Pierre Alferi (; 10 April 1963 – 16 August 2023) was a French novelist, poet, and essayist. Alferi was the son of the French philosopher

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...

and psychoanalyst

Marguerite Aucouturier Marguerite Derrida (née Aucouturier; 7 July 1932 – 21 March 2020) was a Czech-born French psychoanalyst. She translated many psychoanalytic works into French. Biography Aucouturier trained as a psychologist at the Paris Psychoanalytic Society ...

Career

Alferi studied at the

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

, rue d'Ulm and completed his ''

agrégation In France, the () is the most competitive and prestigious examination for civil service in the French public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all stu ...

.'' After his dissertation on

William of Ockham William of Ockham or Occam ( ; ; 9/10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, apologist, and theologian, who was born in Ockham, a small village in Surrey. He is considered to be one of the major figures of medie ...

, supervised by Louis Marin, Alferi began to primarily write poetry. Alferi was also a literary translator who has translated works by

John Donne John Donne ( ; 1571 or 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under Royal Patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's, D ...

Giorgio Agamben Giorgio Agamben ( ; ; born 22 April 1942) is an Italian philosopher best known for his work investigating the concepts of the state of exception, form-of-life (borrowed from Ludwig Wittgenstein) and '' homo sacer''. The concept of biopolitic ...

and

Meyer Schapiro Meyer Schapiro (23 September 1904 – 3 March 1996) was a Lithuanian-born American art historian who developed new art historical methodologies that incorporated an interdisciplinary approach to the study of works. An expert on early Christian, ...

from English and Russian into French. He had also written songs for several performing artists including

Jeanne Balibar Jeanne Balibar (born 13 April 1968) is a French actress and singer. Life and career Balibar was born in Paris, the daughter of Marxist philosopher Étienne Balibar and physicist Françoise Balibar. She started her career as a student in th ...

. Between 1991 and 1992, Alferi was writer-in-residence at the Fondation Royaumont, and at the

French Academy in Rome The French Academy in Rome (, ) is an academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio (Pincian Hill) in Rome, Italy. History The Academy was founded at the Palazzo Capranica in 1666 by Louis XIV under the dire ...

between 1987 and 1988. Alferi was co-founder (with Suzanne Doppelt), of the literary journal ''Détail'', and ''La Revue de Littérature Générale'' (with Olivier Cadiot). Alferi taught at the

École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in nor ...

in Paris, the

École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs The École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (; ÉnsAD) also known as Arts Decos' and École des Arts décoratifs, is a public grande école of art and design, constituent member of PSL Research University. The school is located in the R ...

in Paris, and the

European Graduate School The European Graduate School (EGS) is a private graduate school that operates in two locations: Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and Valletta, Malta. History It was founded in 1994 in Saas-Fee, Switzerland by the Swiss scientist, artist, and therapist, ...

. His work is considered singular and unclassifiable as it includes poetry, drawing, music, novel and philosophy. Alferi was also a translator of poetry and philosophy including the work of Agamben.

Personal life and death

Pierre Alferi was born in Paris on 10 April 1963 to

, philosopher and inventor of

deconstruction In philosophy, deconstruction is a loosely-defined set of approaches to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept of deconstruction was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who described it as a turn away from ...

and Marguerite Derrida, a psychoanalyst. He was of Algerian-Jewish descent through his father, and

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

descent through his mother. He tried to remain discreet about his ancestry, namely his famous philosopher father

Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...

, by adopting his maternal grandmother's name for public life. Alferi suffered from cancer and died in Paris on 16 August 2023, at the age of 60.

Publications

;Poetry * ''Les Allures naturelles'' POL, Paris, 1991 * ''Le Chemin familier du poisson combatif'', POL, Paris, 1992 * ''Kub Or'', POL, Paris, 1994 * ''Sentimentale journée'', POL, Paris, 1997 * ''Personal Pong'' (avec Jacques Julien), Villa Saint-Clair, Sète, 1997 * ''Handicap'' (avec Jacques Julien), Rroz, 2000 * ''petit, petit'', Rup et rud, 2001 * ''La Voie des airs'', POL, Paris, 2004 * ''OXO'' (photos by Suzanne Doppelt, trans. by Cole Swensen), Burning Deck, Providence, 2004 * ''Writing the Real: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary French Poetry'' (translated by Kate Lermitte Campbell), 2016.

Enitharmon Press Enitharmon Press is an independent British publishing house specialising in artists' books, poetry, limited editions and original prints. The name of the press comes from the poetry of William Blake: Enitharmon was a character who represented s ...

;Novels * ''Fmn'', POL, Paris, 1994 * ''Le Cinéma des familles'', POL, Paris, 1999 * ''Les Jumelles'', POL, Paris, 2009 * ''Après vous'', POL, Paris, 2010 ;Essays *''Guillaume d'Ockham le singulier'', Minuit, coll. « Philosophie », Paris, 1989 *''Chercher une phrase'', Christian Bourgois, coll. « Détroits », Paris, 1991 * ''Des enfants et des monstres'', POL, Paris, 2004 ;Art * ''Ca Commence à Séoul'', DVD video. Pierre Alféri and Jacques Julien, Le Label Dernière Bande and Éditions P.O.L. 2007 * ''L'inconnu'', Pierre Alféri and Jacques Julien, le Quartier - Centre d'art contemporain de Quimper. 2004

References

External links

Pierre Alferi
at

École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in nor ...

Pierre Alferi
at

The European Graduate School The European Graduate School (EGS) is a private graduate school that operates in two locations: Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and Valletta, Malta. History It was founded in 1994 in Saas-Fee, Switzerland by the Swiss scientist, artist, and therapist, ...

Hommage à Pierre Alferi ''(1963-2023)'' : « Ma grande affaire est le maintien ou le retour de la vie dans ce qui s’arrête »

Pierre Alferi.

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

, Berkeley. 2009 Regents' Lecturer.
Hommage à Pierre Alferi
Radio France. {{DEFAULTSORT:Alferi, Pierre 1963 births 2023 deaths Writers from Paris 20th-century French poets French art critics École Normale Supérieure alumni Academic staff of European Graduate School 21st-century French poets 21st-century French male writers 20th-century French translators 21st-century translators French male poets 20th-century French male writers French male non-fiction writers 20th-century French Jews Jewish poets French people of Algerian-Jewish descent French people of Czech descent