Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature

This is an amazing anthology of writings by members of the group known a Oulipo (Ouvroir de litterature potentiale), comprised of Italo Calvino, Harry Mathews, Georges Petec, Jacques Roubaud, Raymond Queneau, and others. Rather than inspiration, rather than experience, rather than self-expression, the Oulipians view imaginative writing as an exercise dominated by the method of "constrains". A major contribution to literary theory and an indispensable guide to an approach to writing that has yet to make its impact on the United States.