Festival / Evening
Pierre Guyotat, the language scrambler
Conference by Juliette Drigny
25 Feb 2013
The event is over
In 1973, Pierre Guyotat, an author already renowned for the extreme density of his texts, made his mark with the monumental nature of a new language which seemed nonetheless strangely familiar. Was it an invented language like so many others had constructed before him? In reality this language escapes the broad categories of analysis. It is neither glossolalia, which does however combine in the same way sound and effects of meaning; nor is it an artificial language, although it shares the work on the roots and inmost depths of language. A highly singular case therefore, in a period when linguistic theories were abounding, that this pidgin became a Language, that scrambled and came to enrich French by incorporating into it a host of exogenous factors, thereby lavishing it with a musical clarity brought to light by the vocal work of its creator.
In 1973, Pierre Guyotat, an author already renowned for the extreme density of his texts, made his mark with the monumental nature of a new language which seemed nonetheless strangely familiar. Was it an invented language like so many others had constructed before him? In reality this language escapes the broad categories of analysis. It is neither glossolalia, which does however combine in the same way sound and effects of meaning; nor is it an artificial language, although it shares the work on the roots and inmost depths of language. A highly singular case therefore, in a period when linguistic theories were abounding, that this pidgin became a Language, that scrambled and came to enrich French by incorporating into it a host of exogenous factors, thereby lavishing it with a musical clarity brought to light by the vocal work of its creator.
When
From 2pm
