Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Ben Fisher

Critical Essay by Ben Fisher

SOURCE: Fisher, Ben. “Jarry and Florian: Ubu's Debt to Harlequin.” Nottingham French Studies 27, no. 2 (November 1988): 32-9.

In the following essay, Fisher explores the significance of the eighteenth-century writer, Florian, whose harlequinades are “listed” in Dr. Faustroll's library, to the works of Jarry, especially Ubu Roi.

In his little read and even less understood novel Gestes et opinions du Docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien (written in 1898 but not published until 1911, four years after its author's death), Alfred Jarry presents a list of twenty-seven livres pairs supposedly in the doctor's possession. They include a broad sweep of literature ranging from the Gospel of St. Luke to the latest novel by Rachilde, from Rabelais to Léon Bloy. The list includes five dramatic works: Ubu Roi is there, without any author's name attached to it, along with Grabbe's extraordinary Scherz, Satire, Ironie und tiefere Bedeutung, a play that Jarry made efforts...
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