Raymond Auguste Queneau (; ; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor
and co-founder and president of
Oulipo (), notable for his wit and cynical humour.
Biography
Queneau, the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot, was born at 47, rue Thiers (now Avenue René-Coty),
Le Havre
Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...
,
Seine-Inférieure.
He received his middle name Auguste as a
patronymic
A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic.
Patronymics are used, b ...
. After studying in Le Havre, Queneau moved to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
in 1920 and received his first
baccalauréat in 1925 for philosophy from the
University of Paris.
Queneau performed military service as a ''
zouave'' in
Algeria
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
and
Morocco
Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
during the years 1925–26.
[
]
From the 1920s through 1930s, Queneau took odd jobs for income, working as a bank teller, tutor, translator and
hackwriting in a column entitled, ('Do you know Paris?') for the daily newspaper ''
L'Intransigeant''.
He married Janine Kahn (1903–1972) in 1928 after returning to Paris from his first military service.
Kahn was the sister-in-law of
André Breton, leader of the surrealist movement.
In 1934 they had a son, Jean-Marie, who became a painter.
Queneau was drafted in August 1939 and served in small provincial towns before his promotion to corporal just before demobilisation in 1940.
Following a prolific career of writing, editing and critique, Queneau died on 25 October 1976, taking
last rites.
He is buried with his parents in the old cemetery of
Juvisy-sur-Orge, in
Essonne.
Career
Queneau spent much of his life working for the
Gallimard publishing house, where he began as a reader in 1938. He later rose to be general secretary and eventually became director of ''l'Encyclopédie de la Pléiade'' in 1956. During some of this time, he also taught at l'École Nouvelle de Neuilly. He entered the
Collège de 'Pataphysique in 1950, where he became
Satrap
A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median kingdom, Median and Achaemenid Empire, Persian (Achaemenid) Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic period, Hellenistic empi ...
.
In 1950,
Juliette Gréco recorded "''Si tu t'imagines''", a song by
Joseph Kosma
Joseph Kosma (22 October 19057 August 1969) was a Hungarian composer who immigrated to France.
Biography
Kosma was born József Kozma in Budapest, where his parents taught stenography and typing. He had a brother, Ákos. A maternal relative wa ...
with lyrics by Queneau.

During this time, Queneau also acted as a
translator, notably for
Amos Tutuola's ''
The Palm-Wine Drinkard'' () in 1953. Additionally, he edited and published
Alexandre Kojève's lectures on
Hegel's ''Phenomenology of Spirit''. Queneau had been a student of Kojève during the 1930s and was, during this period, also close to writer
Georges Bataille
Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...
.
As an author, Queneau came to general attention in France with the publication in 1959 of his novel ''
Zazie dans le métro
Isabelle Marie Anne de Truchis de Varennes (born 18 April 1964), better known by her stage name Zazie, is a French pop singer and songwriter. Her greatest hits include "Je suis un homme", "À ma place" and "Speed (Zazie song), Speed". She co-pr ...
''.
In 1960
the film adaptation directed by
Louis Malle was released during the ''
Nouvelle Vague'' movement. ''Zazie'' explores colloquial language as opposed to "standard" written French. The first word of the book, the alarmingly long "Doukipudonktan" is a playful
phonetic
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...
transcription of "D'où qu'il pue / qu'ils puent donc tant?" – "Why does it / does he / do they stink so much?"
Before he founded the (Oulipo) in 1960,
Queneau was attracted to mathematics as a source of inspiration. He became a member of la
Société Mathématique de France in 1948. In Queneau's mind, elements of a text, including seemingly trivial details such as the number of chapters, were things that had to be predetermined, perhaps calculated. This was an issue during the writing of ''A
Hundred Thousand Billion Poems'', also known as ''100,000,000,000,000 Poems''.
Queneau wrote 140 lines in 10 individual sonnets that could all be taken apart and rearranged in any order. Queneau calculated that anyone reading the book 24 hours a day would need 190,258,751 years to finish it.
While Queneau was completing this work, he asked mathematician
François Le Lionnais for help with issues he was having, and their conversation led to a role of mathematics in literature, which led to the creation of the
Oulipo.
His work encouraged
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...
to pursue his pioneering work on game theory and the use of mathematics in psychoanalysis.
A later work, (1976), alludes to the mathematician
David Hilbert, and attempts to explore the foundations of literature by quasi-mathematical derivations from textual axioms. Queneau claimed this final work would prove "a hidden master of the automaton." Pressed by GF, his interlocutor, Queneau confided that the text "could never appear, but had to hide to glorify that without agency."
One of Queneau's most influential works is ''
Exercises in Style'', which tells the simple story of a man's seeing the same stranger twice in one day. It tells that short story in 99 different ways, demonstrating the tremendous variety of styles in which storytelling can take place. An excerpt from this piece was published in
0 to 9 magazine, a 1960s publication which experimented with language and meaning-making.
