …,Association française d'action artistique, Ministère des affaires étrangères (Paris, France), 1993.
(With Manlio Sgalambro) Sphère de la mémoire/Eléments de théologie, Circé (Saulxures, France), 1993.
(Editor) Guillaume Apollinaire, Cent vingt-huit poèmes composés en langue française, de Guillaume Apollinaire à 1968: une anthologe de poésie contemporaine, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1995.
(With Micaëla Henich) Mille e tre. Deux, 200 flèches,Théâtre typographique (Coubevoie, France), 1995.
La Fenêtre veuve: porse orale, Théâtre typographique (Coubevoie, France), 1996.
L'abominable tisonnier de John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart et autres vies plus ou moins brèves,Seuil (Paris, France), 1997.
Mathématique: récit, Seuil (Paris, France), 1997.
(With Christine Savinel and Bernard Noël) Roman Opalka, Editions Dis voir (Paris, France), 1996.
Poésie, etcetera: ménage, Stock (Paris, France), 1995.
La dernière balle perdue: roman (novel), Fayard (Paris, France) 1997.
Chevalier Silence: une aventure des temps aventureux,Gallimard (Paris, France), 1997.
Ciel et terre et ciel et terre, et ciel: John Constable,Flohic (Charenton-le-Pont France), 1997.
(With Maurice Bernard) Quel avenir pour la mémoiré?,Gallimard (Paris, France), 1997.
Ballade et le chant royal, Belles Lettres (Paris, France), 1998.
Jacques Roubaud dit Jacques Roubaud (poetry; sound recording; title means "Jacques Roubaud reads Jacques Roubaud"), UFR langues littératures (Poitiers, France), 1997.
La forme d'une ville change plus vite, hélas, que le coeur des humains: cent cinquante poèmes, 1991-1998, Gallimard (Paris, France), 1999, translation by Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop published as The Shape of a City Changes Faster, alas, Than the Human Heart, Dalkey Archive Press (Normal, IL), 2006.
(With Michelle Grangaud and Jacques Jouet) La Bibliothèque de Poitiers: texts commandés à l'occasion de la manifestation Ecrivains présents, Poitiers, 16-21 november 1998, La Licorne (Poitiers, France), 1999.
Poésie: récit, Seuil (Paris, France), 2000.
Fraduire, journal, Nous (Caen, France), 2000.
Menu, menu, illustrations by Hélène Usdin, Gallimard (Paris, France), 2000.
Le crocodile, images by Zaü, Rue du monde (Paris, France), 2001.
Bibliothèque de Warburg: version mixte, Seuil (Paris, France), 2002.
Churchill 40 et autres sonnets de voyage: 2000-2003,Gallimard (Paris, France), 2004.
"HORTENSE" TRILOGY; NOVELS
La belle Hortense: roman, Editions Ramsay (Paris, France), 1985, translation by David Kornacker published as Our Beautiful Heroine, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 1987.
L'enlèvement d'Hortense: roman, Éditions Ramsay (Paris, France), 1987, translation by Dominic Di Bernardi published as Hortense Is Abducted,Dalkey Archive Press (Elmwood Park, IL), 1989.
L'exil d'Hortense: roman, Seghers (Paris, France), 1990, translation by Dominic di Bernardi published as Hortense in Exile, Dalkey Archive Press (Normal, IL), 1992.
Author of prefaces to books, including Poètes du Moyen Age: chants de guerre, d'amour et de mort, Librairie Générale Française (Paris, France), 1987; author of notes and bibliographies for numerous translations of literature; contributor of text to art and photographic books; contributor to New French Fiction,Review of Contemporary Fiction (Elmwood Park, IL), 1989; Moments oulipiens, Castor astral (Bordeaux, France), 2004. Author's works have been published in English, Spanish, German, and Russian.
ADAPTATIONS:
Poetry has been adapted as music lyrics.
SIDELIGHTS:
Trained as a mathematician, Jacques Roubaud began writing poetry and then prose very early in his career. He is also the author of books that critically analyze the writing and progress of literature, and is a translator of both American and Japanese poetry. "Jacques Roubaud is a playful, puzzling, erudite, at times obscure, yet at other times thoroughly moving ‘composer’ (as he puts it) of poetry and prose," wrote John Taylor in an article on the Center for Book Culture.org Web site edition of the magazine Context.
In one of his early collections, E.,> titled after the mathematical symbol for "belonging" or "contained within," the author uses mathematical strategies for writing the poems. In the same article Taylor noted that the collection contains "multiform ‘sonnets’" and that the book reflected the author's appearance "as an original voice." In his book Trente et un au cube, the author presents a collection of poems based on the Japanese form of poetry called the "tanku," in which poems contain thirty-one syllables. In this collection of poems, each line contains thirty-one syllables and each poem has thirty-one lines. Noting that the author "invites one to ask what we mean by a syllable, by rhythm, by music," a Times Literary Supplement,contributor called Trente et un au cube, "a text to stay with." Another collection of poetry by Roubaud, Autobiographie, chapitre dix: poèmes avec des moments de repos en prose, is also steeped in mathematical plotting via subdivision into notebooks that are further numbered via pages. Writing in World Literature Today,Julia F. Costich noted that upon first reading the book may appear "to be an incoherent muddle" but added that further perusal "for hidden order is well rewarded."
