thumb|right|Ponge in later years

Francis Jean Gaston Alfred Ponge (; 27 March 1899 – 6 August 1988) was a French poet. He developed a form of prose poem, minutely examining everyday objects. He was the third recipient of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1974.

Life

Ponge was born into a Protestant family in Montpellier, the son of Armand Ponge, a banker, and his wife Juliette, née Saurel. He studied in Paris at the Sorbonne and the École de droit where he read law, and he established a reputation in French literary circles, principally for his contributions to the Nouvelle Revue Française. The editor of the publication, Jean Paulhan, became Ponge's mentor, and remained so for many years. Their correspondence continued until Paulhan's death in 1968. During the 1930s Ponge was for a short while associated with the Surrealist movement, influenced by which he joined the Communist Party in 1937. From 1952 to 1965 he held a professorship at the Alliance française in Paris.

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Other works include 'La Guêpe', a word play on the name of painter Émile Picq (1911–1951).

Bibliography

  • Le Parti pris des choses (1942)
  • Proêmes (1948)
  • La Rage de l'expression (1952)
  • Le Grand Recueil (I. "Méthodes", 1961; II. "Lyres", 1961; III "Pièces", 1962)
  • Pour un Malherbe (1965)
  • Le Savon (1967) as Soap, Jonathan Cape, London
  • Interviews with Philippe Sollers (1970)
  • La Fabrique du Pré (1971)
  • Comment une figue de paroles et pourquoi (1977)
  • Pages d'atelier, 1917–1982 (Gallimard, 2005)

Source of information and publicity for Francis Ponge's work

The association based on a suggestion of Armande Ponge (daughter of Odette and Francis Ponge) was founded by Jean-Marie Gleize in Paris in 2011 and was named Société des Lecteurs de Francis Ponge (S. L. F. P.). The Ordinary General Assembly take place once a year alternatively in Paris and in Lyon. The association is aimed not only at disseminating and promoting Ponge's writing, but also at encouraging cultural knowledge and research. It provided financing for the publication of the Society's bulletin replaced since 2017 by the Cahiers Francis Ponge published by Classiques Garnier. The Internet site (http://francisponge-slfp.ens-lyon.fr) offers news, historical as well as recent articles, links and contains some informations about Francis Ponge's works, letters and manuscripts and radio, video, photo archives.

Notes

Further reading

;Commentaries on Ponge

  • Jacques Derrida, in his essay, "Psyche: Inventions of the Other," minutely analyzes Ponge's poem, "Fable." [https://web.archive.org/web/20050915221506/http://personales.ciudad.com.ar/Derrida/psyche.htm]
  • Jacques Derrida, in his book Signeponge-Signsponge, English translation by Richard Rand, Columbia University Press, 1984.
  • Philippe Sollers, in his essay Francis Ponge, Seghers éditions, Paris, 2001.
  • Annick Fritz-Smead, Francis Ponge: De l'Ecriture à l'Oeuvre, Peter Lang Publishing, 1997.
  • Marco Nuti, Au Pays des Mots. Francis Ponge et l’inaperçu du réel, LED Edizioni Universitarie, Milano, 2009,
  • Jean-Paul Sartre, "L'homme et les choses", in Situations I, Paris, Gallimard, 1947, 251–252.