Queneau's works are published by
Gallimard in the collection ''
Bibliothèque de la Pléiade''.
Queneau and Surrealists
In 1924 Queneau met and briefly joined the
Surrealists, but never fully shared their penchants for
automatic writing or ultra-left politics. Like many surrealists, he entered psychoanalysis—however, not in order to stimulate his creative abilities, but for personal reasons, as with Leiris, Bataille, and Crevel.
Michel Leiris describes, in ''Brisées'', how he first met Queneau in 1924, while vacationing in
Nemours with
André Masson,
Armand Salacrou and
Juan Gris. A common friend,
Roland Tual, met Queneau on a train from
Le Havre
Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...
and brought him over. Queneau was a few years younger and felt less accomplished than the other men. He did not make a big impression on the young bohemians. After Queneau came back from the army, around 1926–7, he and Leiris met at the Café Certa, near L'Opera, a Surrealist hang-out. On this occasion, when conversation delved into Eastern philosophy, Queneau's comments showed a quiet superiority and erudite thoughtfulness. Leiris and Queneau became friends later while writing for Bataille's ''Documents''.
Queneau questioned Surrealist support of the USSR in 1926. He remained on cordial terms with
André Breton,
although he also continued associating with Simone Kahn after Breton split up with her. Breton usually demanded that his followers ostracize his former girlfriends. It would have been difficult for Queneau to avoid Simone, however, since he married her sister, Janine, in 1928.
The year that Breton left Simone, she sometimes traveled around France with her sister and Queneau.
By 1930, Queneau separated himself significantly from Breton and the Surrealists.
Eluard, Aragon and Breton had joined the French Communist party in 1927; Queneau did not, and instead participated in ''
Un Cadavre'' (A Corpse, 1930), a vehemently anti-Breton pamphlet co-written by
Bataille,
Leiris,
Prévert,
Alejo Carpentier,
Jacques Baron,
J.-A. Boiffard,
Robert Desnos,
Georges Limbour,
Max Morise,
Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, and
Roger Vitrac.
Queneau also joined the
Democratic Communist Circle founded by
Boris Souvarine and took up numerous left-wing and anti-fascist causes.
He defended the
Popular Front in France and the
Republicans during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
.
Under the
Nazi occupation of France, he published in many left-wing journals associated with the
Resistance. After World War II, Queneau continued to lend his support left-wing manifestos and petitions, and condemned
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a Fear mongering, campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage i ...
and anti-communist persecution in Greece.
He wrote more scientific than literary reviews: on
Pavlov,
Vernadsky (from whom he got a circular theory of sciences), and a review of a book on the history of equestrian
caparisons by an artillery officer. He also helped with writing passages on Engels and a mathematical dialectic for Bataille's article, "A critique of the foundations of Hegelian dialectic."
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...
became seriously interested in mathematics, and made early contributions to game theory, after reading Queneau's works.
Legacy and honors
* 1951, elected to the
Académie Goncourt
* 1952, elected to the Académie de l'humour
* 1955–57, invited to jury of the
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world.
Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
Bibliography
Novels
* ''Le Chiendent'' (1933). ''The Bark-Tree,'' trans.
Barbara Wright (Calder & Boyars, 1968); later published as ''Witch Grass'' (New York Review Books, 2003; )
* ''Gueule de pierre'' (1934). ''Gob of Stone''
* ''Les Derniers Jours'' (1936). ''The Last Days'', trans. Barbara Wright (Dalkey Archive, 1990; )
* ''Odile'' (1937). Trans. Carol Sanders (Dalkey Archive, 1988; )
* ''Les Enfants du Limon'' (1938). ''Children of Clay'', trans. Madeleine Velguth (Sun & Moon, 1998; )
* ''Un rude hiver'' (1939). ''A Hard Winter'', trans. Betty Askwith (J. Lehmann, 1948)
* ''Les Temps mêlés'' ''(Gueule de Pierre II)'' (1941)
* ''Pierrot mon ami'' (1942). ''Pierrot'', trans. Julian Maclaren-Ross (J. Lehmann, 1950) and Barbara Wright (Dalkey Archive, 1987; )
* ''Loin de
Rueil'' (1944). ''The Skin of Dreams'', trans. H.J. Kaplan (New Directions, 1948; ) and Chris Clarke (New York Review Books, 2024; )
* ''On est toujours trop bon avec les femmes'' (1947). ''We Always Treat Women Too Well'', trans. Barbara Wright (J. Calder, 1981; )
* ''
