The first complete account in English of the evolution of
'pataphysics from its French origins, with explications of key
ideas and excerpts from primary sources, presented in reverse
chronological order. Of all the French cultural exports over the
last 150 years or so, 'pataphysics-the science of imaginary
solutions and the laws governing exceptions-has proven to be one of
the most durable. Originating in the wild imagination of French
poet and playwright Alfred Jarry and his schoolmates, resisting
clear definition, purposefully useless, and almost impossible to
understand, 'pataphysics nevertheless lies around the roots of
Absurdism, Dada, futurism, surrealism, situationism, and other key
cultural developments of the twentieth century. In this account of
the evolution and influence of 'pataphysics, Andrew Hugill offers
an informed exposition of a rich and difficult territory, staying
aloft on a tightrope stretched between the twin dangers of
oversimplifying a serious subject and taking a joke too seriously.
Drawing on more than twenty-five years' research, Hugill maps the
'pataphysical presence (partly conscious and acknowledged but
largely unconscious and unacknowledged) in literature, theater,
music, the visual arts, and the culture at large, and even detects
'pataphysical influence in the social sciences and the sciences. He
offers many substantial excerpts (in English translation) from
primary sources, intercalated with a thorough explication of key
themes and events of 'pataphysical history. In a Jarryesque touch,
he provides these in reverse chronological order, beginning with a
survey of 'pataphysics in the digital age and working backward to
Jarry and beyond. He looks specifically at the work of Jean
Baudrillard, Georges Perec, Italo Calvino, J. G. Ballard, Asger
Jorn, Gilles Deleuze, Roger Shattuck, Jacques Prevert, Antonin
Artaud, Rene Clair, the Marx Brothers, Joan Miro, Max Ernst, Marcel
Duchamp, James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, Raymond Roussel, Jean-Pierre
Brisset, and many others.
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