29-588: Raymond Queneau ( French: [ʁɛmɔ̃ kəno] ; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo ( Ouvroir de littérature potentielle ), notable for his wit and cynical humour. Queneau was born at 47, rue Thiers (now Avenue René-Coty), Le Havre , Seine-Inférieure , the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot. After studying in Le Havre, Queneau moved to Paris in 1920 and received his first baccalauréat in 1925 for philosophy from
58-626: A circular theory of sciences), and a review of a book on the history of equestrian caparisons by an artillery officer. He also helped with writing passages on Engels and a mathematical dialectic for Bataille's article, "A critique of the foundations of Hegelian dialectic." Jacques Lacan became seriously interested in mathematics, and made early contributions to game theory, after reading Queneau's works. Oulipo Oulipo ( French pronunciation: [ulipo] , short for French : Ouvroir de littérature potentielle ; roughly translated: "workshop of potential literature" , stylized OuLiPo )
87-736: A quiet superiority and erudite thoughtfulness. Leiris and Queneau became friends later while writing for Bataille's Documents . Queneau questioned Surrealist support of the USSR in 1926. He remained on cordial terms with André Breton , although he also continued associating with Simone Kahn after Breton split up with her. Breton usually demanded that his followers ostracize his former girlfriends. It would have been difficult for Queneau to avoid Simone, however, since he married her sister, Janine, in 1928. The year that Breton left Simone, she sometimes traveled around France with her sister and Queneau. By 1930, Queneau separated himself significantly from Breton and
116-491: A range of intellectual pursuits, including writers, university professors , mathematicians, engineers , and " pataphysicians ": Oulipo Oulipo ( French pronunciation: [ulipo] , short for French : Ouvroir de littérature potentielle ; roughly translated: "workshop of potential literature" , stylized OuLiPo ) is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works using constrained writing techniques. It
145-753: A small group met in September at Cerisy-la-Salle for a colloquium on Queneau's work. During this seminar, Queneau and François Le Lionnais conceived the society. During the subsequent decade, Oulipo (as it was commonly known) was only rarely visible as a group. As a subcommittee, they reported their work to the full Collège de 'Pataphysique in 1961. In addition, Temps Mêlés [ fr ] (in French) devoted an issue to Oulipo in 1964, and Belgian radio broadcast one Oulipo meeting. Its members were individually active during these years and published works which were created within their constraints. The group as
174-643: A small group met in September at Cerisy-la-Salle for a colloquium on Queneau's work. During this seminar, Queneau and François Le Lionnais conceived the society. During the subsequent decade, Oulipo (as it was commonly known) was only rarely visible as a group. As a subcommittee, they reported their work to the full Collège de 'Pataphysique in 1961. In addition, Temps Mêlés [ fr ] (in French) devoted an issue to Oulipo in 1964, and Belgian radio broadcast one Oulipo meeting. Its members were individually active during these years and published works which were created within their constraints. The group as
203-554: A song by Joseph Kosma with lyrics by Queneau. During this time, Queneau also acted as a translator , notably for Amos Tutuola 's The Palm-Wine Drinkard ( L'Ivrogne dans la brousse ) in 1953. Additionally, he edited and published Alexandre Kojève 's lectures on Hegel 's Phenomenology of Spirit . Queneau had been a student of Kojève during the 1930s and was, during this period, also close to writer Georges Bataille . As an author, Queneau came to general attention in France with
232-462: A train from Le Havre and brought him over. Queneau was a few years younger and felt less accomplished than the other men. He did not make a big impression on the young bohemians. After Queneau came back from the army, around 1926–7, he and Leiris met at the Café Certa, near L'Opera, a Surrealist hang-out. On this occasion, when conversation delved into Eastern philosophy, Queneau's comments showed
261-734: A whole began to emerge from obscurity in 1973 with the publication of La Littérature Potentielle [ fr ] , a collection of representative pieces. Martin Gardner helped to popularize the group in America when he featured Oulipo in his February 1977 Mathematical Games column in Scientific American. In 2012 Harvard University Press published a history of the movement, Many Subtle Channels: In Praise of Potential Literature , by Oulipo member Daniel Levin Becker . Oulipo