Roubaud has also rewritten ancient French texts, primarily those associated with stories about the Holy Grail. In Graal fiction, the author presents a modern Grail novel made up of various stories and episodes concerning the search for the Holy Grail. Noting the book's "complex" structure in a review in World Literature Today, Rosmarie Waldrop commented: "Its originality lies in an extricable fusion of analytical and narrative modes."
Roubaud addresses the evolution of modern poetry and rhythm and rhyme in his book Le Vieillesse d'Alexandre: essai sur quelques états récents du vers français. His discussion begins with a twelfth-century collaborative verse titled Roman d'Alexandre and continues on to modern poets such as Georges Perec. Writing in World Literature Today, R.A. Champagne commented that the author's "mathematical expertise is revealed through his sensitive appreciation of the continuation of rhythm in free verse." Times Literary Supplement contributor Malcolm Bowie wrote that the author "performs many difficult analytic tasks with admirable economy and lucidity, and suggests many new ways in which literary theory and close critical reading could animate each other."
The author provides a collection of poems and an analysis of how the poems should be read with his book Dors, précédé Dire la poésie. The critical focus is on how "the poem that we hear is not the same as the one we read with the eye," as noted by Times Literary Supplement contributor Robin Buss, who went on to note that the book "is an extended reflection of this spoken dimension, the twin of what is written on the page, but not a defence, necessarily of performance poetry, which too often adopts rhetorical devices without submitting to rhetorical constraints." As for the poetry itself, French Review contributor Mortimer Guiney commented: "One cannot really say much more about poems like these other than that they are worth reading." The author also produced a book of poetry about the death of his young wife. Quelque chose noir: poème, published in English as Some Thing Black, was referred to by a Washington Post Book World contributor as "a chronicle of bleak dispair."
The author is also well known for his "Hortense" trilogy of novels, which have been published in English. In La belle Hortense: roman, published in English asOur Beautiful Heroine, the author presents a literary romantic mystery in which the mystery remains unsolved and the romance never truly blossoms. In the book, Roubaud explores the conventions of the novel. Writing in the French Review, Warren F. Motte, Jr., called the book "a thoroughly remarkable text wherein several novelistic traditions are savantly and lucidly exploited." L'enlèvement d'Hortense, published in English as Hortense Is Abducted, finds the young and beautiful heroine actually living with the narrator of the previous book. Once again, a murder mystery is at the center of the plot that encompasses everything from master criminals to rock stars and cats to six identical princes. Michael Dirda, writing the Washington Post, called the book a "toothsome confection" and "a sequel that's better than a brilliant original." New York Times Book Review contributor John Allen Paulos referred to Hortense as "a Madame Bovary parody" and called the novel "a good deal of enjoyment." L'exil d'Hortense, published as Hortense in Exile, finds the heroine living in a strange land where an extremely difficult language is spoken, one that "has fifty-three consonants, eleven vowels, six tones and fourteen cases," as noted by Peter Reading in the Times Literary Supplement. Hortense this time finds herself the fiancé of a local prince but is soon left on her own for another adventure. Paulos referred to the novel as "a … welter of crazy logic, fun, frolic, maths and make-believe reminiscent of diluted Rabelais, Lewis Carroll and Flann O'Brien." A Publishers Weeklycontributor wrote that the novel "will restore faith in the nation's [France's] esprit."
In his novel The Princess Hoppy, or the Tale of Labrador,the author follows a similar playfulness found in the "Hortense" trilogy as he provides an Arthurian-type tale of romance written in an experimental form and featuring a princess who deals with unrequited love and an abduction. New York Times Book Reviewcontributor Richard Burgin noted that the novel reveals the author's "nimble intellect with an endearingly buoyant spirit."
La boucle, which means "The Loop," is a type of childhood autobiography written also as a meditation on various aspects of life, primarily one's memory. "Roubaud pushes the limits of his own memory, probing its nature as he proceeds," wrote World Literature Today contributor Emile J. Talbot, who went on to write that the book "confirms Roubaud … as a writer with an exceptionally keen and wide-ranging intelligence." Referring to the work as "an infinitely suggestive book," Times Literary Supplement contribu- tor David Bellos went on to note that "it is much more than the sum of its parts, and no amount of rereading will ever quite exhaust the imaginative potential of this sparkling, enyclopaedic panorama."
