PATAPHYSICS-THE-POETICS-OF-AN-IMAGINARY- SCIENCE_C_Bok

ABSTRACT
'Pata~hssics: The Poetics of an Imaainarv Science is a
survey that attempts to describe a hypothetic philosophpthe
avant-garde pseudo-science imagined by Alfred Jarry.
'Pataphysics is a supplement to metaphysics, accenting it,
then replacing it, in order to create a philosophic
alternative, whose discipline can study cases, not of
conception, but of exception: variance (anomalos), alliance
(syzuaia), and deviance (clinamen). 'Pataphysics
synthesizes the romantic schism between a literal,
scientized discourse and a figural, poeticized discourse,
and my thesis suggests that this revision of the signifier
"science" by 'pataphysics is symptomatic of a postrnodern
transition in science from a paradigm of absolutism to a
paralogy of relativism.
Structured as a descriptive
explication, which emphasizes a theoretical perspective,
this survey is divided into five chapters:
the first
chapter recounts the history of the conflict between science
and poetry (in order to contextualize 'pataphysics within
the metaphysical philosophies of the past); the second
chapter examines the avant-garde pseudo-science of
'pataphysics itself (in order to contextualize 'pataphysics
within the anti-metaphysical meta-philosophies of the
present); and finally, the last three chapters discuss the
influence of 'pataphysics upon the poetics of its subsequent