23-521: Alfred Jarry ( French: [alfʁɛd ʒaʁi] ; 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907) was a French symbolist writer who is best known for his play Ubu Roi (1896) , often cited as a forerunner of the Dada , Surrealist , and Futurist movements of the 1920s and 1930s and later the Theatre of the absurd In the 1950s and 1960s He also coined the term and philosophical concept of 'pataphysics . Jarry
46-445: A symbol is a concrete element like an object, character, image, situation, or action that suggests or hints at abstract, deeper, or non-literal meanings or ideas. The use of symbols artistically is symbolism . In literature, such as novels, plays, and poems, symbolism goes beyond just the literal written words on a page, since writing itself is also inherently a system of symbols. Artistic symbols may be intentionally built into
69-608: A fine drawing of him. Jarry died in Paris on 1 November 1907 of tuberculosis , aggravated by drug and alcohol misuse. When he could not afford alcohol, he drank ether. It is recorded that his last request was for a toothpick. He was interred in the Cimetière de Bagneux , near Paris. The complete works of Alfred Jarry are published in three volumes by Gallimard in the collection Bibliothèque de la Pléiade . Symbolism (arts) In works of art , literature , and narrative ,
92-427: A group of boys who enjoyed poking fun at their well-meaning, but obese and incompetent physics teacher, a man named Hébert. Jarry and his classmate, Henri Morin, wrote a play they called Les Polonais and performed it with marionettes in the home of one of their friends. The main character, Père Heb , was a blunderer with a huge belly, three teeth (one of stone, one of iron and one of wood), a single, retractable ear and
115-522: A loaded revolver. In response to a neighbour's complaint that his target shooting endangered her children, he replied, "If that should ever happen, ma-da-me, we should ourselves be happy to get new ones with you." With Franc-Nohain and Claude Terrasse he co-founded the Théâtre des Pantins, which in 1898 was the site of marionette performances of Ubu Roi . Living in worsening poverty, neglecting his health and drinking excessively, Jarry went on to write
138-487: A misshapen body. In Jarry's later work Ubu Roi , Père Heb would develop into Ubu, one of the most monstrous and astonishing characters in French literature. At 17 Jarry passed his baccalauréat and moved to Paris to prepare for admission to the École Normale Supérieure . Though he was not admitted, he soon gained attention for his original poems and prose-poems. A collection of his work, Les minutes de sable mémorial ,
161-452: A rose symbolizes beauty; a lion symbolizes strength; and certain colors symbolize national flags and thus, by extension, certain nations. The latter is specifically an example of color symbolism . While symbols can recur within or even across cultures, other symbols recur only in the context of one particular work. For instance, scholars widely consider references to blood in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare to be symbolism for
184-445: A sieve and subscribes to the tenets of 'pataphysics . 'Pataphysics deals with "the laws which govern exceptions and will explain the universe supplementary to this one." In 'pataphysics, every event in the universe is accepted as an extraordinary event. Jarry once wrote, expressing some of the bizarre logic of 'pataphysics, "If you let a coin fall and it falls, the next time it is just by an infinite coincidence that it will fall again
207-497: A work by its creator, which in the case of narratives can make symbolism a deliberate narrative device . However, it also may be decided upon by the audience or by a consensus of scholars through their interpretation of the work. Various synonyms exist for this type of symbol, based on specific genre , artistic medium , or domain: visual symbol , literary symbol , poetic symbol , etc. Some symbolism appears commonly in works of poetry, fiction, or visual art. For instance, often,
230-541: Is a unique narrative that effectively links the domination of the soul to contemporaneous advances in the field of Egyptology such as the 1894 excavation of the Narmer Palette , an ancient artifact used for situating the rebus within hermeneutics . The character Ubu Roi first appears in this play. The spring of 1896 saw the publication, in Paul Fort's review Le Livre d'art , of Jarry's 5-act play Ubu Roi ,
253-487: Is a work that bridges the gap between serious symbolic meaning and the type of critical absurdity with which Jarry would soon become associated. Using the biblical Book of Revelation as a point of departure, Caesar Antichrist presents a parallel world of extreme formal symbolism in which Christ is resurrected not as an agent of spirituality but as an agent of the Roman Empire that seeks to dominate spirituality. It
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#1732790674377276-516: The avant-garde in the audience, King Ubu (played by Firmin Gémier ) stepped forward and intoned the opening word, "Merdre!" (often translated as "Pshit" or "Shittr!" in English). A quarter of an hour of pandemonium ensued: outraged cries, booing, and whistling by the offended parties, countered by cheers and applause by the more bohemian contingent. Such interruptions continued through the evening. At
