Pataphysique, the Oulipo, and the Mouvement Panique
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PATAPHYSICAL NETWORKING: VIRTUALITY, POTENTIALITY AND THE EXPERIMENTAL WORKS OF THE COLLÈGE DE ‘PATAPHYSIQUE, THE OULIPO, AND THE MOUVEMENT PANIQUE by Paulina Tomkowicz BA in Applied Linguistics, Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, 2009 MA in Applied Linguistics, Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, 2011 MA in French Language and Literature, University of Pittsburgh, 2015 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in French Language and Literature University of Pittsburgh 2018 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Paulina Tomkowicz It was defended on May 4, 2018 and approved by Giuseppina Mecchia, Associate Professor, French and Italian Chloe Hogg, Assistant Professor, French and Italian Lucy Fischer, Distinguished Professor, English Dissertation Advisor: David Pettersen, Associate Professor, French and Italian ii Copyright © by Paulina Tomkowicz 2018 iii PATAPHYSICAL NETWORKING: VIRTUALITY, POTENTIALITY AND THE EXPERIMENTAL WORKS OF THE COLLÈGE DE ‘PATAPHYSIQUE, THE OULIPO, AND THE MOUVEMENT PANIQUE Paulina Tomkowicz, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2018 My dissertation investigates the Collège de Pataphysique, a little-known mid-20th century French artistic movement, and two related groups, the Oulipo (Workshop of Potential Literature) and the Mouvement Panique. The imaginary science of pataphysics was invented in 1893 by Alfred Jarry who argued that existing scientific laws only offered a limited number of possible explanations for worldly phenomena. The notion of pataphysics was picked up by the Collège in 1948, and its practitioners advocated the exploration of alternative approaches to reality through artistic and experimental means. Scholars have tended to ignore the Collège’s influence on 20th century French art and culture, preferring instead to treat its most famous practitioners, such as Raymond Queneau and Boris Vian, in isolation rather than as members of the pataphysical network. My dissertation contests dismissals of the Collège’s importance by reconstructing its long-occluded artistic genealogy and tracking its connections and ongoing cultural activities. Such an examination shows why pataphysical methods and modes of work might be relevant in contemporary intellectual and artistic contexts. My first chapter traces the history of the Collège de Pataphysique. I examine the Collège’s founding documents and literary texts by pataphysicians, Raymond Queneau, Boris Vian and René Clair, demonstrating how they implement pataphysical philosophy in the process of creation. The second chapter focuses on the Oulipo and three of its writers, Georges Perec, Italo Calvino and Marcel Bénabou, who use literature to experiment with potentiality and virtuality. iv The third chapter describes the case of the Mouvement Panique, and through films of its founders, Fernando Arrabal and Alejandro Jodorowsky, demonstrates that the cultivation of pataphysics is not limited to literature and can be realized in cinema. In the final chapter I look at the Collège’s contemporary publications and activities in order to draw conclusions about the growth of the pataphysical network and its importance for today’s arts and sciences. v TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT GROUPS RELATED TO PATAPHYSICS AND WHY IT IS NOT ENOUGH .................................................................................................. 2 1.2 THE PATAPHYSICAL NETWORK IN THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY- FIRST CENTURY ............................................................................................................... 11 1.3 CHAPTER SUMMARIES .................................................................................. 15 2.0 COLLÈGE DE ‘PATAPHYSIQUE: FIRST APPLICATIONS OF THE IMAGINARY SCIENCE ........................................................................................................... 25 2.1 PATAPHYSICS: AN IMAGINARY SCIENCE................................................. 29 2.2 COLLÈGE DE ‘PATAPHYSIQUE: A SOCIETY OF LEARNED AND “INUTILOUS” RESEARCH ............................................................................................... 32 2.3 AFFECTIVE DIMENSIONS OF PATAPHYSICS ............................................ 41 2.4 RENÉ CLAIR AND “MÉMOIRES D’UN INNOCENT:” THE COLLÈGE AS A GAME SPACE ..................................................................................................................... 45 2.5 BORIS VIAN AND L’ÉCUME DES JOURS: THE POST-WAR FLESH OF THE WORLD ....................................................................................................................... 