A Void
This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(March 2013) |
![]() Cover of the English translation ofLa Disparition | |
Author | Georges Perec |
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Original title | La Disparition |
Translator | Gilbert Adair |
Language | French |
Publisher |
|
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 Frenchlipogrammaticnovel,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
[edit]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.
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
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]- Georges Perec (1969).La disparition.Gallimard.ISBN2-07-071523-X.
- Georges Perec (1994).A Void (paperback).Translated by Gilbert Adair. The Harvill Press.ISBN1-86046-098-4.
- Georges Perec (1994).A Void (hardcover).Translated by Gilbert Adair. The Harvill Press.ISBN0-00-271119-2.
- Georges Perec (1991).Anton Voyls Fortgang.Translated by Eugen Helmlé.ISBN3-499-12857-8.
- Georges Perec (April 2013).Kayboluş.Translated by Cemal Yardımcı.ISBN978-975-539-472-5.
- Georges Perec (2009).'t Manco.Translated by Guido van de Wiel. De Arbeiderspers.ISBN978-90-295-6766-4.
- Georges Perec (1997).El secuestro.Anagrama.ISBN978-84-339-0836-0.
- Georges Perec (2004).Istchezanie.Translated by Valéry Kislov. Ivan Limbakh.ISBN978-5-89059-060-2.
- Georges Perec (2005).A Void (paperback).Translated by Gilbert Adair. David R. Godine.ISBN978-1-56792-296-7.
- Georges Perec (2022).Zniknięcia (paperback).Translated by René Koelblen and Stanisław Waszak. Lokator.ISBN978-83-63056-88-9.
See also
[edit]- Gadsby,another novel without the lettere
- Le Train de Nulle Part,a novel without any verbs
References
[edit]- ^"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.ISBN978-0-674-06962-6.OCLC794004240.
- ^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.ISBN978-2-87854-098-7.
- ^Esme Winter-Froemel; Angelika Zirker, eds. (2015).Enjeux du jeu de mots: Perspectives linguistiques et littéraires.Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.ISBN978-3-11-040834-8.OCLC1013955053.
- ^"Reading Georges Perec".Context(11). Dalkey Archive Press.Retrieved28 July2014.
External links
[edit]- Bibliography of secondary works onLa Disparition
- Brief excerpt from the Adair translation
- Preface in French
- Review by Danny Yee
- News about the Turkish translation
- https://web.archive.org/web/20130124122327/http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/2010/106/about translation in Russian
- Collection of book covers for translations ofLa Disparition