299-413: The royal we , and called the wind "that which blows" and the bicycle he rode everywhere "that which rolls." Jarry moved into a flat which the landlord had created through the unusual expedient of subdividing a larger flat by means of a horizontal rather than a vertical partition. The diminutive Jarry could just manage to stand up in the place, but guests had to bend or crouch. Jarry also took to carrying
322-437: The "green goddess". A story is told that he once painted his face green and rode through town on his bicycle in its honour (and possibly under its influence). When he was drafted into the army in 1894, his gift for turning notions upside down defeated attempts to instill military discipline. The sight of the diminutive Jarry in a uniform much too large for his less than 5-foot frame – the army did not issue uniforms small enough –
345-523: The company of friends who appreciated his witty, sweet-tempered and unpredictable conversation. This period is marked by his intense involvement with Remy de Gourmont in the publication of L'Ymagier , a luxuriously produced "art" magazine devoted to the symbolic analysis of medieval and popular prints. Symbolism as an art movement was in full swing at this time, and L'Ymagier provided a nexus for many of its key contributors. Jarry's play Caesar Antichrist (1895) drew on this movement for material. This
368-466: The novel Le Surmâle ( The Supermale ), which is partly a satire on the Symbolist ideal of self-transcendence. Unpublished until after his death, his fiction Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician ( Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien ) describes the exploits and teachings of a sort of antiphilosopher who, born at age 63, travels through a hallucinatory Paris in
391-414: The rewritten and expanded Les Polonais of his school days. Ubu Roi ' s savage humour and monstrous absurdity, unlike anything thus far performed in French theatre, seemed unlikely to ever actually be performed on stage. However, impetuous theatre director Aurélien-Marie Lugné-Poe took the risk, producing the play at his Théâtre de l'Œuvre. On opening night (10 December 1896), with traditionalists and
414-531: The same way; hundreds of other coins on other hands will follow this pattern in an infinitely unimaginable fashion." In his final years, he was a legendary and heroic figure to some of the young writers and artists in Paris. Guillaume Apollinaire , André Salmon and Max Jacob sought him out in his truncated apartment. Pablo Picasso was fascinated with Jarry. After Jarry's death Picasso acquired his revolver and wore it on his nocturnal expeditions in Paris. He later bought many of his manuscripts as well as executing
437-535: The time, only the dress rehearsal and opening night performance were held, and the play was not revived until after Jarry's death. The play brought fame to the 23-year-old Jarry, and he immersed himself in the fiction he had created. Gémier had modelled his portrayal of Ubu on Jarry's own staccato, nasal vocal delivery, which emphasized each syllable (even the silent ones). From then on, Jarry would always speak in this style. He adopted Ubu's ridiculous and pedantic figures of speech; for example, he referred to himself using
460-530: Was born in Laval, Mayenne , France, and his mother was from Brittany . He wrote in a variety of hybrid genres and styles, prefiguring the postmodern , including novels, poems, short plays and opéras bouffes , absurdist essays and speculative journalism. His texts are considered examples of absurdist literature and postmodern philosophy . His father Anselme Jarry (1837–1895) was a salesman who descended into alcoholism; his mother Caroline, née Quernest (1842–1893),
483-475: Was interested in music and literature, but her family had a streak of insanity, and her mother and brother were institutionalized. The couple had two surviving children, a daughter Caroline-Marie, called Charlotte (1865–1925), and Alfred. In 1879 Caroline left Anselme and took the children to Saint-Brieuc in Brittany. In 1888 the family moved to Rennes , where Jarry entered the lycée at 15. There he led
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#1732790674377506-414: Was published in 1893. That same year, Jarry contracted influenza . His mother and sister tended him, but once he recovered his mother fell ill of the disease and died; two years later his father perished from influenza as well, leaving Jarry a small inheritance which he quickly spent. Jarry had meantime discovered the pleasures of alcohol, which he called "my sacred herb" or, when referring to absinthe ,
529-528: Was so disruptively funny that he was excused from parades and marching drills. Eventually the army discharged him for medical reasons. His military experience eventually inspired his novel Days and Nights . In his youth, Jarry was homosexually inclined, although like many bohemians he disavowed sexual categorization. A brief but passionate relationship with future poet Léon-Paul Fargue inspired his semi-autobiographical play Haldernablou (1894). Jarry returned to Paris and applied himself to writing, drinking and
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