Mathematics, poetry, fiction: the adventure of the Oulipo

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

¹ Subsequent co-options have expanded the group to include Marcel Duchamp (1962), Jacques Roubaud (1966), Georges Perec (1967), Marcel Benabou (1969), Luc Etienne (1970), Paul Fournel (1972), Harry Mathews (1973), Italo Calvino, (1974), Michéle Métail (1975), François Caradec (1983), Jacques Jouet (1983), Pierre Rosenstiehl (1992), Hervé Le Tellier (1992), Oskar Pastior (1992), Bernard Cerquiligni (1995), Michéle Grangaud (1995), Ian Monk (1998), Olivier Salon (2000), Anne Garetta (2000), Valérie Baudoin (2003), Frederic Forte (2005), Daniel Levin Becker (2009), keeping the balance between mathematicians, writers and ‘others’ roughly constant. About twelve members are active at any one time.

² Mathews and Brotchie 1998 gives a rich selection of Oulipian devices, in English; in French, the website of the group, http://www.oulipo.net/, has an alphabetical index of constraints.

³ English recount is an obvious example, as is German erzählen (related to Zahl, number) and French conter, raconter, which despite the variant spellings are derived from the same root as compter, compte (to count, an account).

⁴ Readers can play with the different paths through Queneau's tale on the web at http://www.gefilde.de/ashome/denkzettel/0013/queneau.htm

⁵ Other examples, taken like this one from Roubaud 2008, arrange letters (étoile, ortie [star, nettle]) or words (figs, lizards, snakes, heat, light, figs, snakes, light, lizards, heat, figs) as ‘keys’ to each chapter.

⁶ Private communication, May 2009.

⁷ Lapprand 2004, Le Tellier 2006 and James 2009 all have important insights that illuminate this difficult topic.