On the Use of Metalepsis in Pataphysical Regime: “Mise en Abyme”, Fragmentation, and Logical Aporias in Alfred Jarry’s Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien

Abstract

This article analyzes the transgression of narrative thresholds in Alfred Jarry’s novel Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien (1911), which expounds the principles of pataphysics, a parodic science dedicated to exceptions and exploring the potentialities of imagination. The hypothesis developed in this reflection is therefore based on the observation that the innovative assessment of Jarry’s work exceeds the corpus to which it is commonly reduced. Through the subjective account of its narrating character, the pataphysical initiation represented in the novel shapes representational paths paying attention to potential and unexpected projections of significance hitherto prohibited by the realistic or naturalistic interpretations of reality. This article interrogates the mechanisms used in the construction of a fictional matrix conceived as a pragmatic support for illustration and experimentation of the principles of pataphysics. Thanks to Vincent Jouve’s methodology for analyzing the reception of the character, this work first examines the nature of the signifying mechanisms used by Alfred Jarry in the conception of doctor Faustroll as the initiator of the pataphysical science. The instability of his composition thus appears depending on a displaced fictional practice, playing with processes of fragmentation and refraction of meaning. The metalepsis, a narrative figure examined by Gérard Genette, then turns out to be a particularly fruitful entry for a narratological analysis of the narrative transgressions established by the pataphysical writing regime.