Oulipo Compendium

Harry Mathews, Alastair Brotchie

Atlas Press, 2005 - Fiction - 333 pages

What do Marcel Duchamp and Italo Calvino have in common? The Oulipo, or Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle. This 2Workshop for Potential Literature3 was founded by Raymond Queneau and friends in 1960 to find out how abstract restrictions could be combined with imaginative writing (as in Georges Perec's celebrated 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. It includes extensive selections from the work of Oulipians, analyses of their important works, and descriptions of their methods. Further sections cover related groups working in the fields of art, detective fiction, comic strips, even cuisine. --

Contents

• Directions for Use: 9
• Harry Mathews: 10
• JeanLouis Bailly Paul Fournel: 66

About the author

Harry Mathews was born in New York City on February 14, 1930. He attended Princeton University in 1947, but left in his sophomore year to join the United States Navy. Once his military service was completed, he received a B.A. in music from Harvard University in 1952. He was the only American to become a member of Oulipo, an experimental group of French writers and mathematicians who believe constrained writing techniques are the key to invention. He was an author and editor of the Paris Review literary magazine. His novels included The Conversions, My Life in CIA, and The Solitary Twin. He died on January 25, 2017 at the age of 86.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Oulipo Compendium; Volume 6 of Atlas arkhive
• Editors: Harry Mathews, Alastair Brotchie
• Edition: 2, illustrated, revised
• Publisher: Atlas Press, 2005
• ISBN: 0974355437, 9780974355436
• Length: 333 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / General; Literary Criticism / General; Poetry / Anthologies (multiple authors)