A Void

A Void
	Cover of the English translation ofLa Disparition
Author	Georges Perec
Original title	La Disparition
Translator	Gilbert Adair
Language	French
Publisher	Gallimard(orig.); The Harvill Press(Eng. trans.);
Publication date	1969
Publication place	France
Published in English	1995
Media type	Print (Hardcover,Paperback)
Pages	290 pp (Eng. trans. Hardcover)
ISBN	0-00-271119-2(Eng. trans. Hardcover)
OCLC	31434932

A Void,translated from the original FrenchLa Disparition(lit."The Disappearance" ), is a 300-page Frenchlipogrammatic novel,written in 1969 byGeorges Perec,entirely without using the lettere,followingOulipoconstraints. Perec would go on to write with the inverse constraint inLes Revenentes,with only the vowel “e” present in the work.Ian Monkwould later translateLes Revenentesinto English under the titleThe Exeter Text.

Translations

It was translated into English byGilbert Adair,with the titleA Void,for which he won theScott Moncrieff Prizein 1995.^[1]The Adair translation of the book also won the 1996Firecracker Alternative Book Awardfor Fiction.^[2]

Three other English translations are titledA VanishingbyIan Monk,^[3]Vanish'd!by John Lee,^[4]andOmissionsby Julian West.^[5]

All translators have imposed upon themselves a similar lipogrammatic constraint to the original, avoiding the most commonly used letter of theAlpha bet.This precludes the use of words normally considered essential such asje( "I" ),et( "and" ), andle(masculine "the" ) in French, as well as "me", "be", and "the" in English. The Spanish version contains noa,which is the second most commonly used letter in the Spanish language (first beinge), while the Russian version contains noо.The Japanese version does not use syllables containing the sound "i" (い,き,し,etc.) at all.

Other languages translations
Language	Author	Title	Year
German	Eugen Helmlé	Anton Voyls Fortgang	1986
Italian	Piero Falchetta	La scomparsa	1995
Spanish	Hermes Salceda	El secuestro	1997
Swedish	Sture Pyk	Försvinna	2000
Russian	Ales Astashonok-Zhgirovsky	Исчезновение[Ischeznovenie]	2001
Russian	Valeriy Kislov	Исчезание[Ischezanie]	2005
Turkish	Cemal Yardımcı	Kayboluş	2006
Dutch	Guido van de Wiel	't Manco	2009
Romanian	Serban Foarta	Disparitia	2010
Japanese	Shuichiro Shiotsuka	Yên diệt[Emmetsu]	2010
Croatian	Vanda Mikšić	Ispario	2012
Portuguese	José Roberto "Zéfere" Andrades Féres	O Sumiço	2016
Catalan	Adrià Pujol Cruells	L'eclipsi	2017
Polish	René Koelblen and Stanisław Waszak	Zniknięcia	2022
Finnish	Ville Keynäs	Häviäminen	2023

Plot summary

A Void'splot follows a group of individuals looking for a missing companion, Anton Vowl. It is in part aparodyofnoirandhorror fiction,with many stylistic tricks, gags, plot twists, and a grim conclusion. On many occasions it implicitly talks about its own lipogrammatic limitation, highlighting its unusual syntax.A Void'sprotagonists finally work out which symbol is missing, but find it a hazardous topic to discuss, as any who try to bypass this story's constraint risk fatal injury.Philip Howard,writing a lipogrammatic appraisal ofA Voidin his columnLost Words,said: "This is a story chock-full of plots and sub-plots, of loops within loops, of trails in pursuit of trails, all of which allow its author an opportunity to display his customary virtuosity as an avant-gardist magician, acrobat and clown."

