Walter Redfern – författare

The culmination of a lifetime''s fascination with humour in all its forms, this book is the first in any language to embrace such an impressive span of authors and such a broad range of topics in French literary humour.In nine wide-ranging chapters Walter Redfern considers diverse writers and topics, including: Diderot, viewed as a laughing philosopher, mainly through his fiction (Les Bijoux indiscrets, Le Neeu de Rameau, and Jacques le fataliste); humourlessness, corraling Rousseau, Sade, the Christian God, and Jean-Pierre Brisset; the aesthete Huysmans, in both his avatars, Symbolist and Naturalist (A Rebours, Sac au dos, and other texts); the dramatic use ofparrots by Flaubert, Queneau, and Beckett; Vallès and la blague; exaggeration in Vallès and Céline (Mort à credit and L''Enfant); the fiction, plays, and autobiography of Sartre; bad jokes in Beckett; wordplay in Tournier''s fiction (especially Roi des aulnes and Les Météores).Five interleaved ''riffs'' on laughter, dreams, black humour, politics, and taste, carry the enquiry into questions of humour outside of the purely French context, enhancing a book that impresses as much with its vivacity of style as with the breadth and depth of its scholarship.

The culmination of a lifetime's fascination with humour in all its forms, this book is the first in any language to embrace such an impressive span of authors and such a broad range of topics in French literary humour. In nine wide-ranging chapters Walter Redfern considers diverse writers and topics, including: Diderot, viewed as a laughing philosopher, mainly through his fiction (Les Bijoux indiscrets, Le Neeu de Rameau, and Jacques le fataliste); humourlessness, corraling Rousseau, Sade, the Christian God, and Jean-Pierre Brisset; the aesthete Huysmans, in both his avatars, Symbolist and Naturalist (A Rebours, Sac au dos, and other texts); the dramatic use of parrots by Flaubert, Queneau, and Beckett; Vallès and la blague; exaggeration in Vallès and Céline (Mort à credit and L'Enfant); the fiction, plays, and autobiography of Sartre; bad jokes in Beckett; wordplay in Tournier's fiction (especially Roi des aulnes and Les Météores). Five interleaved 'riffs' on laughter, dreams, black humour, politics, and taste, carry the enquiry into questions of humour outside of the purely French context, enhancing a book that impresses as much with its vivacity of style as with the breadth and depth of its scholarship.

The full French text of Sartre's first full-length play is accompanied by French-English vocabulary. Notes and a detailed introduction in English put the work in its social and historical context.

The full French text of Sartre's first full-length play is accompanied by French-English vocabulary. Notes and a detailed introduction in English put the work in its social and historical context.

"The 19th century in France spawned numerous ''fous litteraires, one of them being Jean-Pierre Brisset (1837-1919). An individualist among individualists, he dismantled the existing French tongue, reshaping it to suit his own grandiose purposes, which were to explain afresh the development of human beings (from frogs) and of their language (from croaks). Continuous and ubiquitous punning was a unique feature of his writing. In this study, Redfern examines such themes as the nature of literary madness, the phenomenon of deadpan humour, the role of analogy, and the place of institutional religion in Brisset''s creative rewriting of the creation."

"The 19th century in France spawned numerous ''fous litteraires, one of them being Jean-Pierre Brisset (1837-1919). An individualist among individualists, he dismantled the existing French tongue, reshaping it to suit his own grandiose purposes, which were to explain afresh the development of human beings (from frogs) and of their language (from croaks). Continuous and ubiquitous punning was a unique feature of his writing. In this study, Redfern examines such themes as the nature of literary madness, the phenomenon of deadpan humour, the role of analogy, and the place of institutional religion in Brisset''s creative rewriting of the creation."

The 19th century in France spawned numerous 'fous litteraires, one of them being Jean-Pierre Brisset (1837-1919). An individualist among individualists, he dismantled the existing French tongue, reshaping it to suit his own grandiose purposes, which were to explain afresh the development of human beings (from frogs) and of their language (from croaks). Continuous and ubiquitous punning was a unique feature of his writing. In this study, Redfern examines such themes as the nature of literary madness, the phenomenon of deadpan humour, the role of analogy, and the place of institutional religion in Brisset's creative rewriting of the creation.

Ce livre est une édition française repensée et mise à jour de The Dead and the Quick: Cliches and Neologisms in the Written, Spoken and Visual Cultures of Britain, the United States and France (1989, 2e édition 2010). Walter Redfern considère le langage comme alternativement réactionnaire et révolutionnaire. Les mots sont complices dans le cramponnement humain aux réalités périmées, et toutefois le langage ne cesse d’évoluer par des processus de déplacement et de remplacement. En sus de la nature apparemment statique des clichés, cette étude se concentre donc sur le potentiel dynamique des mots. La créativité linguistique est présentée comme essentielle dans la résistance à la réflexion (ou l’absence de réflexion) toute faite. Parmi les nombreux sujets étroitement liés et qui sont analysés ici de près se trouvent : l’imitation, le plagiat, la rumeur, la pensée politiquement correcte, le jargon, l’euphémisme, la répétition, la caricature, les stéréotypes. L’auteur étudie aussi le cliché et le néologisme dans le secteur visuel (par exemple, le kitsch, et les néomorphismes des psychotiques). Paradoxalement, le cliché est un riche sujet de discussion. Et qui refuserait de s’intéresser au langage rajeuni ? Quoique pleinement académique dans la minutie de sa recherche, ce livre n’est jamais solennel comme un hibou ni sec.

Albert Londres (1884-1932) was a much-translated French investigative journalist, distinguished by the application of humour to serious reporting. His journalistic coverage was extremely wide (Europe, Soviet Russia, the Middle East, the Far East, Africa, South America), as were his themes: war, revolution, racism, prison and asylum conditions, the slave trade, colonialism, sport. This study compares and contrasts Londres with other globetrotting reporters from France, Britain and the USA who deal courageously and innovatively with history in the making. The approach is historical, sociological and rhetorical. The author investigates the shifting borderline between journalism and literature and critically examines the numerous clichés about, and by, journalists.