This course explores the theory and practice of creative writing with particular emphasis on the unique work of the Oulipo (Ouvroir de litterature potentielle) or Workshop of Potential Literature founded in Paris in 1960 by Raymond Queneau. While there are many aspects to the work of the Oulipo three principal strands stand out: the search for new literary structures or constraints as a way of generating new texts; research into methods of transforming existing texts to create new ones; the use of mathematical concepts in writing as in what the Oulipo call "combinatory literature". The group's insistence on language as play, which has strong connections with surrealism and with traditions of theatre improvisation, links its work directly to all aspects of creative writing practice and creativity in general. Teaching will combine a study of key Oulipian texts across a range of genres with practical workshop exercises. Alongside study of recognised Oulipian practitioners, the course will broaden out to study non-Oulipian contemporary and postmodern writers whose work is similarly constructed. In like manner the ways in which Oulipian methods can be applied to and overlap with more conventional concerns of creative writing such as plotting, rewriting, poetic form and developing character will be explored.
- Module Supervisor: Philip Terry