OULIPO LABORATORY: Texts from the Biblioth‚que Oulipenne

by Alastair--Ed. Brotehie ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1996

An anthology of representative writings from the French experimental group (the ""Workshop for Potential Literature"") that was founded by post-surrealist Raymond Queneau for the purpose of exploring the possibilities of combining literature with mathematics, and whose members included such other verbal magicians as Italo Calvino and Georges Perec. Its contents reflect varying degrees of intelligibility, but readers should be amused (if not especially enlightened) by Calvino's ""diagram"" of the relations among writer, characters, and reader required by one of his novels--as well as by Jacques Jouet's ""The Great-Ape Love-Song"" and the alarmingly witty ""eye rhymes"" displayed in two joyously nutty sequences of poems by the fiendish Harry Mathews. An improbably enjoyable collection.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1996

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Atlas--dist. by Serpent's Tail

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1996

Categories: FICTION