Patrik Ouředník (in French sometimes known as Patrick; born 23 April 1957 in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
) is a
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
and
translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
, living in France.
Ouředník spent his youth in Prague. In 1984 he emigrated to France, where he first worked as a chess consultant, then as a librarian. From 1986 to 1998 he served as editor and head of the literature section of the quarterly ''L'Autre Europe''. In 1992 he was instrumental in founding the Free University of Nouallaguet, and he has lectured there since 1995.
Translator from French into Czech ( François Rabelais, Alfred Jarry,
Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau (; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo ('' Ouvroir de littérature potentielle''), notable for his wit and cynical humour.
Biography
Queneau w ...
Henri Michaux
Henri Michaux (; 24 May 1899 – 19 October 1984) was a Belgian-born French poet, writer and painter. Michaux is renowned for his strange, highly original poetry and prose, and also for his art: the Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim ...
,
Boris Vian
Boris Vian (; 10 March 1920 – 23 June 1959) was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer who is primarily remembered for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sull ...
,
Claude Simon
Claude Simon (; 10 October 1913 – 6 July 2005) was a French novelist, and was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Biography
Claude Simon was born in Tananarive on the isle of Madagascar. His parents were French, his father being a ...
...) and from Czech into French (
Bohumil Hrabal
Bohumil Hrabal (; 28 March 1914 – 3 February 1997) was a Czech writer, often named among the best Czech writers of the 20th century.
Early life
Hrabal was born in Židenice (suburb of Brno) on 28 March 1914, in what was then the province ...
,
Vladimír Holan
Vladimír Holan (; September 16, 1905 – March 31, 1980) was a Czechoslovak poet famous for employing obscure language, dark topics and pessimistic views in his poems. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in the late 1960s.
Life
Holan was born ...
Jiří Gruša
Jiří Gruša (10 November 1938, in Pardubice – 28 October 2011, in Bad Oeynhausen) was a Czech poet, novelist, translator, diplomat and politician.Ivan Wernisch...), Ouředník is also the author of various literary texts. His production is characterized by an interest in curious and surprising aspects of life, by an experimentation in exploring language, literary forms and genres, and by a constant attention to ludic aspects. Words, events, social stereotypes, readings, the story itself are continuously mixed up in a lucid, hilarious game of intertextuality as witnessed, for example, in three of his novels translated into English: ''Europeana. A Brief History of the Twentieth Century, The Opportune Moment, 1855,'' and ''Case Closed''.
''Europeana. A Brief History of the Twentieth Century'' (Dalkey Archive Press, 2005)
Book of the Year in the Czech Republic (''Lidové noviny''), Top Shelf in United States (''The Village Voice''), translated into 33 languages (2017), ''Europeana'' is a mordant deconstruction of historical memory where all references—events, slogans, persons, dates—accumulate and then return, vague and vacillating, to alienate the reader.
''The Opportune Moment, 1855'' (Dalkey Archive Press, 2011).
Book of the Year in Italy (''La Stampa''). In 1855, a group of anarchists, communists, and libertarians leaves Europe for Brazil in order to establish the colony Fraternitas, based on the principles of community and egalitarianism. The project collapses, as does the linear narration.
''Case Closed'' (Dalkey Archive Press, 2010)
Seemingly a detective novel, set in a dreamlike post-Communist Prague. Revolving around a fistful of harmless, humorous retirees who sit and chat on the local park bench, the plot is replete with mysterious hints, crippled language, unsolved crimes, at least one suspicious suicide, and a bizarre rape. Who, where, when, how, why?
Works
* ''The Rough-book of the Czech Language: A Dictionary of Unconventional Czech'' (Šmírbuch jazyka českého. Slovník nekonvenční češtiny), Paris, 1988.
* ''Or'' (Anebo), Prague, 1992.
* ''The Extraordinary Adventures of Prince Chicory...'' (O princi Čekankovi, jak putoval za princeznou...), Prague, 1993.
* ''And There Is No New Thing under the Sun: A Dictionary of Biblical and Parabiblical Expressions'' (Aniž jest co nového pod sluncem. Slova, rčení a úsloví biblického původu), Prague, 1994.
* ''Year Twenty-Four'' (Rok čtyřiadvacet), Prague,1995.
* ''If I Don’t Say So'' (Neřkuli), Prague, 1996.
* ''In Search of Lost Language'' (Hledání ztraceného jazyka), Prague, 1997.
* ''112 Ways to Roll a Barrel of Oil'' (Des 112 façons desquelles on peut faire rouler un tonneau à huile) (Limoges 1999, with Jiří Pelán).
* ''The Key Is at the Bar'' (Klíč je ve výčepu), Prague, 2000.
* ''55 Types of Laced Boots to Keep Your Feet Warm in Winter'' (Des 55 espèces de brodequines dont on peut s'entourer les pieds en hiver) (Limoges 2001, with Jiří Pelán).
* ''Europeana: A Brief History of the Twentieth Century'' (Europeana: Stručné dějiny dvacátého věku), Prague, 2001.
* ''House of a Barefoot Man'' (Dům bosého) Prague, 2004.
* ''The Opportune Moment, 1855'' (Příhodná chvíle, 1855), Prague, 2006.
* ''Case Closed'' (Ad acta), Prague, 2006.
* ''It Was Utopus Who Made Me an Island'' (Utopus to byl, kdo učinil mě ostrovem), Prague 2010.
* ''Today and After Tomorrow'' (Dnes a pozítří), Prague 2012.
* ''On the Free Exercise of Language'' (Svobodný prostor jazyka), Prague 2013. Winner of the Tom Stoppard Prize.
* ''A History of France: For Our Dearly Departed'' (Histoire de France. À notre chère disparue), Paris 2014 (in French).
* ''The End of the World Might Not Have Taken Place'' (La fin du monde n'aurait pas eu lieu), Paris 2017 (in French).