Editions P.O.L is perhaps the most innovative and important Frenchpublisher today, welcoming richly challenging and experimentalliterature into its fold to appear side by side with books belongingsquarely in the mainstream. This issue of The Review of Contemporary Fiction pays tribute to this remarkable publisher with essays,images, and excerpts from previously untranslated works, and aninterview with founder and director Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens.
The Review of Contemporary Fiction was founded in 1981 to promote a vision of literary culturethat is not limited to the immediately popular, and to ensure that important world writers outside popular attention continue to be written about and discussed.
| Introduction: Why P.O.L. Matters |
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9 | (8) |
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A Conversation with Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens |
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17 | (15) |
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P.O.L: An Elegy for the Present |
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32 | (4) |
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Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens Descending a Staircase |
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36 | (8) |
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Five Books Published by Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens: A Critical Poem |
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44 | (5) |
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The Early Years of P.O.L: A Story |
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49 | (12) |
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61 | (6) |
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On Literature as Readymade |
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67 | (7) |
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A Guided Tour of P.O.L's Editorial Offices |
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74 | (12) |
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86 | (15) |
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SELECTIONS FROM THE P.O.L LIST |
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101 | (2) |
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103 | (2) |
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105 | (1) |
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Retour Definitif Et Durable De L'etre Aime (2002) |
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106 | (2) |
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108 | (1) |
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Quasi Una Fantasia (1996) |
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109 | (1) |
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110 | (1) |
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111 | (2) |
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113 | (2) |
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Les Merveilles Du Monde (2007) |
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115 | (1) |
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La Lenteur De L'Avenir (1987) |
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116 | (1) |
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117 | (2) |
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Le Centre De La France (2006) |
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119 | (1) |
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En Attendant Esclarmonde (2009) |
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120 | (1) |
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121 | (2) |
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123 | (2) |
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125 | (2) |
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127 | (2) |
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Saint-Tropez---Une Americaine (2001) |
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129 | (2) |
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La Cause Des Portraits (2009) |
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131 | (2) |
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133 | (1) |
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134 | (2) |
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136 | (2) |
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| contributors |
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138 | (2) |
| translators |
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140 | (1) |
| book reviews |
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141 | (14) |
| books received |
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155 | (2) |
| annual index |
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157 | |
John O'Brien is a well-known NEW YORKER cartoonist. For Clarion, he has illustrated DEAR OLD DONEGAL Irving MaIin is a member of the faculty of City College of New York. Warren Motte is chair of the Department of French and Italian at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he specializes in contemporary writing and focuses particularly on experimental works that challenge conventional notions of literary form. He has written several studies of contemporary French Literature, including Fables of the Novel: French Fiction Since 1990, available from Dalkey Archive Press. Translator and editor of Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature, he also edited an issue of the journal SubStance dedicated to the work of Jacques Jouet, and is a contributing editor to Context magazine.
