Jacques Roubaud: l’amour du nombre (review)

When I began research on Jacques Roubaud in 1984, information was scant. Fortunately, the situation has changed and Véronique Montémont’s new work, Jacques Roubaud: l’amour du nombre, represents a turning point in roubaldien studies. It is an impressive achievement when considering Roubaud’s vast and challenging œuvre. This mathematician-poet-novelist is of historical import since his texts reflect the significance of surrealism, the theorists of Tel Quel, structuralism, linguists from Benveniste to Chomsky, contemporary theories of prosody and rhythm, post-structuralism and postmodernism, as well as the experimental mathematics of the group Bourbaki. His poetry is both lyrical and formally innovative; in fact, it represents some of the best work of the Oulipo. Roubaud, inducted in 1966 under the tutelage of co-founder Raymond Queneau, is one of the group’s most senior members. Accused of writing too much, he pleads guilty: the sheer quantity of his work confounds the reader. His autobiographic story, which I hasten to include in his list of accomplishments, stands at 2500 pages, and a new volume is in the works. His is a daunting œuvre, to say the least.