Research Catalog

Title

Wishes / Georges Perec ; translated and transmogrified by Mara Cologne Wythe-Hall.

Author

Perec, Georges, 1936-1982

Publication

• Cambridge, Massachusetts : Wakefield Press [2018]
• ©2018

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Wythe-Hall, Mara Cologne

Description

xii, 229 pages; 23 cm

Summary

"In the beginning was the pun," Samuel Beckett once wrote. And so it was that Georges Perec brought the good word to his friends and acquaintances on a yearly basis, as an expression of his best wishes for the New Year. Wishes gathers together these ten pamphlets of homophonic wordplay that Perec sent out from 1970 until his death in 1982, printed at his own expense in limited quantities. This paean to the pun consists of a series of short prose pieces, each concluding with a list of the everyday bits of language lying at their root. English proverbs, Latin phrases, the names of musicians, filmmakers, novelists and book titles are all fodder for Perec's homophonic translations: John Coltrane turns into an anecdote about a wanderer with a severe ring around the collar; Antonioni's first movie transforms into a prophecy of a murderous holiday; the phrase "All's well that ends well" becomes a pregnant cow named Alice hailed by a drunk Satan; and Maurice Ravel proves to be a warning against corpses with a predilection for root vegetables. These texts and their marriage of sound to meaning present a challenge to any translation, and bring into stark relief the choices translators are often forced to make. This English edition sidesteps such choices, offering two alternate translations: a traditional one focused on the literal content of Perec's texts, and another focused on their formal phonological play."--Page [4] of cover.

Series Statement

Subverse

Uniform Title

• Vœux. English
• Subverse.

Alternative Title

Vœux.

Subjects

• 1900-1999
• Translations
• French literature > 20th century
• Perec, Georges, 1936-1982 > Translations into English

Genre/Form

Translations.

Note

• "Originally published as Vœux by Editions du Seuil, 1989"--Title page verso.

Language (note)

• Translated to English from French.

Call Number

JFE 18-8286

ISBN

• 9781939663337
• 1939663334

OCLC

1033570408

Author

Perec, Georges, 1936-1982, author.

Title

Wishes / Georges Perec ; translated and transmogrified by Mara Cologne Wythe-Hall.

Publisher

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Wakefield Press [2018]

Copyright Date

©2018

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Subverse

Subverse.

Language

Translated to English from French.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Added Author

Wythe-Hall, Mara Cologne, translator.

Research Call Number

JFE 18-8286