290-500: A whole began to emerge from obscurity in 1973 with the publication of La Littérature Potentielle [ fr ] , a collection of representative pieces. Martin Gardner helped to popularize the group in America when he featured Oulipo in his February 1977 Mathematical Games column in Scientific American. In 2012 Harvard University Press published a history of the movement, Many Subtle Channels: In Praise of Potential Literature , by Oulipo member Daniel Levin Becker . Oulipo
319-494: Is Exercises in Style , which tells the simple story of a man's seeing the same stranger twice in one day. It tells that short story in 99 different ways, demonstrating the tremendous variety of styles in which storytelling can take place. An excerpt from this piece was published in 0 to 9 magazine , a 1960s publication which experimented with language and meaning-making. The works of Raymond Queneau are published by Gallimard in
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#1732797732465348-403: Is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works using constrained writing techniques. It was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais . Other notable members have included novelists Georges Perec and Italo Calvino , poets Oskar Pastior and Jean Lescure , and poet/mathematician Jacques Roubaud . The group defines
377-683: The Ouvroir de littérature potentielle (Oulipo) in 1960, Queneau was attracted to mathematics as a source of inspiration. He became a member of la Société Mathématique de France in 1948. In Queneau's mind, elements of a text, including seemingly trivial details such as the number of chapters, were things that had to be predetermined, perhaps calculated. This was an issue during the writing of A Hundred Thousand Billion Poems , also known as 100,000,000,000,000 Poems . Queneau wrote 140 lines in 10 individual sonnets that could all be taken apart and rearranged in any order. Queneau calculated that anyone reading
406-1013: The Democratic Communist Circle founded by Boris Souvarine and took up numerous left-wing and anti-fascist causes. He defended the Popular Front in France and the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War . Under the Nazi occupation of France , he published in many left-wing journals associated with the Resistance . After World War II, Queneau continued to lend his support left-wing manifestos and petitions, and condemned McCarthyism and anti-communist persecution in Greece. He wrote more scientific than literary reviews: on Pavlov , Vernadsky (from whom he got
435-453: The knight's tour of the chess -board and permutations. Oulipo was founded on November 24, 1960, as a subcommittee of the Collège de 'Pataphysique and titled Séminaire de littérature expérimentale . At their second meeting, the group changed its name to Ouvroir de littérature potentielle , or Oulipo, at Albert-Marie Schmidt 's suggestion. The idea had arisen two months earlier, when
464-610: The Surrealists. Eluard, Aragon and Breton had joined the French Communist party in 1927; Queneau did not, and instead participated in Un Cadavre (A Corpse, 1930), a vehemently anti-Breton pamphlet co-written by Bataille , Leiris , Prévert , Alejo Carpentier , Jacques Baron , J.-A. Boiffard , Robert Desnos , Georges Limbour , Max Morise , Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes , and Roger Vitrac . Queneau also joined
493-576: The University of Paris. Queneau performed military service as a zouave in Algeria and Morocco during the years 1925–26. During the 1920s and 1930s Queneau took odd jobs for income such as bank teller, tutor, translator and some writing in a column entitled, "Connaissez-vous Paris?" ('Do you know Paris?') for the daily, L'Intransigeant . He married Janine Kahn (1903–1972) in 1928 after returning to Paris from his first military service. Kahn
522-572: The book 24 hours a day would need 190,258,751 years to finish it. While Queneau was completing this work, he asked mathematician François Le Lionnais for help with issues he was having, and their conversation led to a role of mathematics in literature, which led to the creation of the Oulipo . His work encouraged Jacques Lacan to pursue his pioneering work on game theory and the use of mathematics in psychoanalysis. A later work, Les fondements de la littérature d'après David Hilbert (1976), alludes to
551-743: The collection Bibliothèque de la Pléiade . In 1924 Queneau met and briefly joined the Surrealists , but never fully shared their penchants for automatic writing or ultra-left politics. Like many surrealists, he entered psychoanalysis—however, not in order to stimulate his creative abilities, but for personal reasons, as with Leiris, Bataille, and Crevel. Michel Leiris describes, in Brisees , how he first met Queneau in 1924, while vacationing in Nemours with André Masson , Armand Salacrou and Juan Gris . A common friend, Roland Tual , met Queneau on