Major themes

Both of Georges Perec's parents perished inWorld War II:his father as a soldier and his mother in theHolocaust.He was brought up by his aunt and uncle after surviving the war.Warren Motteinterprets the absence of the letterein the book as a metaphor for Perec's own sense of loss and incompleteness:^[6]

The absence of a sign is always the sign of an absence, and the absence of theEinA Voidannounces a broader, cannily coded discourse on loss, catastrophe, and mourning. Perec cannot say the wordspère[ "father" ],mère[ "mother" ],parents[ "parents" ],famille[ "family" ] in his novel, nor can he write the nameGeorges Perec.In short, each "void" in the novel is abundantly furnished with meaning, and each points toward the existential void that Perec grappled with throughout his youth and early adulthood. A strange and compelling parable of survival becomes apparent in the novel, too, if one is willing to reflect on the struggles of a Holocaust orphan trying to make sense out of absence, and those of a young writer who has chosen to do without the letter that is the beginning and end ofécriture[ "writing" ].

Versions

Georges Perec (1969).La disparition.Gallimard.ISBN 2-07-071523-X.
Georges Perec (1994).A Void (paperback).Translated by Gilbert Adair. The Harvill Press.ISBN 1-86046-098-4.
Georges Perec (1994).A Void (hardcover).Translated by Gilbert Adair. The Harvill Press.ISBN 0-00-271119-2.
Georges Perec (1991).Anton Voyls Fortgang.Translated by Eugen Helmlé.ISBN 3-499-12857-8.
Georges Perec (April 2013).Kayboluş.Translated by Cemal Yardımcı.ISBN 978-975-539-472-5.
Georges Perec (2009).'t Manco.Translated by Guido van de Wiel. De Arbeiderspers.ISBN 978-90-295-6766-4.
Georges Perec (1997).El secuestro.Anagrama.ISBN 978-84-339-0836-0.
Georges Perec (2004).Istchezanie.Translated by Valéry Kislov. Ivan Limbakh.ISBN 978-5-89059-060-2.
Georges Perec (2005).A Void (paperback).Translated by Gilbert Adair. David R. Godine.ISBN 978-1-56792-296-7.
Georges Perec (2022).Zniknięcia (paperback).Translated by René Koelblen and Stanisław Waszak. Lokator.ISBN 978-83-63056-88-9.

References

^"List of prize winners at the Society of Authors website".Archived fromthe originalon 5 November 2013.Retrieved4 August2012.
^"Firecracker Alternative Book Awards".ReadersRead.Archived fromthe originalon 4 March 2009.
^Levin Becker, Daniel (2012).Many subtle channels: in praise of potential literature.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.ISBN 978-0-674-06962-6.OCLC 794004240.
^Bensimon, Paul; français, Centre de recherches en traduction et stylistique comparée de l'anglais et du (1995).La lecture du texte traduit(in French). Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle.ISBN 978-2-87854-098-7.
^Esme Winter-Froemel; Angelika Zirker, eds. (2015).Enjeux du jeu de mots: Perspectives linguistiques et littéraires.Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.ISBN 978-3-11-040834-8.OCLC 1013955053.
^"Reading Georges Perec".Context(11). Dalkey Archive Press.Retrieved28 July2014.

External links

[1] "List of prize winners at the Society of Authors website".Archived fromthe originalon 5 November 2013.Retrieved4 August2012.

[2] "Firecracker Alternative Book Awards".ReadersRead.Archived fromthe originalon 4 March 2009.

[3] Levin Becker, Daniel (2012).Many subtle channels: in praise of potential literature.Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.ISBN 978-0-674-06962-6.OCLC 794004240.

[4] Bensimon, Paul; français, Centre de recherches en traduction et stylistique comparée de l'anglais et du (1995).La lecture du texte traduit(in French). Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle.ISBN 978-2-87854-098-7.

[5] Esme Winter-Froemel; Angelika Zirker, eds. (2015).Enjeux du jeu de mots: Perspectives linguistiques et littéraires.Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.ISBN 978-3-11-040834-8.OCLC 1013955053.

[wmcontext-6] "Reading Georges Perec".Context(11). Dalkey Archive Press.Retrieved28 July2014.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

v t e Georges Perec
Novels	Things: A Story of the Sixties(1965) Which Moped with Chrome-plated Handlebars at the Back of the Yard?(1966) A Man Asleep(1967) A Void(1969) W, or the Memory of Childhood(1975) An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris(1975) Life: A User's Manual(1978)
Film	The Man Who Sleeps(1974)
See also	Georges Perec: A Life in Words