Saint-Glinglin'' (1948). Trans. James Sallis (Dalkey Archive, 1993; )
* ''Le Journal intime de Sally Mara'' (1950)
* ''Le Dimanche de la vie'' (1952). ''The Sunday of Life'', trans. Barbara Wright (J. Calder, 1976; )
* ''Zazie dans le métro'' (1959). ''
Zazie in the Metro'', trans. Barbara Wright (Harper, 1960; )
* ''Les Fleurs bleues'' (1965). ''
The Blue Flowers'', trans. Barbara Wright (Atheneum, 1967; ); also published as ''Between Blue and Blue'' (The Bodley Head, 1967)
* ''Le Vol d'Icare'' (1968). ''The Flight of Icarus'', trans. Barbara Wright (Calder & Boyars, 1973; )
Poetry
* ''Chêne et chien'' (1937). Trans. Madeleine Velguth (P. Lang, 1995; )
* ''Les Ziaux'' (1943)
* ''L'Instant fatal'' (1946)
* ''Petite cosmogonie portative'' (1950)
* ''Cent Mille Milliards de Poèmes'' (1961). ''
Hundred Thousand Billion Poems''
* ''Le chien à la mandoline'' (1965)
* ''Battre la campagne'' (1967). ''Beating the Bushes''
* ''Courir les rues'' (1967). ''Hitting the Streets'', trans. Rachel Galvin (Carcanet, 2013)
* ''Fendre les flots'' (1969)
* ''Morale élémentaire'' (1975). ''Elementary Morality''
Essays and articles
* ''Joan Miró; ou, Le poète préhistorique'' (1949)
* ''Bâtons, chiffres et lettres'' (1950)
* ''Pour une bibliothèque idéale'' or ''For an Ars Poetica'' (1956)
* ''Entretiens avec Georges Charbonnier'' (1962)
* ''Bords'' (1963)
* ''Une Histoire modèle'' (1966)
* ''Le Voyage en Grèce'' (1973)
* ''Traité des vertus démocratiques'' (1955)
Other
* ''Un Cadavre'' (1930) with Jacques Baron,
Georges Bataille
Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...
, J.-A. Boiffard,
Robert Desnos, Michel Leiris, Georges Limbour, Max Morise,
Jacques Prévert
Jacques Prévert (; 4 February 1900 – 11 April 1977) was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. His best-regarded films formed part of the Poetic realism, poetic ...
, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, and
Roger Vitrac.
* ''En passant'' (1944) – theatre.
* ''Exercices de style'' (1947). ''
Exercises in Style'', trans. Barbara Wright (Gaberbocchus Press, 1958; )
* ''La Mort en ce Jardin'' (1956). ''
Death in the Garden'' – with
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and ...
, screenplay for the Franco-Mexican film production.
* ''Les fondements de la littérature d'après
David Hilbert'' (1976)
* ''Contes et propos'' (1981) – a collection of short tales or sketches.
* ''Journal 1939–1940'' (1986)
* ''Journaux 1914–1965'' (1996)
Compilations in English
* ''The Trojan Horse & At the Edge of the Forest'' (Gaberbocchus Press, 1954). Trans. Barbara Wright.
*''Pounding the Pavements, Beating the Bushes, and Other Pataphysical Poems'' (Unicorn Press, 1985). Trans. Teo Savory.
* ''Five Stories'' (Obscure Publications, 2000). Trans. Barbara Wright. Compiles: "Panic"; "Dino"; "At the Edge of the Forest"; "A Blue Funk"; and "The Trojan Horse"
*''Stories & Remarks'' (University of Nebraska Press, 2000). Trans. Marc Lowenthal.
*''Letters, Numbers, Forms: Essays, 1928–70'' (University of Illinois Press, 2007). Trans. Jordan Stump.
*''EyeSeas: Selected Poems'' (Black Widow Press, 2008). Trans. Daniela Hurezanu and Stephen Kessler.
In other art
* ''
Zazie dans le métro
Isabelle Marie Anne de Truchis de Varennes (born 18 April 1964), better known by her stage name Zazie, is a French pop singer and songwriter. Her greatest hits include "Je suis un homme", "À ma place" and "Speed (Zazie song), Speed". She co-pr ...
'' (1960), released as film adaptation
*
Pierre Bastien has made a CD with the
bilingual pun title ''Eggs Air Sister Steel'', based on ''Exercices de Style'' (which "Eggs Air Sister Steel" sounds like when spoken).
* A
typographic interpretation of the German version of ''Exercices de Style''
"Stilübungen – visuelle Interpretationen"by the graphic designe
Marcus Kraft was published in 2006.
* Spanish-Canadian composer
José Evangelista wrote the song cycle "Exercises de style" setting texts from Queneau's titular book in 1997.
See also
*
Georges Perec
*
Miroglyph
References
Further reading
''Raymond Queneau''by
Richard Cobb (Clarendon, 1976)
External links
* Queneau's former website
Periodicals Gallimard
Université McGill: le roman selon les romanciers (French)Inventory and analysis of Raymond Queneau's essays writings about the novel
Letterism papers, 1946–1965 Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Queneau, Raymond
1903 births
1976 deaths
Writers from Le Havre
University of Paris alumni
Oulipo members
Pataphysicians
French surrealist writers
Prix des Deux Magots winners
Postmodern writers
20th-century French novelists
20th-century French poets
French male poets
French male novelists
20th-century French male writers