Georges Perec (7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a highly-regarded French Jewish novelist, filmmaker and essayist. This article is a general introduction to French literature For detailed information on French literature in specific historic periods see the separate historical articles in the Medieval French literature is for the purpose of this article Literature written in Oïl languages (particularly Old French and early Middle For more information on historical developments in this period see Renaissance, History of France, and Early Modern France. French literature of the 17th century &mdashthe so-called Grand Siècle &mdashspans the reigns of Henry IV of France, the Regency of Marie de Medici French literature of the 18th century usually refers to the literature written between 1715, the year of the death of King Louis XIV of France, and 1798 the year French literature of the nineteenth century is for the purpose of this article literature written in French from (roughly 1799 to 1900 French literature of the twentieth century is for the purpose of this article literature written in French from (roughly 1895 to 1990 Contemporary French literature is French literature roughly from the 1990s to Today. Chronological list of French language authors (regardless of nationality by date of birth Events 161 - Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius dies and is succeeded by co-Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus Year 1936 ( MCMXXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1284 - Statute of Rhuddlan incorporated the Principality of Wales into England 1575 - Indian Year 1982 ( MCMLXXXII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar) This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story A film director, or filmmaker, is a person who directs the making of a Film. This article is an abbreviated list of Essayists - individuals notable for writing essays on various topics He was a member of the Oulipo group. Oulipo (pronounced oo-lee-PO stands for " Ou vroir de li ttérature po tentielle" which translates roughly as "workshop of potential literature"

Life

Perec was born, the only son of Icek Judko and Cyrla (Schulewicz) Peretz – Polish Jews who had emigrated to France in the 1920s – in a working-class district of Paris. Working class is a term used in academic Sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe depending on context and speaker those employed in specific fields or types Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city He was a distant relative of the Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz. Yiddish (yi [[wiktייִדיש ייִדיש]] yidish or yi [[wiktאידיש אידיש]] idish, literally "Jewish" is a nonterritorial High Isaac Leib Peretz (born May 18th 1852 in Zamość, died 3 April 1915 in Warsaw also known as Yitskhok Leybush Peretz יצחק־לייבוש פרץ and Perec's father, who enlisted in the French Army during World War II, died in 1940 from unattended gunfire or shrapnel wounds, and Perec's mother perished in the Nazi Holocaust, probably in Auschwitz. The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre (Land Army is the land-based component of the French Armed Forces and its largest World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Shrapnel is the term originally applied to an anti-personnel artillery shell which carried a large number of individual bullets to the target and then ejected them forwards relying Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany Perec was taken into the care of his paternal aunt and uncle in 1942, and in 1945 he was formally adopted by them. Adoption is the act of legally placing a child with a Parent or parents other than those to whom they were born

He started writing reviews and essays for La Nouvelle Revue Française and Les Lettres Nouvelles, prominent literary publications, while studying history and sociology at the Sorbonne. La Nouvelle Revue Française ( NRF, or The New French Review in English is a Literary magazine founded in 1909 by André Gide Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter To publish is to make content Publicly known. The term is most frequently applied to the distribution of text or images on paper or to the placing of content Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" The historic University of Paris (Université de Paris first appeared in the second half of the 13th century In 1958–59 Perec served in the army, and married Paulette Petras after being discharged. They spent one year (1960–1961) in Sfax (Tunisia), where Paulette worked as a teacher. Sfax ( صفاقس, Safaqis, or /sfaqs/ in Tunisian Arabic, whence the French name is a city in Tunisia, located 270 km southeast of Tunis Tunisia (تونس Tūnis officially the Tunisian Republic ( is a country located in North Africa.