Roubaud has continued to write both poetry, prose, and literary criticism and received widespread critical acclaim and notice for all his efforts. For example, World Literature Today contributor Brian Evenson called the collection of poems, La forme d'une ville change plus vite, hélas, que le coeur des humains: cent cinquante poèmes, 1991-1998, "a fine and successful book of poems which illustrates how rigorous formal constraints can give poetry a different but nevertheless wonderfully effective mimetic life." Julia Abramson, also writing in World Literature Today, called the 2000 publication Poésie a narrative book about the prose in which "the erudite is never far from the whimsical."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Atlantic, August, 1989, Phoebe-Lou Adams, review ofHortense Is Abducted, p. 92.
French Review, December, 1983, Mortimer Guiney, review of Dors, précédé Dire la poésie, p. 275; October, 1986, Warren F. Motte, Jr., review of La belle Hortense: roman, pp. 170-171; May, 1987, Mireille Rosello, review of Quelque chose noir: poème, pp. 914-915; March, 1994, Michael Brophy, review of La pluralité des mondes de Lewis: poésie, pp. 706-707; October, 1998, Christophe Lamiot, review of Mathématique, pp. 163-164; March, 1999, Christophe Lamiot, review ofL'abominable tisonnier de John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart et autres vies plus ou moins brèves,pp. 781-782.
Journal of Modern Literature, fall, 2004, Aleka Calsoyas, "Jacques Roubaud's Art of Memoir: Metaphor's mirrors in Le grand incendie de Londres," p. 25.
Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 1993, review of The Princess Hoppy, or the Tale of the Labrador,p. 747.
Library Journal, March 1, 2001, Michael Rogers, review of Hortense Is Abducted, p. 135.
Modern Language Review, July, 1980, Robin Buss, review of Le Vieillesse d'Alexandre: essai sur quelques états récents du vers français, pp. 673-675.
New York Times Book Review, December 26, 1993, Richard Burgin, review of The Princess Hoppy, or The Tale of Labrador, p. 7; August 13, 1989, John Allen Paulos, review of Hortense Is Abducted,p. 16.
Publishers Weekly, June 21, 1991, review of The Great Fire of London: A Story with Interpolations and Bifurcations, p. 50; May 18, 1992, review ofHortense in Exile, p. 60; February 27, 1995, review of The Plurality of Worlds of Lewis, p. 98.
Symposium, winter, 1996, Guillermina De Ferrari, "Representing Absence: The Power of Metafiction in Jacques Roubaud's Le Grand Incendie de Londres," p. 262.
Times Literary Supplement, May 10, 1974, review ofTrente et un au cube, p. 507; October, 1977, Alison Winton, review of Autobiographie, chapitre dix: poèmes avec des moments de repos en prose,p. 1202; October 13, 1978, Malcolm Bowie, review of Le Vieillesse d'Alexandre, p.1170; April 16, 1982, Robin Buss, review of Dors, précédé Dire la poésie, p. 442; October 11, 1985, Mark Hutchinson, review of La belle Hortense, p. 1155; September 26, 1986, Michael Edwards, review ofQuelque chose noir, p. 1050; May 12, 1989, John Sturrock, review of Le grand incendie de Londres: récit, avec incises et bifurcations, 1985-1987,p. 508; August 7, 1992, Peter Reading, review ofHortense in Exile, p. 19; October 8, 1993, David Bellos, review of La boucle, p. 10.
Washington Post, December 20, 1987, Lanie Goodmen, review of Our Beautiful Heroine, pp. 1, 14; July 26, 1992, Patty O'Connell, review ofHortense in Exile, p. 7; December 19, 1993, review of The Princess Hoppy, or the Tale of Labrador,p. 12.
Washington Post Book World, December 30, 1989, Michael Dirda, review of Hortense Is Abducted,p. 5; February 18, 1990, review of Some Thing Black, p. 13.
World Literature Today, spring, 1978, Julia F. Costich, review of Autobiographie, chapitre dix, p. 252; spring, 1979, Rosmarie Waldrop, review of Graal fiction, p. 250; summer, 1979, R.A. Champagne, review of Le Vieillesse d'Alexandre, pp. 478-479; autumn, 1982, Michael Bishop, review of Dors, précédé Dire la poésie, p. 648; spring, 1990, Emile J. Talbot, review of Le grand incendie de Londres, p. 278; winter, 1993, Michael Bishop, review of La pluralité des mondes de Lewis, p. 150; winter, 1994, Emile J. Talbot, review of La boucle, pp. 85-86; summer, 1996, Emile J. Talbot, review of Poésie, etcetera: ménage, p. 661; autumn, 1997, Emile J. Talbot, review of Mathématique,p. 750; winter, 1998, F.C. St. Aubyn, review of La dernière balle, p. 99; winter, 2001, Brian Evenson, review of La forme d'une ville change plus vite, hélas, que le coeur des humains: cent cinquante poèmes, 1991-1998, p. 142; winter, 2001, Julia Abramson, review of Poèsie, p. 139.
ONLINE
Beard of Bees,http://www.beardofbees.com/ (June 16, 2006), profile of author.
Center for Book Culture.org Context Web site,http://www.centerforbookculture.org/context/(June 17, 2006), John Taylor, "Reading Jacques Roubaud."