How to Do Things with Forms: The Oulipo and Its Inventions

The Oulipo is a literary think tank that brings together writers and mathematicians, and How to Do Things with Forms assesses its work, explores its origins, and considers its future. It emphasizes the importance of translation and offers fresh interpretations of emblematic Oulipian works, addressing questions of interest to anyone involved in the making of literature.

Format: Paperback / softback
Publication date: 30 September 2022
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press

The Oulipo (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle, or Workshop for Potential Literature) is a literary think tank that brings together writers and mathematicians. Since 1960, its worldwide influence has refreshed ways of making and thinking about literature.

How to Do Things with Forms assesses the work of the group, explores where it came from, and envisages its future. Redefining the Oulipos key concept of the constraint in a clear and rigorous way, Chris Andrews weighs the roles of craft and imitation in the groups practice. He highlights the importance of translation for the Oulipos writers, explaining how their new forms convey meanings and how these famously playful authors are also moved by serious concerns. Offering fresh interpretations of emblematic Oulipian works such as Georges Perec's Life: A User's Manual, Andrews also examines lesser-known texts by Jacques Roubaud, Anne F. Garréta, and Michelle Grangaud.

How to Do Things with Forms addresses questions of interest to anyone involved in the making of literature, illuminating how writers decide when to stop revising, the risks and benefits of a project mentality in creative writing, and ways of holding a reader's interest for as long as possible.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780228011637