54 2.6 RAYMOND QUENEAU AND LE CHIENDENT: BECOMING ...................... 64 2.7 “LE NONNÊTE:” POTENTIALITY OF NON-BEING ..................................... 79 vi 3.0 THE VIRTUALITY OF POTENTIAL LITERATURE ........................................ 89 3.1 CENT MILLE MILLIARDS DE POÈMES: THE EPITOME OF POTENTIAL LITERATURE ..................................................................................................................... 93 3.2 THE PATAPHYSICAL ROOTS OF THE OULIPO .......................................... 96 3.3 THE OULIPO’S POSITION VIS-À-VIS POTENTIALITY .............................. 102 3.4 THE POTENTIALITY OF CYBERTEXTS ..................................................... 112 3.5 MARCEL BÉNABOU’S POTENTIAL “LIVRE UNIQUE” ........................... 119 3.6 READERS’ ENGAGEMENT IN ITALO CALVINO’S SI UNE NUIT D’HIVER UN VOYAGEUR ................................................................................................................. 128 3.7 GEORGES PEREC AND INTERTEXTUALITY BEYOND TEMPORAL BOUNDS ........................................................................................................................... 140 4.0 PANIC CINEMA: PATAPHYSICS AND FILM .................................................. 157 4.1 ORIGINS OF THE MOUVEMENT PANIQUE ............................................... 163 4.2 PHILOSOPHIE PANIQUE ............................................................................... 168 4.3 PANIC AND PATAPHYSICS .......................................................................... 173 4.4 PANIC FILMS: FROM LINEAR TEMPORAL PROGRESSION TO MEMORY AND CONFUSION ............................................................................................................ 181 4.5 ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY’S TIME-IMAGE .......................................... 187 4.6 FERNANDO ARRABAL’S CRYSTAL-IMAGE ............................................ 193 4.7 PANIC FILMS: BODY AND CELEBRATION ............................................... 198 4.8 CELEBRATION OF THE MONSTROUS BODY ........................................... 203 4.9 PANIC RITUAL AS FÊTE-SPECTACLE ........................................................ 210 vii 5.0 SPIRAL GROWTH AND PATAPHYSICAL NETWORKING IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ................................................................................................. 221 5.1 OCCULTATION ............................................................................................... 223 5.2 SPIRAL GROWTH ........................................................................................... 230 5.3 IMAGINARY ARCHAEOLOGIES: BRIDGING THE PAST, THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE .......................................................................................................... 236 5.4 EXPANSION: OU-X-PO .................................................................................. 247 5.5 COLLÈGE TODAY: UNIVERSALITY AND PATAPHYSICAL NETWORKING ................................................................................................................. 259 6.0 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 281 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 288 viii 1.0 INTRODUCTION At the close of the nineteenth century, the French writer Alfred Jarry created pataphysics, a science of imaginary solutions to real problems and, as such, one that focused on exceptions rather than rules and regularities.1 Jarry shaped pataphysics through his two most prominent characters: King Ubu, doctor in pataphysics, and Dr. Faustroll, pataphysician. In Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien (1898), Jarry offered bits and pieces of his knowledge and vision for pataphysics, describing it as a discipline that investigated the realm lying beyond the philosophical reach of metaphysics. In short, Jarry presented pataphysics as a tool that could be used to construe the universe not as it is, but as it could be, with all its inherent potentialities. It was this artistic vision of a semi-philosophical, semi-literary system of thought that half a century later inspired Emmanuel Peillet, a philosophy teacher, and Maurice Saillet, a writer and a publisher, to form the Collège de ‘Pataphysique. Founded in 1948, the Collège is a little-known intellectual circle with a significant, albeit concealed, impact on the landscape of contemporary artistic networks in France and around the world. This dissertation focuses on the Collège de ‘Pataphysique and two related groups, the Oulipo (Workshop of Potential