Marcel Bénabou (29 June 1939,

Meknes Meknes (, ) is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco, located in northern central Morocco and the sixth largest city by population in the kingdom. Founded in the 11th century by the Almoravid dynasty, Almoravids as a military settlement, Mekne ...

in Morocco) is a French writer and historian.

Biography

''Emeritus'' professor of Roman history at the

Paris Diderot University Paris Diderot University, also known as Paris 7 (), was a French university located in Paris, France. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 universities in 1970. Paris Diderot merged with Pari ...

, Marcel Bénabou's work focuses on

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

, in particular

North Africa during Antiquity The history of North Africa during the period of classical antiquity (c. 8th century BCE – 5th century CE) can be divided roughly into the history of Egypt in the east, the history of ancient Libya in the middle and the history of Numidia and M ...

and

acculturation Acculturation refers to the psychological, social, and cultural transformation that takes place through direct contact between two cultures, wherein one or both engage in adapting to dominant cultural influences without compromising their essent ...

and

romanisation In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

processes at work in these provinces. A member of the "Ouvroir de littérature potentielle" (or

OuLiPo Oulipo (, short for ; roughly translated as "workshop of potential literature", stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works using constrained writing techniques. It wa ...

) since 1969, which he joined one year after his friend

Georges Perec Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Ho ...

, the following year he became the definitively provisional secretary. Since 2003 he combines this function with that of provisionally definitive secretary. His Oulipian works often focus on the genesis of literary work and

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

. He appears in the guise of the lawyer Hassan Ibn Abbou in the novel '' La Disparition'' by his friend Georges Perec.

Works

Some historical works

* ''Suétone, les Césars et l'histoire, introduction à La vie des douze Césars'', éd. Folio, Gallimard, Paris 1975, 7-30. * ''La Résistance africaine à la romanisation'', éditions François Maspero, Paris, 1976 * '' Tacfarinas, insurgé berbère contre Rome'', Les Africains, VII, éd. Jeune Afrique, 1977, 293–313. * ''Juba II, ou l'africanité vassale de Rome'', Les Africains, IX, éd. Jeune Afrique, 1978, 143-165 * « Les Romains ont-ils conquis l'Afrique ? » ''

Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales is a French academic journal covering social history that was established in 1929 by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre. The journal gave rise to an approach to history known as the ''Annales'' School. The journal began in Strasbourg as ''Annales ...

'', 1978, v. 33, n° 1, pp. 83–88. * with Micheline Legras-Wechsler and Peter Brunt, ''Conflits sociaux en République romaine'', F. Maspero, 1979, 196 p. * ''L'impero romano e le strutture economiche e sociali delle province'', (éd. M. Crawford), Biblioteca di Athenaeum, 4, Roma, 1986. * ''PVN préfacier ou une forme latérale de l’histoire'', in ''Pierre Vidal-Naquet, un historien dans la cité'', La Découverte, 1998, pp. 58–66. * « Rome augustéenne : genèse d'un lyrisme urbain ? », ''Le Poète dans la Cité : de Platon à Shakespeare'', Le Cri édition, 2003, pp. 56–63.

Some literary writings

* ''Pourquoi je n'ai écrit aucun de mes livres'', Hachette, collection Textes du XXe, Paris, 1986 ( 1986) ** German translation: ''Warum ich keines meiner Bücher geschrieben habe'', Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, Francfort, 1990 ** Italian translation: ''Perche non ho scritto nessuno dei miei libri'', Theoria, Rome-Naples, 1991 ** Spanish translation: ''Por qué no he escrito ninguno de mis libros'', Anagrama, Barcelone, 1994 ** English translation: ''Why I Have not Written Any of My Books'', University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1996 ** Swedish translation: ''Varför jag inte har skrivit nagon av mina böcker'', Ramus 2007 * ''Presbytère et prolétaires'', éditions du Limon, Cahiers Georges Perec, 3, 1989 (in collaboration with Georges Perec) * ''Der Verschlag'', édition Plasma, Berlin, 1991 * ''Jette ce livre avant qu'il soit trop tard'', Seghers, collection Mots, Paris, 1992 ** English translation: Dump This Book While You Still Can, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 2001 ** Italian translation: Butta questo libro finché puoi, Aracne editrice, Roma, 2009 * ''Jacob, Ménahem et Mimoun. Une épopée familiale'', Seuil, collection La librairie du XXe, 1995 ** English translation: Jacob, Ménahem and Mimoun. A Family Epic, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1998 (

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1943, is an American organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of qual ...

