Influenced by some of the work of Bourbaki and Alfred Jarry, Oulipo sets out to examine how, and by what means, aesthetic pleasure, emotion and fantasy can be introduced into a scientific theory of language and hence of anthropology.
Creativity and humor therefore guide Oulipo's investigations. Its founders are logicians, mathematicians, artists and creative figures for whom every possible application of mathematical tools to language is fair game—and put into practice. Far from stifling creativity, a constraint helps it flourish by forcing a thorough exploration of a given field. Perec, for example, wrote a novel without using the vowel "e" (La Disparition, Gallimard, 1969), while Calvino constructed a book's plot around Greimas squares (Si par une nuit d'hiver un voyageur, Le Seuil, 1981).
Fifty years after its creation, Oulipo is more productive than ever. It opens up its writing workshops and shares its games with a growing number of enthusiastic newcomers.
Jacques Roubaud, mathematician and poet
-----------------------------------------
Born in 1935, Jacques Roubaud placed his career as a writer under the twin signs of mathematics and poetry. A mathematician by profession and drawn to literature from an early age, he initially pursued the two disciplines separately, regarding them as distinct until he met Raymond Queneau, himself both a writer and a mathematician. This encounter led to his co-option into Oulipo in 1966. Following in Queneau's footsteps, Jacques Roubaud explores the infinite possibilities of number and language.
