The Yijing as Inspiration in Raymond Queneau’s Morale Élémentaire III (1975): An Intermingling of the Particular and the Universal

Abstract

Abstract The third part of Raymond Queneau’s last work (1903–76), Morale élémentaire (Elementary Morality, henceforth EM3), a collection of prose poems published in 1975, is composed of 64 poems like the 64 hexagrams of the Yijing. Having found his notes on Philastre’s translation of the Yijing during the writing of EM3, one can wonder by what mechanisms the Yijing inspired Queneau’s creation. This article shows that EM3 is an intertwining between the particular and the universal. In the autobiographical and particular side of EM3, Queneau integrates his memories, his experiences and references to the news of his time. The universal side of EM3 stands in the impersonal and indefinite style of the elementary wisdom of the Yijing from which Queneau takes up certain precepts and replies to the Kantian question ‘[w]hat should I do?’ with a quest of happiness and self-realisation. The latter lies in Queneau’s description of his quest for writing and of his process of literary creation.