, 1998) ** German translation: Jacob, Menachem und Mimoun. Ein Familienepos, Berlin Verlag, 2004, by * Georges Perec, ''What a man !'', introduction, notes and commentaries, , 1996 * ''Destin d’un couteau, Les Guère Épais'', VIII, 1, Édition Plurielle, 1998 * ''Un art simple et tout d'exécution'' (in collaboration with

Jacques Jouet image:Jacques Jouet salon du Livre 2012 (cropped).jpg, Jacques Jouet in 2012. Jacques Jouet (born 9 October 1947) is a French writer and has been a participating member of the Oulipo literary project since 1983. He is a poet, novelist, short stor ...

, Harry Mathews and Jacques Roubaud), Circé, 2001 * ''Résidence d'hiver'', Le Verger, 2001 * ''Écrire sur Tamara'',

Presses Universitaires de France Presses universitaires de France (PUF; ), founded in 1921 by Paul Angoulvent (1899–1976), is a French publishing house. Recent company history The financial and legal structure of the Presses Universitaires de France was completely restruc ...

, 2002 ** English translation: To write on Tamara ?, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 2004 * ''789 néologismes de Jacques Lacan'', Édition EPEL, 2002 (in collaboration with Yan Pelissier, Laurent Cornaz and Dominique de Liège * ''L’appentis revisité'', series "Monde à part", , 2003 * ''De but en blanc, un monologue en polychromie véritable'' (in collaboration with the Oupeinpo), Bibliothèque Oupeinpienne, 16, 2009 * "Anthologie de l'Oulipo", Gallimard, 2009 (in collaboration with Paul Fournel)

Fascicules of the Bibliothèque Oulipienne

* ''Un aphorisme peut en cacher un autre'', BO n° 13 * ''Locutions introuvables'', BO n° 25 * ''Alexandre au greffoir'', BO n° 29 * ''Bris de mots'', BO n° 40 * ''Rendre à Cézanne'', BO n° 59 * ''L’Hannibal perdu'', BO n° 87, 1997 * ''Altitude et profondeur'', BO n° 103, 1999 * ''La mort mode d’emploi'', BO n° 133, 2004 * ''Petit supplément au Cratyle'', BO n° 136, 2005 * ''Miniature persane'', BO n° 153, 2007 * ''Ethique simpliste'', BO n° 169, 2008 * ''Premier mai unitaire'' BO n° 182, 2010 * ''Saturations'', BO n° 184, 2010 * "Le Voyage disert", BO n° 212, 2012

Works in collaboration with the OULIPO

* ''La littérature potentielle'', Gallimard, 1973) ** traduction italienne : ''La letteratura potenziale'', éd. CLUEB, Bologna, 1985 * ''Atlas de littérature potentielle'', Gallimard, 1981, * '' La Bibliothèque oulipienne'', volumes 1, 2, 3, éditions Seghers, 1990 * ''Oulipiana, a cura di R. Campagnoli'', Guida editori, Napoli 1994 * ''Affensprache, Spielmachinen und allgemeine Regelwerke'', Édition Plasma, 1997 * ''La Bibliothèque oulipienne'', volume 4, Le Castor astral, 1997 * ''La Bibliothèque oulipienne'', volume 5, Le Castor astral, 2000 * ''Abrégé de littérature potentielle'', Mille et une nuits, 2002 * ''Maudits'', Mille et une nuits, 2003 * ''La Bibliothèque oulipienne'', volume 6, Le Castor astral, 2003 * ''Moments oulipiens'', Le Castor astral, 2004 * ''Oulipo'', adpf, Ministère des affaires étrangères, 2005 * ''La Bibliothèque oulipienne'', volume 7, Le Castor astral, 2008 * ''C'est un métier d'homme'', Le Castor Astral, 2009 * ''La Bibliothèque oulipienne'', volume 8, Le Castor astral, 2011 * ''Abécédaire provisoirement définiti''f, Larousse 2014 * ''Le Voyage d'hiver et ses suites'', Seuil, 2014

Biography

*
Marcel Bénabou archiviste de l'infini
'' Christophe Reig & Alain Schaffner eds, Paris, Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2015, 229 pages - .

References

External links

Marcel Bénabou
on Oulipo.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Benabou, Marcel École Normale Supérieure alumni French scholars of Roman history 20th-century French historians 20th-century French writers 20th-century French male writers 21st-century French writers Oulipo members People from Meknes 1939 births Living people