In 1961, Perec began working at the Neurophysiological Research Laboratory attached to the Hôpital Saint-Antoine as an archivist, a low-paid position which he retained until 1978. An archivist is a professional who assesses collects organizes preserves maintains control over and provides access to information determined to have long-term value A few reviewers have noted that the daily handling of records and variegated data may have had an influence on his literary style. Perec's other major influence was the Oulipo, which he joined in 1967, meeting Raymond Queneau, among others. Oulipo (pronounced oo-lee-PO stands for " Ou vroir de li ttérature po tentielle" which translates roughly as "workshop of potential literature" Raymond Queneau ( February 21, 1903 &ndash October 25, 1976) was a French Poet and Novelist and the co-founder Perec dedicated his masterpiece, La Vie mode d'emploi (Life: A User's Manual) to Queneau, who died before it was published. Masterpiece (or chef d'œuvre) refers to any Work of art that is considered extraordinary Life A User's Manual (the original title is La Vie mode d'emploi) is Georges Perec 's most famous Novel, published in 1978

Perec began working on a series of radio plays with his translator Eugen Helmle and the musician Philippe Drogoz in the late 60s; less than a decade later, he was making films. Radio drama is a form of audio storytelling broadcast on radio. Translation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text likewise called a " translation The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 His first work, based on his novel Un Homme qui dort, was co-directed by Bernard Queysanne, and won him the Prix Jean Vigo in 1974. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story DIRECT is a proposal for a set of Shuttle Derived Launch Vehicles to be used for future Spaceflights Developed independently from NASA, DIRECT proposes The Prix Jean Vigo is an award in the Cinema of France given annually since 1951 to a French film director in homage to Jean Vigo. Perec also created crossword puzzles for Le Point from 1976 on.

La Vie mode d'emploi (1978) brought Perec some financial and critical success – it won the Prix Médicis – and allowed him to turn to writing full-time. The Prix Médicis is a French literary award given each year in November He was a writer in residence at the University of Queensland, Australia in 1981, during which time he worked on the unfinished 53 Jours (53 Days). The University of Queensland (UQ is one of Australia's premier learning and research institutions For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. 53 Days is an American Rock band based in Western New York. Band history Early years John Moore began 53 Days Shortly after his return from Australia, his health deteriorated. A heavy smoker, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died the following year, only forty-five years old.

Work

Many of his novels and essays abound with experimental wordplay, lists and attempts at classification, and they are usually tinged with melancholy. Word play is a Literary technique in which the nature of the words that are used become the main subject of the work Categorization is the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood.

Perec's first novel, Les Choses (Things: A Story of the Sixties) was awarded the Prix Renaudot in 1965. Things (fr Les Choses) is a novel by Georges Perec. It received the Prix Renaudot in 1965 The prix Théophraste-Renaudot or prix Renaudot is a French Literary award which was created in 1926 by ten Art critics awaiting the

In 1978, Perec won the prix Médicis for Life: A User's Manual (French title, La Vie mode d'emploi), possibly his best-known work. The Prix Médicis is a French literary award given each year in November Life A User's Manual (the original title is La Vie mode d'emploi) is Georges Perec 's most famous Novel, published in 1978 The 99 chapters of this 600 page piece move like a knight's tour of a chessboard around the room plan of a Paris apartment, describing the rooms and stairwell and telling the stories of the inhabitants. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city

Cantatrix Sopranica L. is a spoof scientific paper detailing experiments on the "yelling reaction" provoked in sopranos by pelting them with rotten tomatoes. All the references in the paper are multi-lingual puns and jokes, e. A pun (or paronomasia) is a Phrase that deliberately exploits confusion between similar-sounding Words for humorous or Rhetorical g. "(Karybb et Scyla, 1973)". In Greek mythology, Kharybdis or Charybdis (kəˈrɪbdɨs in Greek, Χάρυβδις) was a Sea monster, the daughter of Poseidon Scylla (ˈsɪlə Σκύλλα Skulla) also known as Scylle (ˈsɪli Σκύλλη Skullē) was one

Perec is also noted for his constrained writing: his 300-page novel La disparition (1969) is a lipogram, written without ever using the letter "e". Constrained writing is a Literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern A lipogram (from Greek lipagrammatos, "missing letter" is a kind of Constrained writing or Word game consisting of writing paragraphs It has been translated into English by Gilbert Adair under the title A Void (1994). Gilbert Adair (born December 29, 1944 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish Author, Film critic and Journalist. A Void (orig French La Disparition (literally "The Disappearance" is a 300 page French Lipogrammatic Novel, written The silent disappearance of the letter might be considered a metaphor for the Jewish experience during the Second World War. Since the name 'Georges Perec' is full of 'e's, the disappearance of the letter also ensures the author's own 'disappearance'.

