In the following essay, Fell suggests that Jarry was one of the first to use the word “cubisme” and that Jarry practiced a linguistic cubism in essays such as “Commentaire pour servir à la construction practique de la machine à explorer le temps” and plays such as César-Antechrist, as well as through his neologisms and textual acrobatics that emphasized multiple points of view.

In the following essay, Cutshall examines the critical and commercial failure of Alfred Jarry's novels, providing an overview of the works themselves and their historical context, and suggests that a radical reappraisal of Jarry's work as a novelist is long overdue.

In the following essay, Cutshall examines the ways in which Jarry's journalism, plays, and novels commented upon the Dreyfus Affair and the ensuing scandal.

In the following essay, Knapp provides a close reading of Jarry's The Supermale, with particular focus on the frequent elision of mechanization, competition, and fornication. The author analyzes Jarry's use of caricature and humor, and places Jarry's concerns about mechanization and masculinity in the context of turn-of-the-century anxieties.

An American educator and critic specializing in French literature, Knapp is the author of many monographs on French literary figures, including: Antonin Artaud, Louis Celine, Paul Claudel, Jean Cocteau, Georges Duhamel, Jean Genet, Louise Labé, Gerárd de Nerval, Jean Racine, and Emile Zola. In the following essay, she interprets The Supermale as a warning about the dehumanization that Jarry believed accompanies technological advancement.

In the following historically-grounded essay, Stillman examines Jarry's work, especially Le Sûrmale, in the context of the rapidly developing technology at the turn of the century and discusses the ways in which Marcueil, the automaton-like bicycling hero of Le Sûrmale, is machine-like in both love-making and athletics, she notes that Jarry “invented” a “time machine” and a “machine to inspire love,” which caused a stir in the art world of the ...

In the following essay, Bridgeman examines the linguistic ambiguity and innovation of Jarry's second novel, Les Jours et Les Nuits, and his contemporaries' mystified and unreceptive response to it.

In the following essay, Bridgeman attempts to justify stylistic and technical innovations in Days and Nights: Novel of a Deserter that have disconcerted readers.

In the following excerpt, Beaumont studies themes in Messaline, especially that of sexuality.

An educator and critic specializing in French literature, Stillman has published two works on Jarry, La Théâtralité dans l'oeuvre d'Alfred Jarry (1980) and Alfred Jarry (1983). She is a membre honorifique of the Collège de Pataphysique, a somewhat fantastical organization embodying Jarry 's philosophy of pataphysics, and a member of the Société des Amis d'Alfred Jarry. In the following essay, Stillman finds that Jarry used scientific theories as the...

In the following excerpt, Stillman discusses the symbols and themes of Days and Nights: Novel of a Deserter, emphasizing the significance of the protagonist's double, or doppelgänger.

In the following essay, Fisher discusses the pre-Freudian significance of delirium in the novels of Jarry and of his close friend and biographer, the writer Rachilde.

In the following essay, Stillman asserts that Jarry's short novels "illustrate many modernist theories and techniques. "

In the following essay, Eruli argues that although Jarry's novel, Messaline, may be set in ancient Rome, it resembles the symbolist Art Noveau of Mossa and Klimt in that it is concerned with representing a place outside of space and time; also the phoenix in Messaline serves as a symbol for the work itself, repeatedly dies and is reborn, one meaning killed off as another arises, always provisional.

In the following essay, Schumacher builds upon Jarry's own writings to articulate Jarry's ideas about the theater as represented by his plays.

In the following essay, Issacharoff examines the sources for one of Jarry's lesser-known plays, Léda.

In the following essay, Edwards provides an in-depth discussion of Jarry's early work and his literary influences.

Gillespie is an American educator and critic specializing in German literature. In the following excerpt, he examines the relationship of Doctor Faustroll to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's character Faust in order to define Jarry's beliefs about the nature of the artist and the imagination.

Lennon is an American critic. In the following excerpt, she defines pataphysics, particularly as presented in Exploits and Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician.]

One of the principal figures of postmodern Australian literature, Wilding is best known as the author of experimental short stories and as a founding editor of Tabloid Story, one of the most influential Australian literary magazines of the 1970s. Rejecting traditional realistic narrative, he strove in his early work toward a fusion of fantastic, surreal, pastoral, ironic, and self-reflexive elements. In the following review, Wilding praises The Supermale and judges it an "affront to the bourgeoisie....