Pataphysics ─ A Useless Guide

Of all the French cultural exports over the last 150 years or so, 'pataphysics--thescience of imaginary solutions and the laws governing exceptions--has proven to be one of the mostdurable. Originating in the wild imagination of French poet and playwright Alfred Jarry and hisschoolmates, 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 theevolution and influence of 'pataphysics, Andrew Hugill offers an informed exposition of a rich anddifficult territory, staying aloft on a tightrope stretched between the twin dangers ofoversimplifying a serious subject and taking a joke too seriously. Drawing on more than twenty-fiveyears' research, Hugill maps the 'pataphysical presence (partly conscious and acknowledged butlargely unconscious and unacknowledged) in literature, theater, music, the visual arts, and theculture 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 witha thorough explication of key themes and events of 'pataphysical history. In a Jarryesque touch, heprovides these in reverse chronological order, beginning with a survey of 'pataphysics in thedigital age and working backward to Jarry and beyond. He looks specifically at the work of JeanBaudrillard, Georges Perec, Italo Calvino, J. G. Ballard, Asger Jorn, Gilles Deleuze, RogerShattuck, 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 manyothers.

Andrew Hugill is a Professor at De Montfort University, England. He is also a Commandeur Requis of the Ordre de la Grande Guidouille in the College de 'Pataphysique.