UNIT 5: OULIPO, POTENTIAL LITERATURE
 
READING: -- "Oulipo: The First Manifesto" by Le Lionnais Prisoner's Restriction: a russian con's economic missive Ian Monk -- The Poet as Outlaw Harry Matthews -- "Summary" from A Void Georges Perec -- Lines read at Alix-Cleo Blanchett's and Jacques Roubaud's Bridal G.Perec WRITING: -- Locate a constraint in the Oulipo Compendium. In your own words, explain the constraint or process. Then, write a piece that practices the procedure. Write a process note at the top. . TERMS/ISSUES: constraint, machine, potentiality
Oct 26 The Analytic: art as retrieval
 
Oulipians: rats who construct the labyrinth from which they plan to escape [...] whole arsenal in which the poet may pick and choose whenever he wishes to escape from that which is called inspiration. -Raymond Queneau
 
The constraint is a rhetoric of invention which owes its powerful effect precisely  to the fact that it exceeds the cultural expectation defined by the rule.  -Christlee Reggiani
 
Nov 2 The Synthetic: Newlipo & Oulipo Now
 
READING:
 
-- from Eunoia by Christian Bok
-- Drunken Boat Issue No. 8 / Oulipo Feature
 
One of the latent goals of the Oulipian enterprise is being realized before our very eyes: the explosion of a conscious revolution in the way we realize human potential. -curator, Drunken Boat No. 8 Jean-Jacques Poucel
 
--Electronic Book Review / Writing Under Constraint
optional: further Oulipo readings/texts
 
The Oulipo's goal is to discover new structures and to furnish for each structure a small number of examples. -Francois Le Lionnais
 
The author lurks behind the scenes as the inventor of the constraint and the manipulator of its applications. --Alison James, "Automatism, Arbitrariness and the Oulipian"
 
 
WRITING:
 
--Write a new (invented!) constraint/form/recipe, and bring 17 copies to class.  
.
 
TERMS/ISSUES:
 
constraint, machine, potentiality