Pierre Alféri

Alferi studied at the École Normale Supérieure, rue d'Ulm and completed his agrégation.^[1] After his dissertation on William of Ockham, supervised by Louis Marin, Alferi began to primarily write poetry.^[2] Alferi was also a literary translator who has translated works by John Donne, Giorgio Agamben and Meyer Schapiro from English and Russian into French.^[3] He had also written songs for several performing artists including Jeanne Balibar. Between 1991 and 1992, Alferi was writer-in-residence at the Fondation Royaumont, and at the French Academy in Rome between 1987 and 1988.^{[citation needed]}

Alferi was co-founder (with Suzanne Doppelt), of the literary journal Détail, and La Revue de Littérature Générale (with Olivier Cadiot). Alferi taught at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris,^[4] the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris, and the European Graduate School. His work is considered singular and unclassifiable as it includes poetry, drawing, music, novel and philosophy. ^[5] Alferi was also a translator of poetry and philosophy including the work of Agamben. ^[6]

Pierre Alferi was born in Paris on 10 April 1963 to Jacques Derrida, philosopher and inventor of deconstruction and Marguerite Derrida, a psychoanalyst.^[7][8][9] He was of Algerian-Jewish descent through his father, and Czech descent through his mother.^[10] He tried to remain discreet about his ancestry, namely his famous philosopher father Derrida, by adopting his maternal grandmother's name for public life.^[1]

Alferi suffered from cancer and died in Paris on 16 August 2023, at the age of 60.^{[11] [12]}

Poetry

• Les Allures naturelles POL, Paris, 1991 ISBN 2-86744-218-4
• Le Chemin familier du poisson combatif, POL, Paris, 1992 ISBN 2-86744-308-3
• Kub Or, POL, Paris, 1994 ISBN 2-86744-411-X
• Sentimentale journée, POL, Paris, 1997 ISBN 2-86744-557-4
• Personal Pong (avec Jacques Julien), Villa Saint-Clair, Sète, 1997
• Handicap (avec Jacques Julien), Rroz, 2000
• petit, petit, Rup et rud, 2001
• La Voie des airs, POL, Paris, 2004 ISBN 2-86744-993-6
• OXO (photos by Suzanne Doppelt, trans. by Cole Swensen), Burning Deck, Providence, 2004 ISBN 1-886224-66-8
• Writing the Real: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary French Poetry (translated by Kate Lermitte Campbell), 2016. Enitharmon Press

Novels

• Fmn, POL, Paris, 1994 ISBN 2-86744-440-3
• Le Cinéma des familles, POL, Paris, 1999 ISBN 2-86744-713-5
• Les Jumelles, POL, Paris, 2009 ISBN 978-2-84682-309-8
• Après vous, POL, Paris, 2010 ISBN 978-2-8180-0009-0

Essays

• Guillaume d'Ockham le singulier, Minuit, coll. « Philosophie », Paris, 1989 ISBN 2-7073-1200-2
• Chercher une phrase, Christian Bourgois, coll. « Détroits », Paris, 1991 ISBN 2-267-01025-9
• Des enfants et des monstres, POL, Paris, 2004 ISBN 2-86744-992-8

Art

• Ca Commence à Séoul, DVD video. Pierre Alféri and Jacques Julien, Le Label Dernière Bande and Éditions P.O.L. 2007
• L'inconnu, Pierre Alféri and Jacques Julien, le Quartier - Centre d'art contemporain de Quimper. 2004

• Pierre Alferi at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
• Pierre Alferi at The European Graduate School
• Hommage à Pierre Alferi (1963-2023) : « Ma grande affaire est le maintien ou le retour de la vie dans ce qui s’arrête »
• Pierre Alferi. University of California, Berkeley. 2009 Regents' Lecturer.
• Hommage à Pierre Alferi, Radio France.