'Pataphysics

Number of page: 133
Author: Christian Bok
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810118777
Rating:
Category: Literary Criticism

'Pataphysics, the pseudoscience imagined by Alfred Jarry, has so far, because of its academic frivolity and hermetic perversity, attracted very little scholarly or critical inquiry, and yet it has inspired a century of experimentation. Tracing the place of 'pataphysics in the relationship between science and poetry, Christian Bök shows it is fundamental to the nature of the postmodern, and considers the work of Alfred Jarry and its influence on others.
A long overdue critical look at a significant strain of the twentieth-century avant-garde, 'Pataphysics: The Poetics of Imaginary Science raises important historical, cultural, and theoretical issues germane to the production and reception of poetry, the ways we think about, write, and read it, and the sorts of claims it makes upon our understanding.

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About The Author

Christian Bok is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Fellow affiliated with the Poetics Program at SUNY-Buffalo. Bok is the author of Crystallography: Book I of Information Theory, a nominee for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award given for best poetic debut. He has published numerous articles on Canadian avant-garde poetry in Open Letter, Canadian Literature, and Studies in Canadian Literature, and his own experimental poetry has been frequently anthologized, appearing most recently in Imagining Language.

Reviews:

• Maddy
  Review: 'Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science Rereading this I realize I've become a lot smarter in the last two years. That's a nice change from how I usually feel. Still interesting, not as mind blowing as before.
• nobodhi
  LibraryThing Review am still ruminating & regesting; very nice to have a survey of post-jarry pataphysics; very heady (and ironic?) to read it in such academic prose, but that's how it is nothing i'd read to my aunt irma
• Mark
  Review: 'Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science Less a study or a celebration (or both) than an entombment. If Bok's jargon-heavy prose doesn't drive you nuts, you've gone to theory's dark side. The man seems incapable of writing a graceful sentence. And, too, the book is surprisingly unfunny. Bah.
• Keith Edwards
  Review: 'Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science A strange sort of hypnopopic philosophic treatise on the imaginary science of Pataphysics, reflecting on its creation by Alfred Jarry in the late 19th century and how it has influenced artists and writers in the century since. A fun romp through avaunt-guard literary theory.
• M.
  Review: 'Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science and so mike enters the world of 'pataphysics
• Amira Hanafi
  Review: 'Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science There is something fantastically attractive about this book. Perhaps it is Bok's symmetrical sections, or the fact that he pulls off literary theory as poetry. Or maybe its the vocabulary boost: you'll need a good dictionary, but you won't regret it.
• Amira Hanafi
  Review: 'Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science There is something fantastically attractive about this book. Perhaps it is Bok's symmetrical sections, or the fact that he pulls off literary theory as poetry. Or maybe its the vocabulary boost: you'll need a good dictionary, but you won't regret it.
• A Google User
  Review: 'Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science Rereading this I realize I've become a lot smarter in the last two years. That's a nice change from how I usually feel. Still interesting, not as mind blowing as before.
• A Google User
  Review: 'Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science Less a study or a celebration (or both) than an entombment. If Bok's jargon-heavy prose doesn't drive you nuts, you've gone to theory's dark side. The man seems incapable of writing a graceful sentence. And, too, the book is surprisingly unfunny. Bah.

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