Research Catalog

Title

Poetry and cosmogony : science in the writing of Queneau and Ponge / Chris Andrews.

Author

Andrews, Chris

Publication

Amsterdam ; Atlanta, GA : Rodopi, 1999.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvi, 401 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

"In the middle of the twentieth century the French poets Raymond Queneau and Francis Ponge devoted themselves to the apparently quixotic task of reviving the dormant tradition of the cosmogonic poem. Queneau's Petite cosmogonic portative updates the verse cosmogony as it was written by Sceve and Du Bartas, drawing on the freshest scientific discoveries of its day and employing a ludic rhetoric indebted to Freud, Joyce and the Surrealists. La Seine and the "Texte sur l'electricite" are major components of Ponge's fragmentary cosmology. While looking back to Lucretius, they cite modern scientific texts extensively, in accordance with a strategy derived from Lautreamont. Poetry and Cosmogony offers the most thorough readings to date of these texts, analysing the ways in which they recast scientific material, and estimating the durability of the resulting poetry."--Jacket

Series Statement

Faux titre ; no 168

Uniform Title

Faux titre no 168.

Subject

• Queneau, Raymond, 1903-1976 > Criticism and interpretation
• Ponge, Francis > Criticism and interpretation
• Queneau, Raymond, 1903-1976 > Critique et interprétation
• Ponge, Francis > Critique et interprétation
• Cosmogony
• Science in literature
• Sciences dans la littérature
• Cosmogony in literature

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [375]-392) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Ch. 1. The Situation of the Scientific Poem -- Ch. 2. Petite cosmogonie portative (I) -- Ch. 3. Petite cosmogonie portative (II) -- Ch. 4. La Seine -- Ch. 5. "Texte sur l'electricite" -- Ch. 6. Science and the Defence of Poetry -- App. I. Chronological list of scientific works relevant to the Petite cosmogonie portative read by Queneau in the years 1940-1950 -- App. II. The Periodic Table -- App. III. Scientific citations in La Seine.

ISBN

904200567X

OCLC

• 42738825
• SCSB-11609525

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library