Raymond Queneau (; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo (''

Ouvroir de littérature potentielle Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works ...

''), notable for his wit and cynical humour.

Biography

Queneau was born at 47, rue Thiers (now Avenue René-Coty),

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, ver ...

, Seine-Inférieure, the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot. After studying in Le Havre, Queneau moved to Paris in 1920 and received his first

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

in 1925 for philosophy from the University of Paris. Queneau performed military service as a ''

zouave The Zouaves were a class of light infantry regiments of the French Army serving between 1830 and 1962 and linked to French North Africa; as well as some units of other countries modelled upon them. The zouaves were among the most decorated unit ...

'' in

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and

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...

during the years 1925–26. During the 1920s and 1930s Queneau took odd jobs for income such as bank teller, tutor, translator and some writing in a column entitled, "Connaissez-vous Paris?" for the daily ''Intransigeant''. He married Janine Kahn (1903–1972) in 1928 after returning to Paris from his first military service. Kahn was the sister-in-law of

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

, leader of the surrealist movement. In 1934 they had a son, Jean-Marie, who became a painter. Queneau was drafted in August 1939 and served in small provincial towns before his promotion to corporal just before being demobilized in 1940. After a prolific career of writing, editing and critique, Queneau died on 25 October 1976. He is buried with his parents in the old cemetery of

Juvisy-sur-Orge Juvisy-sur-Orge (, literally ''Juvisy on Orge'') is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located 18 km south-east of Paris, a few kilometres south of Orly Airport. The site of the town has been o ...

, in

Essonne Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.Gallimard publishing house, where he began as a reader in 1938. He later rose to be general secretary and eventually became director of ''l'Encyclopédie de la Pléiade'' in 1956. During some of this time, he also taught at l'École Nouvelle de Neuilly. He entered the

Collège de 'Pataphysique Pataphysics (french: 'pataphysique) is a "philosophy" of science invented by French writer Alfred Jarry (1873–1907) intended to be a parody of science. Difficult to be simply defined or pinned down, it has been described as the "science of imag ...

in 1950, where he became

Satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with cons ...

. In 1950,

Juliette Gréco Juliette Gréco (; 7 February 1927 – 23 September 2020) was a French singer and actress. Her best known songs are "Paris Canaille" (1962, originally sung by Léo Ferré), "La Javanaise" (1963, written by Serge Gainsbourg for Gréco) and "Dés ...

recorded "Si tu t'imagines", a song by

Joseph Kosma Joseph Kosma (22 October 19057 August 1969) was a Hungarian-French composer. Biography Kosma was born József Kozma in Budapest, where his parents taught stenography and typing. He had a brother, Ákos. A maternal relative was the photograph ...

with lyrics by Queneau. Raymond Queneau S

During this time, Queneau also acted as a

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

, notably for Amos Tutuola's '' The Palm-Wine Drinkard'' (''L'Ivrogne dans la brousse'') in 1953. Additionally, he edited and published

Alexandre Kojève Alexandre Kojève ( , ; 28 April 1902 – 4 June 1968) was a Russian-born French philosopher and statesman whose philosophical seminars had an immense influence on 20th-century French philosophy, particularly via his integration of Hegelian c ...

's lectures on

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends ...

's ''Phenomenology of Spirit''. Queneau had been a student of Kojève during the 1930s and was, during this period, also close to writer Georges Bataille. As an author, Queneau came to general attention in France with the publication in 1959 of his novel '' Zazie dans le métro''. In 1960 the film adaptation directed by

Louis Malle Louis Marie Malle (; 30 October 1932 – 23 November 1995) was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "a filmmaker difficult to pin down," Malle's filmog ...

was released during the ''

Nouvelle Vague French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...

