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30 - Oulipo, Experiment and the Novel

from Part V - Fictions of the Fifth Republic: From de Gaulle to the Internet Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2021

Adam Watt
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Summary

This chapter explores the novel-writing of the experimental writing collective the Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (Oulipo). Despite the seeming mismatch between the Oulipo's attachment to form and the perceived formlessness of the novel, many oulipians have experimented with writing novels. This chapter begins by considering how oulipians have re-invented the novel form via the transposition of structures and constraints from other genres and disciplines. It then reflects on the various functions of these structures and constraints arguing that, while some serve primarily as architectural devices or creative stimuli, others are intrinsically meaningful. In particular I reflect on the ways in which oulipian-authored novels explore the relationship between self and system, and between the individual and the collective. Indeed, oulipian-authored novels often bear the collective stamp of the Oulipo. As this chapter argues, the group has developed a compelling shared imaginary that marks its novelistic production and that raises questions concerning authorship and creative ownership. Lastly, this chapter considers the ways in which oulipian-authored novels frequently invite the reader into a literary game that draws out his or her own creative potential.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Baetens, Jan, ‘Free Writing, Constrained Writing: The Ideology of Form’, Poetics Today, 18.1 (1997), 114Google Scholar
Baetens, Jan, Romans à contraintes (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baetens, Jan and Schiavetta, Bernardo, ‘Editorial’, Formules, 3 (1999), 610Google Scholar
Bénabou, Marcel, ‘La Règle et la contrainte’, Pratique, 39 (1983), 101–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bénabou, Marcel, ‘Roman oulipien ou roman d’Oulipiens?’, Pages des libraires, 44 (1997), 31Google Scholar
Bens, Jacques, ‘Queneau oulipien’, in Oulipo, , Atlas de littérature potentielle (Paris: Gallimard, 1981)Google Scholar
Bloomfield, Camille, ‘L’Oulipo dans l’histoire des groupes et mouvements littéraires: une mise en perspective’, La Licorne, 100 (2012), 114Google Scholar
Burgelin, Claude, Les Parties de dominos chez Monsieur Lefèvre: Perec avec Freud, Perec contre Freud (Paris: Circé, 1996)Google Scholar
James, Alison, ‘Écritures en collaboration’, in Oulipo, mode d’emploi, ed. by Reggiani, Christiane and Schaffner, Alain (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2016), pp. 303–15Google Scholar
Lescure, Jean, ‘Petite histoire de l’Oulipo’, in Oulipo, , La Littérature potentielle: créations, re-créations, récréations (Paris: Gallimard, 1973), pp. 2840Google Scholar
Motte, Warren, The Poetics of Experiment: A Study of the World of Georges Perec (Lexington: French Forum Monographs, 1984)Google Scholar
Motte, Warren, ‘Raymond Queneau and the Aesthetic of Formal Constraint’, Romanic Review, 82.2 (1991), 193209Google Scholar
Motte, Warren, ‘Shapes of Things’, L’Esprit Créateur, 48.2 (2008), 517Google Scholar
Neefs, Jacques, ‘Georges Perec: Distributive Constraints, Textual Liberties’, Journal of Romance Studies, 16 (2007), 5974CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perec, Georges, Entretiens et conférences I: 1965–1978 (Paris: Éditions Joseph K, 2003)Google Scholar
Roubaud, Jacques, ‘Deux principes parfois respectés par les travaux oulipiens’, in Oulipo, Atlas de la littérature potentielle (Paris: Gallimard, 1981)Google Scholar
Roubaud, Jacques, ‘L’auteur oulipien’, in L’Auteur et le manuscrit, ed. by Contat, Michel (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1991), pp. 7792Google Scholar
Tahar, Virginie, ‘Du Roman oulipien au roman de l’Oulipo’, in Oulipo, mode d’emploi, ed. by Reggiani, Christelle and Schaffner, Alain (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2016), pp. 207–22Google Scholar
Viart, Dominique, Le Roman français au XXe siècle (Paris: Hachette, 1999)Google Scholar

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