Oulipos

Oulipo, an acronym for Ouvroir de littérature potentielle, which translates to "Workshop of Potential Literature," is a French literary group founded in 1960. Its members, known as Oulipians, are writers and mathematicians who explore the creation of literature through the use of constraints. These constraints are not seen as limitations but rather as tools to generate new forms of creative expression. The group's approach is rooted in the idea that structures and rules can lead to unexpected and original literary outcomes.

The Oulipian method often involves mathematical principles, combinatorial techniques, and self-imposed formal restrictions. Famous examples of Oulipian techniques include the lipogram, a text written without using a specific letter (most famously, Georges Perec's novel La Disparition, written without the letter 'e'), and the snowball poem, where each line adds a word and begins with the last word of the previous line. The group has published numerous works and manifestos outlining their theories and experiments. While often associated with experimental literature, Oulipo's influence extends to various artistic disciplines.