University of Groningen 'Ubusing' Culture Dubbelboer, Marieke
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University of Groningen 'Ubusing' Culture Dubbelboer, Marieke IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2009 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Dubbelboer, M. (2009). 'Ubusing' Culture: Alfred Jarry's Subversive Poetics in the Almanachs du Père Ubu. s.n. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license. More information can be found on the University of Groningen website: https://www.rug.nl/library/open-access/self-archiving-pure/taverne- amendment. Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 11-10-2021 RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN ‘UBUSING’ CULTURE Alfred Jarry’s Subversive Poetics in the Almanachs du Père Ubu Proefschrift ter verkrijging van het doctoraat in de Letteren aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de Rector Magnificus, dr. F. Zwarts, in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 19 november 2009 om 14.45 uur door Marieke Dubbelboer geboren op 20 december 1977 te Emmen 2 Promotor: Prof. Dr. E.J.Korthals Altes Copromotor: Dr. E.C.S. Jongeneel Beoordelingscommissie: Prof. Dr. P. Besnier Prof. Dr. R. Grüttemeier Prof. Dr. H.L.M. Hermans ISBN: 978-90-367-4107-1 Table of contents Foreword .................................................................................................... 7 Introduction .............................................................................................. 9 Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) ....................................................................... 9 The Almanachs du Père Ubu ................................................................ 10 Aims of this study ............................................................................... 12 Approach and outline of the book ........................................................ 14 Chapter 1 Symbolism and Beyond. An Introduction to Jarry’s Life, Work and Poetics .............................................................................................. 16 1.1 Life and work ................................................................................... 16 1.1.1 Early years ................................................................................. 16 1.1.2 Literary debut; Symbolism.......................................................... 17 1.1.3 Ubu claims the stage .................................................................. 18 1.1.4 Symbolism left behind; career changes and Ubu’s Almanacs ...... 20 1.2 Jarry’s poetics .................................................................................. 23 1.2.1 ‘Linteau’ (Les Minutes de sable mémorial, 1894); first outline of a subversive poetics. .............................................................................. 23 1.2.2 Introducing Père Ubu ................................................................. 33 1.2.3 Introducing Pataphysics. ............................................................ 36 Chapter 2 Situating Ubu’s Almanacs. Artistic Counter-Culture and Popular Tradition .................................................................................... 41 2.1 Ubu sur la butte: Jarry, the Almanacs and Montmartre ..................... 41 2.1.1 Humorist groups and artistic cabarets ........................................ 41 2.1.2 Jarry, Ubu’s Almanacs and the cabaret ...................................... 44 2.2 The popular tradition of the almanac genre ...................................... 45 2.2.1 Definition ................................................................................... 46 2.2.2 A heterogeneous genre ............................................................... 46 2.2.3 Audience .................................................................................... 47 2.2.4 Information, education and propaganda ..................................... 48 2.2.5 Popular almanacs at the end of the nineteenth century .............. 48 2.2.6 Ubu’s Almanacs ......................................................................... 49 Chapter 3 Collaboration and Anonymity. The Making of Ubu’s Almanacs ................................................................................................................. 51 3.1 The making of the ‘small Almanac’ (1898) ......................................... 51 3.1.1 The literary community of the Phalanstère.................................. 51 3.1.2 Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) ....................................................... 53 3.1.3 Claude Terrasse (1867-1923) ...................................................... 54 3.2 The publication of the first Almanac (December 1898) ...................... 55 3.3 Anonymity ........................................................................................ 57 3.4 The making of the second Almanac................................................... 59 3.4.1 The ‘Cellar’ at the art gallery of Ambroise Vollard(1866-1939) ..... 59 3.4.2 Claude Terrasse’s account of the collaboration ........................... 61 3.4.3 Félicien Fagus (22 January 1872-8 November 1933) ................... 63 3.4.4 The publication of the second Almanac (January 1901) .............. 65 3.5 Rethinking authorship ..................................................................... 67 3.5.1 The legacy of the Almanacs. Ubu as collective artistic property ... 68 3.5.2 Multiple authorship versus the ‘genius author’? ......................... 70 Chapter 4 Recycling and fragmentation. Collage in the Almanacs ....... 73 4.1 Collage in literature .......................................................................... 73 4.2 Collage in the first almanac .............................................................. 76 4.2.1 Generic hybridity........................................................................ 76 4.2.2 Ready-made and pseudo ready-made elements ........................... 84 4.2.3 Mixing media; text and image ................................................... 105 4.3 Collage in the second Almanac ....................................................... 106 4.3.1 Generic hybridity...................................................................... 106 4.3.2 Ready-made and pseudo ready-made material .......................... 109 4.3.3 Mixing media: text, image and sheet music ............................... 116 4.4 Re-inventing the literary text, the author and representation .......... 121 Chapter 5 Ubu Reporter. News and newspapers in the Almanacs ........ 125 5.1 Writers and the press ..................................................................... 125 5.2 Alternative news. Jarry’s ‘speculative’ journalism ........................... 128 5.2.1 News fascinates ........................................................................ 130 5.2.2 Transformation ........................................................................ 131 5.2.3 Parody and satire; questioning claims to truth .......................... 133 5.2.4 Alternative realities .................................................................. 134 5.3 News and newspapers in the Almanacs .......................................... 134 5.3.1 Satire and parody; questioning representation and claims to truth ......................................................................................................... 135 5.3.2 Re-illustrating reality................................................................ 141 5.3.3 From sensational news to alternative realities ........................... 143 5.4 Ubu’s Almanacs as a ‘cure for newspapers’. .................................... 146 Chapter 6 Bringing art to life ................................................................ 148 6.1 The foreword in the first Almanac; a manifesto? ............................. 148 6.1.1 The writer as prophet ............................................................... 149 6.1.2 Literature as a cure for life ....................................................... 150 6.2 Art and mass culture; ambiguities .................................................. 151 6.2.1 The modern work of art is a stuffed crocodile ............................ 151 6.2.2 Ubu as dandy and part of the crowd ......................................... 155 6.2.3 Transgressing the boundaries of art and life ............................. 157 6.3 Art and mass culture; new bonds ................................................... 159 6.3.1 Aesthetic valorisation of everyday life ........................................ 159 6.3.2 Poetic language versus newspaper language ............................. 160 6.3.3 Collage; new bonds between art and mass culture .................... 161 6.4 Bringing art to life .........................................................................