| Oulipo |
Website Links For Oulipo |
Information AboutOulipo |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT OULIPO | |
| 1960 establishments | |
| organizations based in france | |
| french literature | |
| pataphysics | |
| word games | |
|
Oulipo stands for "'''Ou'''vroir de '''li'''ttérature '''po'''tentielle", which translates roughly as "workshop of potential literature". It is a loose gathering of French-speaking writers and Mathematicians , and seeks to create works using Constrained Writing techniques. It was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais . Other notable members include Novel ists Georges Perec and Italo Calvino , and Poet and mathematician Jacques Roubaud . The group defines the term 'littérature potentielle' as (rough translation): "the seeking of new structures and patterns which may be used by writers in any way they enjoy". Constraints are used as a means of triggering ideas and inspiration, most notably Perec's "story-making machine" which he used in the construction of ''''. As well as established techniques, such as Lipogram s (Perec's novel '' A Void '') and Palindrome s, the group devises new techniques, often based on mathematical problems such as the Knight's Tour of the Chess -board and permutations. HISTORY Oulipo was founded on November 24, 1960, as a subcommittee of the Collège De ‘Pataphysique entitled ''Séminaire de littérature expérimentale''. However at their second meeting, this first name was withdrawn in favor of today's ''Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle'', or OuLiPo, at Albert-Marie Schmidt's suggestion. The idea, however, preceded the first meeting by roughly two months, when a small group met in September at Cerisy-la-Salle for a colloquium on Queneau's work. During this seminar, Queneau and François Le Lionnais conceived of the society. During the subsequent decade, Oulipo was only rarely visible as a group. As a subcommittee, they reported their work to the full Collège de 'Pataphysique in 1961 . In addition, ''Temps Mêlés'' devoted an issue to Oulipo in 1964 , and Belgian radio broadcast one Oulipo meeting. Its members were, however, individually active during these years, and the group as a whole began to emerge from obscurity in 1973 with the publication of ''La Littérature Potentielle'', a collection of representative pieces. OULIPIAN WORKS Some examples of Oulipian writing: Roubaud's '' La Belle Hortense '', a whimsical Detective story, in which six princes, all brothers, are suspects. All six appear in turn, in a different sequence each time. One of the six breaks the pattern: this is a clue that he is the culprit. Queneau's '' Exercices De Style '', in which he tells the same simple story ninety-nine times, each in a different style. Queneau's ''Cent Mille Milliards de Poèmes'' ''(s, each on a page. Each page is split into 14 strips, one for each line. The author estimates in the introductory explanation that it would take approximately 200 million years to read all possible combinations. CONSTRAINTS Some Oulipian constraints: The "N+7" method: replace every noun in a text with the word that falls 7 places ahead of it in the dictionary. Thus "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago..." (from '' Moby Dick '') becomes "Call me islander. Some yeggs ago...". The prisoner's constraint (a.k.a the "macao" constraint) consists of writing a text using no letters with legs (i.e., b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, p, q, t, and y are banned). Snowball: a poem in which each line is a single word, and each successive word is one letter longer. Other constraints used: Lipograms: writing a composition without using a particularly common letter, usually a vowel (often times "e"). The inverse constraint is often used; a composition is written using only a certain vowel or certain letters. Palindromes MEMBERS Founding members The founding members of Oulipo representing a range of Intellectual pursuits including writers, University Professor s, mathematicians, Engineer s, and 'pataphysicians :
Members As Of 2005 Note that Oulipo members are still considered members after their deaths, although dead members are excused from group meetings.
REFERENCES
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|