116-032 Puzzles and Mazes: Experimental Writing

Formerly available as 116-279/379. Students who have completed 116-279 or 116-379 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

116-133 French I: Cultural Perspectives and 116-134 French I: Language in Context II or equivalent. European studies students wishing to enrol in this subject would normally have completed first-year European studies, see Prerequisites.

In this subject students will read a series of experimental literary texts in French, discovering the patterns and irregularities in their structure. An understanding of how these texts are put together will be applied in a series of writing exercises employing constraints similar to those discovered in the reading. Students also explore the poetic function of language through the systematic study of word play and come to appreciate the literary potential of spoken French. On completing the subject students should have an understanding of the historical relations between the prescribed texts and a sense of experimental possibilities as yet unexplored. The subject will be taught in French.

One class paper on a specific text totalling 1000 words in French, one folio of writing exercises in French totalling 1600 words, one comparative essay in French totalling 1400 words.

A subject reader will be available.

• R Queneau, Le Chiendent. Folio, 1990.
• Oulipo, Atlas de Littérature potentielle. Folio, 1990.