Pajak and Tenret's Joyce Biography: A Playful, Colorful Anti-Biography

Frédéric Pajak and Yves Tenret's 'Humour. Une biographie de James Joyce' (PUF, 2001) is a deliberately disjunctive work that challenges the biographical genre. The book features a fundamental disagreement between Pajak and Tenret on Joyce, which becomes the engine of their collaboration. Pajak's signature black-and-white drawings give way to color for the first time, including a red-bowtied Joyce on the cover. The text and images do not illustrate each other but operate independently. A fictional letter from Joyce himself, dated Dublin, July 20, 2001, introduces a third-person narrative that blends Joyce's autobiography with the authors' own lives. The work is framed as a 'biography' but subverts the form through parody, anachronism, and self-reflexivity. Pajak's earlier books, such as 'Martin Luther, l'inventeur de la solitude' (L'Aire, soon reissued by PUF) and 'L'Immense solitude,' already used elongated noses on characters as a theatrical device. The new book shifts from monochrome to color, evoking the Book of Kells and Joyce's own fascination with it. The title 'Humour' juxtaposes Joyce's tragic and joyful life. The book is part of PUF's 'Perspectives critiques' series.