'' movement. ''Zazie'' explores colloquial language as opposed to "standard" written French. The first word of the book, the alarmingly long "Doukipudonktan" is a playful

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

transcription of "D'où qu'il pue / qu'ils puent donc tant?" – "Why does it / does he / do they stink so much?". Before he founded the Ouvroir de littérature potentielle (Oulipo) in 1960, Queneau was attracted to mathematics as a source of inspiration. He became a member of la Société Mathématique de France in 1948. In Queneau's mind, elements of a text, including seemingly trivial details such as the number of chapters, were things that had to be predetermined, perhaps calculated. This was an issue during the writing of ''A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems'', also known as, 100,000,000,000,000 Poems. Queneau wrote 140 lines in 10 individual sonnets that could all be taken apart and rearranged in any order. Queneau calculated that anyone reading the book 24 hours a day would need 190,258,751 years to finish it. While Queneau was completing this work, he asked mathematician François Le Lionnais for help with issues he was having, and their conversation led to a role of mathematics in literature, which led to the creation of the Oulipo. A later work, ''Les fondements de la littérature d'après David Hilbert'' (1976), alludes to the mathematician David Hilbert, and attempts to explore the foundations of literature by quasi-mathematical derivations from textual axioms. Queneau claimed this final work would prove "a hidden master of the automaton." Pressed by GF, his interlocutor, Queneau confided that the text "could never appear, but had to hide to glorify that without agency." A conference on the matter will be held in Coral Gables, FL. One of Queneau's most influential works is '' Exercises in Style'', which tells the simple story of a man's seeing the same stranger twice in one day. It tells that short story in 99 different ways, demonstrating the tremendous variety of styles in which storytelling can take place. The works of Raymond Queneau are published by Gallimard in the collection ''

Bibliothèque de la Pléiade The ''Bibliothèque de la Pléiade'' (, "Pleiades Library") is a French editorial collection which was created in 1931 by Jacques Schiffrin, an independent young editor. Schiffrin wanted to provide the public with reference editions of the co ...

''.

Queneau and Surrealists

In 1924 Queneau met and briefly joined the

Surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

s, but never fully shared their penchants for

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spir ...

or ultra-left politics. Like many surrealists, he entered psychoanalysis—however, not in order to stimulate his creative abilities, but for personal reasons, as with Leiris, Bataille, and Crevel. Michel Leiris describes, in ''Brisees'', how he first met Queneau in 1924, while vacationing in

Nemours Nemours () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Geography Nemours is located on the Loing and its canal, c. south of Melun, on the Moret–Lyon railway. Nemours – Saint-Pierr ...

with

André Masson André-Aimé-René Masson (4 January 1896 – 28 October 1987) was a French artist. Biography Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but when he was eight his father's work took the family first briefly to Lille and then to Brusse ...

, Armand Salacrou and

Juan Gris José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...

. A common friend, Roland Tual, met Queneau on a train from

and brought him over. Queneau was a few years younger and felt less accomplished than the other men. He did not make a big impression on the young bohemians. After Queneau came back from the army, around 1926–7, he and Leiris met at the Café Certa, near L'Opera, a Surrealist hang-out. On this occasion, when conversation delved into Eastern philosophy, Queneau's comments showed a quiet superiority and erudite thoughtfulness. Leiris and Queneau became friends later while writing for Bataille's ''Documents''. Queneau questioned Surrealist support of the USSR in 1926. He remained on cordial terms with

, although he also continued associating with Simone Kahn after Breton split up with her. Breton usually demanded that his followers ostracize his former girlfriends. It would have been difficult for Queneau to avoid Simone, however, since he married her sister, Janine, in 1928. The year that Breton left Simone, she sometimes traveled around France with her sister and Queneau. By 1930, Queneau separated himself significantly from Breton and the Surrealists. Eluard, Aragon and Breton had joined the French Communist party in 1927; Queneau did not, and instead participated in '' Un Cadavre'' (A Corpse, 1930), a vehemently anti-Breton pamphlet co-written by Bataille, Leiris, Prévert,

Alejo Carpentier Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French a ...

, Jacques Baron, J.-A. Boiffard,

Robert Desnos Robert Desnos (; 4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945) was a French poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day. Biography Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed dealer in game and poultry at the '' H ...