580-476: The group devises new methods, often based on mathematical problems, such as the knight's tour of the chess -board and permutations. Oulipo was founded on November 24, 1960, as a subcommittee of the Collège de 'Pataphysique and titled Séminaire de littérature expérimentale . At their second meeting, the group changed its name to Ouvroir de littérature potentielle , or Oulipo, at Albert-Marie Schmidt 's suggestion. The idea had arisen two months earlier, when
609-404: The labyrinth from which they plan to escape." Constraints are used as a means of triggering ideas and inspiration, most notably Perec's "story-making machine", which he used in the construction of Life: A User's Manual . As well as established techniques, such as lipograms (Perec's novel A Void ) and palindromes , the group devises new methods, often based on mathematical problems, such as
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#1732797732465638-399: The mathematician David Hilbert , and attempts to explore the foundations of literature by quasi-mathematical derivations from textual axioms. Queneau claimed this final work would prove "a hidden master of the automaton." Pressed by GF, his interlocutor, Queneau confided that the text "could never appear, but had to hide to glorify that without agency." One of Queneau's most influential works
667-610: The old cemetery of Juvisy-sur-Orge , in Essonne outside Paris. Queneau spent much of his life working for the Gallimard publishing house, where he began as a reader in 1938. He later rose to be general secretary and eventually became director of l'Encyclopédie de la Pléiade in 1956. During some of this time, he also taught at l'École Nouvelle de Neuilly. He entered the Collège de 'Pataphysique in 1950, where he became Satrap . In 1950, Juliette Gréco recorded "Si tu t'imagines",
696-530: The publication in 1959 of his novel Zazie dans le métro . In 1960 the film adaptation directed by Louis Malle was released during the Nouvelle Vague movement. Zazie explores colloquial language as opposed to "standard" written French. The first word of the book, the alarmingly long "Doukipudonktan" is a playful phonetic transcription of "D'où qu'il pue / qu'ils puent donc tant?" – "Why does it / does he / do they stink so much?" Before he founded
725-535: The term littérature potentielle as (rough translation): "the seeking of new structures and patterns which may be used by writers in any way they enjoy". Queneau described Oulipians as "rats who construct the labyrinth from which they plan to escape." Constraints are used as a means of triggering ideas and inspiration, most notably Perec's "story-making machine", which he used in the construction of Life: A User's Manual . As well as established techniques, such as lipograms (Perec's novel A Void ) and palindromes ,
754-470: Was founded by a group of men in 1960 and it took 15 years before the first woman was allowed to join; this was Michèle Métail who became a member in 1975 and has since distanced herself from the group. Since 1960 only six women have joined Oulipo, with Clémentine Mélois last to join in June 2017. Some examples of Oulipian writing: Some Oulipian constraints: The founding members of Oulipo represented
783-419: Was founded by a group of men in 1960 and it took 15 years before the first woman was allowed to join; this was Michèle Métail who became a member in 1975 and has since distanced herself from the group. Since 1960 only six women have joined Oulipo, with Clémentine Mélois last to join in June 2017. Some examples of Oulipian writing: Some Oulipian constraints: The founding members of Oulipo represented
812-465: Was founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais . Other notable members have included novelists Georges Perec and Italo Calvino , poets Oskar Pastior and Jean Lescure , and poet/mathematician Jacques Roubaud . The group defines the term littérature potentielle as (rough translation): "the seeking of new structures and patterns which may be used by writers in any way they enjoy". Queneau described Oulipians as "rats who construct
841-456: Was the sister-in-law of André Breton , leader of the surrealist movement. In 1934 they had a son, Jean-Marie, who became a painter. Queneau was drafted in August 1939 and served in small provincial towns before his promotion to corporal just before being demobilized in 1940. After a prolific career of writing, editing and critique, Queneau died on 25 October 1976. He is buried with his parents in
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