His novella Les revenentes (1972) is a complementary piece in which the letter "e" is the only vowel used. This constraint affects even the title, which would conventionally be spelt Revenantes. An English translation by Ian Monk was published in 1996 as The Exeter Text: Jewels, Secrets, Sex in the collection Three. Ian Monk (born 1960) is a British writer and translator based in Lille France

It has been remarked by Jacques Roubaud that these two novels draw words from two disjoint sets of the French language, and that a third novel would be possible, made from the words not used so far (those containing both "e" and a vowel other than "e"). Jacques Roubaud (born 1932) is a French Poet and Mathematician.

W ou le souvenir d'enfance, (W, or, the Memory of Childhood, 1975) is a semi-autobiographical work which is hard to classify. W or the Memory of Childhood (W ou le souvenir d'enfance is a semi-autobiographical work of fiction published in 1975 by Georges Perec. W or the Memory of Childhood (W ou le souvenir d'enfance is a semi-autobiographical work of fiction published in 1975 by Georges Perec. Two alternating narratives make up the volume: one, a fictional outline of a totalitarian island country called "W", patterned partly on life in a concentration camp; and the second, descriptions of childhood. Both merge towards the end when the common theme of the Holocaust is explained. The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as

David Bellos wrote an extensive biography of Perec: Georges Perec: A Life in Words, which won the Académie Goncourt's bourse for biography of in 1994. David Bellos is an English -born translator and biographer Bellos currently teaches French literature at Princeton University in the United States Georges Perec A Life in Words is an authoritative biography of Georges Perec by David Bellos, Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Princeton The Société littéraire des Goncourt (Goncourt Literary Society usually called the académie Goncourt (Goncourt Academy is a French literary organization based Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar)

Association Georges Perec

The Association Georges Perec has extensive archives on the author in Paris.

Bibliography

The most complete bibliography of Perec's works is Bernard Magné's Tentative d'inventaire pas trop approximatif des écrits de Georges Perec (Toulouse, Presses Universitaires du Mirail, 1993).

Works by Perec

Film

• A Man Asleep - (film in 1973, with Bernard Queysanne)
• Les Lieux d'une fugue, 1975
• Ellis Island (TV film with Robert Bober)

Works on Perec

Biography

• Georges Perec: A Life in Words by David Bellos (1993)

Criticism

• The Poetics of Experiment: A Study of the Work of Georges Perec by Warren Motte (1984)
• Perec ou les textes croisés by J. Year 1973 ( MCMLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) Year 1984 ( MCMLXXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar) Pedersen (1985). Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) In French.
• Pour un Perec lettré, chiffré by J-M. Raynaud (1987). Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) In French.
• Georges Perec by Claude Burgelin (1988). Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) In French.
• Georges Perec: Traces of His Passage by Paul Schwartz (1988)
• Perecollages 1981-1988 by Bernard Magné (1989). Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) In French.
• La Mémoire et l'oblique by Philippe Lejeune (1991). Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. In French.
• Georges Perec: Ecrire Pour Ne Pas Dire by Stella Béhar (1995). Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 In French.
• Poétique de Georges Perec: <<. . . une trace, une marque ou quelques signes>> by Jacques-Denis Bertharion (1998) In French. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar)
• Georges Perec Et I'Histoire, ed. by Carsten Sestoft & Steen Bille Jorgensen (2000). 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. In French.
• La Grande Catena. Studi su "La Vie mode d'emploi" by Rinaldo Rinaldi (2004). "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " In Italian.

External links

• L'Association Georges Perec, in French
• Je me souviens de Georges Perec - comprehensive site in French by Jean-Benoît Guinot, with extensive bibliography of secondary material and links
• Overview
• Scriptorium - Perec
• Reading Georges Perec, by Warren Motte
• Perec's "Negative Autobiography"
• Récits d'Ellis Island at IMDB
• Un homme qui dort at IMDB
• Les Lieux d'une fuge at IMDB
• Georges Perèc o la Literatura como Arte Combinatoria. Instrucciones de uso | in Spanish | by Adolfo Vasquez Rocca
• Pensar y clasificar; Georges Perèc, escritor y trapecista | in Spanish | by Adolfo Vasquez Rocca PhD