Robert Pinget Explained

Robert Pinget
Birth Date:	19 July 1919
Birth Place:	Geneva, Switzerland
Death Place:	Tours, France
Movement:	Nouveau roman
Notable Works:	The Inquisitory

Robert Pinget (19 July 1919 – 25 August 1997) was an avant-garde French writer, born in Switzerland, who wrote several novels and other prose pieces that drew comparison to Beckett and other major Modernist writers. He was also associated with the nouveau roman movement.

Recognition

In 1962, Germaine Tailleferre of Les Six set eleven of Pinget's poems in a song cycle entitled "Pancarte pour Une Porte D'Entrée" (roughly translated as "Handbill for an Entrance") for medium voice and piano, commissioned by the American Soprano and Arts Patron Alice Swanson Esty.

A translation of one of his best known works, The Inquisitory (1962), was republished by the Dalkey Archive Press in 2003.

Bibliography

Novels

Entre Fantoine et Agapa, Jarnac, Ed. Tour de Feu, 1951; Ed. de Minuit 1966 (tr. Between Fantoine and Agapa, 1982)
Mahu ou le matériau, Paris, Robert Laffont, 1952, Ed. de Minuit, 1956 (tr. Mahu or The Material, 1966, 2005)
Le Renard et la boussole, Paris, Gallimard, 1953; Ed. de Minuit, 1971
Graal flibuste, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1956 (tr. Graal Flibuste, 2015)
Baga, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1958 (tr. Baga, 1984)
Lettre morte, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1959
La Manivelle, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1960
Le Fiston, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1959 (tr. Monsieur Levert)
L'Inquisitoire, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1962 (tr. The Inquisitory, 1982, 2003)
Autour de Mortin, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1965
Quelqu'un, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1965 (tr. Someone, 1984)
Le Libera, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1968 (tr. The Libera Me Domine, 1978)
Passacaille, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1969 (tr. Passacaglia, 1978)
Fable, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1971 (tr. Fable, 1980)
Cette Voix, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1975 (tr. That Voice, 1982)
L'Apocryphe, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1980 (tr. The Apocrypha, 1986)
Monsieur Songe, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1982 (tr. Monsieur Songe, 1988)
Le Harnais, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1984
Charrue, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1985
L'Ennemi, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1987 (tr. The Enemy, 1991)
Du Nerf, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1990 (tr. Be Brave, 1994)
Cette Chose, by Robert Pinget and Jean Deyrolle (editor), Paris, (1967), 1990
Théo ou le temps neuf, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1991 (tr. Theo or The New Era, 1994)
L'Affaire Ducreux et autres textes, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1995
Tâches d'encre, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1997 (tr. Traces of Ink, 2000)
Mahu reparle, Paris, Ed. des Cendres, 2009
La Fissure, précédée de Malicotte-la-Frontière, Genève, Ed. MetisPresses, 2009
Jean Loiseau, in Histoires littéraires n° 40, 2010

Plays

Clope au dossier, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1961
Ici ou ailleurs, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1961
Architruc, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1961
L'Hypothèse, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1961
Identité, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1971
Abel et Bela, Ed. de Minuit, 1971, (Acte Sud, coll. "Répliques", 1992) (tr. Abel and Bela, 1987)
Paralchimie, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1973
Nuit, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1973
Un Testament bizarre, Paris, Ed. de Minuit, 1986 (tr. A Bizarre Will, 1989)

References

Jean-Louis de Rambures, "Comment travaillent les écrivains", Paris 1978 (interview with R. Pinget, in French)

Criticism in English

Robert Pinget: The Novel as Quest, by Robert Henkels, 1977