Oulipo Compendium
by John Ashbery and Alastair Brotchie and Harry Mathews and Marcel Duchamp and Paul Fournel and Richard Curtis and François Caradec and Ian Monk and Georges Perec and Gilbert Sorrentino and Keith Waldrop and Jacques Jouet and Jacques Roubaud and Raymond Queneau and Jerome Sala and Noël Arnaud and François Le Lionnais and Tom King and Stefan Themerson and Jean-Louis Bailly and Jacques Barine and Marcel Bénabou and Jacques Bens and André Blavier and Lynn Crawford and Jacques Duchateau and Luc Etienne and Jean-Pierre Énard and IN.S.OMNIA and Quirinus Kuhlmann and Hervé Le Tellier and Michèle Métail and Paul Gayot and Oulipo and Oulipopo and Jean de Porla and Jacques Carelman and Raphael Rubinstein and Schuldt and Francis Debyser and Dallas Wiebe and Thieri Foulc
What do Marcel Duchamp and Italo Calvino have in common? The Oulipo, or Ouvroir de litterature potentielle. Raymond Queneau and Francois Le Lionnais founded their "Workshop for Potential Literature" in 1960 to find out how abstract restrictions could be combined with imaginative writing (as in Georges Perec's notorious novel written without the letter e.) Still formidably active, the Oulipo is now recognised as the most original, productive and provocative literary enterprise to appear since the last war. This Compendium is the first comprehensive survey of the group in any language and it includes, as well as biographical, bibliographical and theoretical information: a complete translation of Queneau's 100,000,000,000,000 Poems, the work that led to the Oulipo's creation; Jacques Roubaud's extensive account of Oulipian history and practice; full documentation of Oulipian writing techniques, with translated or original examples, many of them full-length works; analyses of important Oulipian works, such as Perec's Life A User's Manual, and Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveller. Briefer sections are devoted to related groups, among them: The Oupeinpo (potential painting) and its many creative techniques, most of them illustrated; the Oulipopo (potential detective fiction) and its array of methods for inventing and solving crimes; the Oubapo (potential comic strips) and its new ways to combine drawing and text. The Oulipo Compendium abounds in material for writers, teachers and scholars; it also offers a cornucopia of entertainment for curious readers.
Release Date:
January 31, 2006