, Georges Limbour, Max Morise, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, and Roger Vitrac. Queneau also joined the Democratic Communist Circle founded by

Boris Souvarine Boris Souvarine (1 November 1895 – 1 November 1984), also known as Varine, was a French Marxist, communist activist, essayist and journalist. A founding member of the French Communist Party, Souvarine is noted for being the only non-Russian com ...

and took up numerous left-wing and anti-fascist causes. He defended the

Popular Front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalitio ...

in France and the

Republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

. Under the Nazi occupation of France, he published in many left-wing journals associated with the

Resistance Resistance may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics * Either of two similarly named but otherwise unrelated comic book series, both published by Wildstorm: ** ''Resistance'' (comics), based on the video game of the same title ** ''T ...

. After World War II, Queneau continued to lend his support left-wing manifestos and petitions, and condemned

McCarthyism McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left so ...

and anti-communist persecution in Greece. He wrote more scientific than literary reviews: on

Pavlov Pavlov (or its variant Pavliv) may refer to: People *Pavlov (surname) (fem. ''Pavlova''), a common Bulgarian and Russian last name *Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist famous for his experiments in classical conditioning Places Czech Republic *Pavlo ...

, Vernadsky (from whom he got a circular theory of sciences), and a review of a book on the history of equestrian

caparisons A caparison is a cloth covering laid over a horse or other animal for protection and decoration. In modern times, they are used mainly in parades and for historical reenactments. A similar term is horse-trapper. The word is derived from the L ...

by an artillery officer. He also helped with writing passages on Engels and a mathematical dialectic for Bataille's article, "A critique of the foundations of Hegelian dialectic."

Legacy and honors

* 1951, elected to the

Académie Goncourt The Société littéraire des Goncourt (Goncourt Literary Society), usually called the Académie Goncourt (Goncourt Academy), is a French literary organisation based in Paris. It was founded in 1900 by the French writer and publisher Edmond de G ...

* 1952, elected to the Académie de l'humour * 1955–57, invited to jury of the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

Bibliography

Novels

* ''Le Chiendent'' (1933). ''The Bark-Tree,'' trans. Barbara Wright (Calder & Boyars, 1968); later published as ''Witch Grass'' (New York Review Books, 2003; ) * ''Gueule de pierre'' (1934). ''Gob of Stone'' * ''Les Derniers Jours'' (1936). ''The Last Days'', trans. Barbara Wright (Dalkey Archive, 1990; ) * ''Odile'' (1937). Trans. Carol Sanders (Dalkey Archive, 1988; ) * ''Les Enfants du Limon'' (1938). ''Children of Clay'', trans. Madeleine Velguth (Sun & Moon, 1998; ) * ''Un rude hiver'' (1939). ''A Hard Winter'', trans. Betty Askwith (J. Lehmann, 1948) * ''Les Temps mêlés'' ''(Gueule de Pierre II)'' (1941) * ''Pierrot mon ami'' (1942). ''Pierrot'', trans. Julian Maclaren-Ross (J. Lehmann, 1950) and Barbara Wright (Dalkey Archive, 1987; ) * ''Loin de Rueil'' (1944). ''The Skin of Dreams'', trans. H.J. Kaplan (New Directions, 1948; ) * ''On est toujours trop bon avec les femmes'' (1947). ''We Always Treat Women Too Well'', trans. Barbara Wright (J. Calder, 1981; ) * '' Saint-Glinglin'' (1948). Trans. James Sallis (Dalkey Archive, 1993; ) * ''Le Journal intime de Sally Mara'' (1950) * ''Le Dimanche de la vie'' (1952). ''The Sunday of Life'', trans. Barbara Wright (J. Calder, 1976; ) * ''Zazie dans le métro'' (1959). '' Zazie in the Metro'', trans. Barbara Wright (Harper, 1960; ) * ''Les Fleurs bleues'' (1965). '' The Blue Flowers'', trans. Barbara Wright (Atheneum, 1967; ); also published as ''Between Blue and Blue'' (The Bodley Head, 1967) * ''Le Vol d'Icare'' (1968). ''The Flight of Icarus'', trans. Barbara Wright (Calder & Boyars, 1973; )

