Constraining Chance—Georges Perec and the Oulipo

Abstract

Alison James. Constraining Chance--Georges Perec and Oulipo. Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP, 2009. Pp. 312. In France work of Georges Perec is object of enormous research. According to SUDOC (Systeme Universitaire de Documentation) Perec's name appeared in title of at least twenty-one theses d'etat between 2000 and 2010, as compared with twenty-eight for Jean-Paul Sartre, twenty-three for Albert Camus, and six for Simone de Beauvoir. Here in United States, Yale French Studies dedicated an issue to his work (2004, vol. 104), Dalkey Archive Press offers many of his books in translation, and Review of Contemporary Fiction has dedicated two editions to his oeuvre (vol. 13, no. 1 [1993]; vol. 29, no. 1 [2009]). In Constraining Chance Alison James brings to light why Perec's writing attracts so much attention. His style of writing raises philological questions pertinent to literary constraints, literary genres, authorial intention, and that fascinate all those interested in potential of literature, whether that be Oulipian or not. Perec's publications manage to bend literary forms while raising intriguing questions about identity, a heady recipe sure to maintain readership. Perec is best known for such prize-winning novels as Les Choses (Prix Renaudot, 1965), Un homme qui dort (Prix Jean Vigo, 1974), and La Vie mode d'emploi (Prix Medicis, 1978). In early 1960s, Perec lived in Paris and wrote for journal Partisans about current state of fiction, dominated at that time by nouveau roman. Among his friends were Marcel Benabou and Jacques Roubaud, who introduced Perec to group Oulipo, which he joined one year after publication of Les Choses, in 1967. Prior to his return to Paris, Perec lost both his parents at a very young age--his mother was sent to Auschwitz and his father, a French soldier, was shot at very end of war and could have been saved but medical care was unavailable--events that haunt his writing. This is why James studies role of in Perec's writing. How else can Georges Perec, adult, live other than by continuously pondering question of chance and its ability to determine his existence? James situates Perec's work in a twentieth century that she contends displayed fascination with randomness and contingency (4) resulting from imprecision (5) in defining caused by the conflicts and complexities of Western philosophical history (5). Emphasizing and effect, logic and reason, has been defined as an absence of cause (5) or unscientific ... pitting determinism versus indeterminism (8) and thus not considered worthy of sustained inquiry. Chance resides in Perec's writing as a theme (15), a component of his experimental writing methods (17), and an ethical and existential problem (17). For James, therefore, in Perec's work unites formal and thematic concerns with epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic implications (18). Perec's highly disciplined exploitation and exploration of parameters of literary genres put into play the relationship between and form in literature (20). Emphasizing role of is a compelling element of James's study; breaks spell of formalism, an accusation often leveled against production of members of Oulipo. Perec's literary career blossomed during early 1960s, an era dominated by nouveau roman. Authors such as Nathalie Sarraute and Alain Robbe-Grillet reconstructed and depicted reality through literary means, and their endeavors served to formulate philosophical and epistemological positions. Perec challenges tenets of nouveau roman, dominant force of era's avant-garde. James refers to Perec's need to toaster language and history (36) and places this need, this obsession (36), at heart of his contention with novelists and premises of nouveau roman. …