Oulipo

Warren Motte is chair of the Department of French and Italian at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he specializes in contemporary writing and focuses particularly on experimental works that challenge conventional notions of literary form. He has written several studies of contemporary French Literature, including Fables of the Novel: French Fiction Since 1990, available from Dalkey Archive Press. Translator and editor of Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature, he also edited an issue of the journal SubStance dedicated to the work of Jacques Jouet, and is a contributing editor to Context magazine. Boris Vian (1920-1959) passa comme un meteore au milieu de notre siecle, laissant une trace eblouissante et vivace. Chantre des delires et des merveilles, alchimiste fecond du langage et des formes, messager audacieux de l'imaginaire, il nous offre des pages inspirees par la poesie des extremes, temoignant d'une volonte farouche de creer et de partager.

"Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature is an important collection of Oulipian writing.... It offers a good deal of insight intothe methods behind what is too often considered their madness, as well as showing much of the personal side of those involved with the Oulipo, especially in its early years. The material should be of interest to anyone involved in writing or, indeed, in reading, as Oulipian thought is applicable to almost all written material..." — The Complete Review