Poetry

* ''Chêne et chien'' (1937). Trans. Madeleine Velguth (P. Lang, 1995; ) * ''Les Ziaux'' (1943) * ''L'Instant fatal'' (1946) * ''Petite cosmogonie portative'' (1950) * ''Cent Mille Milliards de Poèmes'' (1961). '' Hundred Thousand Billion Poems'' * ''Le chien à la mandoline'' (1965) * ''Battre la campagne'' (1967). ''Beating the Bushes'' * ''Courir les rues'' (1967). ''Hitting the Streets'', trans. Rachel Galvin (Carcanet, 2013) * ''Fendre les flots'' (1969) * ''Morale élémentaire'' (1975). ''Elementary Morality''

Essays and articles

* Joan Miró; ou, Le poète préhistorique (1949) * ''Bâtons, chiffres et lettres'' (1950) * ''Pour une bibliothèque idéale'' or ''For an Ars Poetica'' (1956) * ''Entretiens avec Georges Charbonnier'' (1962) * ''Bords'' (1963) * ''Une Histoire modèle'' (1966) * ''Le Voyage en Grèce'' (1973) * ''Traité des vertus démocratiques'' (1955)

Other

* ''Un Cadavre'' (1930) with Jacques Baron, Georges Bataille, J.-A. Boiffard,

, Michel Leiris, Georges Limbour, Max Morise,

Jacques Prévert Jacques Prévert (; 4 February 1900 – 11 April 1977) was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. His best-regarded films formed part of the poetic realist movemen ...

, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, and Roger Vitrac. * ''En passant'' (1944) – theatre. * ''Exercices de style'' (1947). '' Exercises in Style'', trans. Barbara Wright (Gaberbocchus Press, 1958; ) * ''La Mort en ce Jardin'' (1956). '' Death in the Garden'' – with

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and ...

, screenplay for the Franco-Mexican film production. * ''Les fondements de la littérature d'après David Hilbert'' (1976) * ''Contes et propos'' (1981) – a collection of short tales or sketches. * ''Journal 1939–1940'' (1986) * ''Journaux 1914–1965'' (1996)

Compilations in English

* ''The Trojan Horse & At the Edge of the Forest'' (Gaberbocchus Press, 1954). Trans. Barbara Wright. *''Pounding the Pavements, Beating the Bushes, and Other Pataphysical Poems'' (Unicorn Press, 1985). Trans. Teo Savory. * ''Five Stories'' (Obscure Publications, 2000). Trans. Barbara Wright. Compiles: "Panic"; "Dino"; "At the Edge of the Forest"; "A Blue Funk"; and "The Trojan Horse" *''Stories & Remarks'' (University of Nebraska Press, 2000). Trans. Marc Lowenthal. *''Letters, Numbers, Forms: Essays, 1928-70'' (University of Illinois Press, 2007). Trans. Jordan Stump. *''EyeSeas: Selected Poems'' (Black Widow Press, 2008). Trans. Daniela Hurezanu and Stephen Kessler.

In other art

* '' Zazie dans le métro'' (1960), released as film adaptation * Pierre Bastien has made a CD with the

bilingual pun A bilingual pun is a pun created by a word or phrase in one language sounding similar to a different word or phrase in another language. The result of a bilingual pun is often a joke that makes sense in more than one language. A bilingual pun can ...

title ''Eggs Air Sister Steel'', based on ''Exercices de Style'' (which "Eggs Air Sister Steel" sounds like when spoken). * A typographic interpretation of the German version of ''Exercices de Style''
"Stilübungen – visuelle Interpretationen"
by the graphic designe
Marcus Kraft
was published in 2006. * Spanish-Canadian composer José Evangelista wrote the song cycle "Exercises de style" setting texts from Queneau's titular book in 1997.

References

External links

* Queneau's former website
Periodicals
Gallimard

Université McGill: le roman selon les romanciers (French)
Inventory and analysis of Raymond Queneau's essays writings about the novel
Letterism papers, 1946–1965
Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California * {{DEFAULTSORT:Queneau, Raymond 1903 births 1976 deaths Writers from Le Havre University of Paris alumni Oulipo members Pataphysicians French surrealist writers Prix des Deux Magots winners Postmodern writers 20th-century French novelists 20th-century French poets French male poets French male novelists 20th-century French male writers