Oulipo

The Oulipo (Acronym of “sewing room of potential literature”) is a group of bitten Littérature. First of long series of sewing rooms gathered under the term Ouxpo, to pronounce “Or-X-Po”, X having to represent a syllable articulable, Oulipo is an association founded in 1960 by the writer and poet Raymond Queneau and the mathematician François Lionnais, initially instituted under the name of SLE (Sélitex: seminar of experimental literature). The first meeting of Oulipo took place the November 24th 1960. The members meet regularly to work under “constraints”. The current president of this group is Paul Fournel, the first was François Lionnais, then No5el Arnaud.

Presentation

This association includes/understands writers, unquestionable famous such as Italo Calvino or Georges Perec, but also of the personalities having a double competence like the type-setter of mathematics and poetry Jacques Roubaud or (almost) pure mathematicians like Claude Berge (developer of the Graph theory). Considering that the forced formal are powerful stimulating for imagination, Oulipo laid down several objectives gathered in two currents:

  • a current synthetic, charged to imagine and try out new literary constraints, as one summarizes it their own definitions: “Oulipiens: rats which have to build the labyrinth which they propose to leave. ”
  • an analytical current, charged to seek the “plagiarists by anticipation”. More clearly, the goal is to study works of last in the light of the new means created by the synthetic current.

The synthetic current is most active and especially most spectacular. One owes him in particular the invention of the Méthode S plus N (starting from the “method S + 7” development by Jean Lescure since 1961), the literature Combinatoire, which made it possible Raymond Queneau to write A hundred and Thousand Billion Poems but also Boolean poems based on the Set theory or “poems with metamorphoses for ribbons of Möbius”

The analytical current produced historical works as a history of the Lipogramme by Georges Perec ( Disappearance ) but also a formal analysis of the relation “X takes Y for Z” and its application to various literary styles among other studies.

This movement has ancestors in the European literary adventure, in particular the Grands Rhetoriqueurs of the beginning of the Renaissance (fine of the 16th century). They indeed tried out many the possibilities of the language: word games, technical lettrists and forced oulipiennes before the letter, for example of the poems crosswords being able to be read in all the directions… these pre-oulipiens have for Oulipo the title of “plagiarists by anticipation”.

The first work of potential literature was published by the Collège of' Pataphysique, science to which Alfred Jarry dedicated his existence.

Meetings (or Runions )

Oulipo meets once a month into private, and publicly second Thursday of the month to the Forum of the images, with Paris.

Because of work to the Forum of the images, the meetings are held with the Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand since the re-entry 2005.

Members

One becomes member of the Sewing room by co-optation. A novel member is necessarily elected unanimously, in the condition never of not having asked to belong to the Sewing room. Each " coopté" is obviously free to refuse to enter there (its refusal is consequently final), but once elected, it cannot resign (only l'" of it; occultation" - rare - is possible). Here the list of the members of OuLiPo in 2006. The members remain it after their death (they are excused due to death).

Christmas Arnaud, Valerie Beaudouin, Marcel Bénabou, Jacques Bens, Claude Berge, Andre Blavier, Paul Braffort, Italo Calvino, François Caradec, Bernard Cerquiglini, Ross Chambers, Stanley Chapman, Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Duchateau, Luc Etienne, Frederic Strong, Paul Fournel, Anne F. Garréta, Michelle Grangaud, Jacques Toy, Latis, François Lionnais, Herve Tellier, Jean Lescure, Harry Mathews, Michele Métail, Ian Monk, Oskar Pastior, Georges Perec, Raymond Queneau, Jean Queval, Pierre Rosenstiehl, Jacques Roubaud, Olivier Living room, Albert-Marie Schmidt.

See in the same way the : Category: Oulipien

Books

For more information, one will be able to refer to the principal French works: both writings under the collective name of the “Oulipo” and published at Folio tests. all three writings under the collective name of the “Oulipo”.
  • the Library oulipienne at Seghers, then with the Astral Beaver, which only joins together the booklets published by Oulipiens for their friends with 150 specimens (numbered), under the name of the Library Oulipienne .
  • Moments oulipiens with the Astral Beaver, collection of short anecdotes and reflections, presented by the oulipiens themselves.
  • Genesis of Oulipo , which gathers the minutes of the first meetings of 1960 to 1963, by the oulipien Jacques Bens, with the Astral Castor.
  • an Esthetic test, of Oulipo , published by the oulipien Herve Tellier with the Astral Beaver.

There exist other sewing rooms: for example the sewing room of potential music (Oumupo), the sewing room of band-drawn potential (Oubapo), all based on the principle of the Or-X-Po.

Of other books oulipiens

See the : Category: Work oulipienne and also, more precisely:

By Georges Perec:

By Raymond Queneau:

By Italo Calvino:

By Jacques Roubaud:

  • Beautiful Hortense , Threshold Points.
  • Something black , Gallimard.

By Jacques Toy:

  • Romillats , Seghers.

By Paul Fournel:

  • You which know world , Gallimard.

By Georges Perec, Harry Mathews and Oskar Pastior:

By Herve Tellier:

See too

Related articles

External bonds

  • official site of Oulipo

  • site oulipien in general
  • Site of Stephan Barbery
  • Site of the NRM

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