The Oulipians would be delighted if they knew how easily they could be mistaken for Olympians. Controlled mistakes were one of the many elements that allowed them to experience creative freedom.

In literature, errors are usually associated with spelling mistakes or misprints. From my own experience as an editor, I will never forget a poem quoted in an article about sadness (smutek in Polish), which became a piece about a nipple (sutek) due to an unfortunate typo. However, the history of literature proves that a mistake can also become a tool of sophisticated literary expression. The masters of the precise use of constraints (creative restrictions aimed at producing a specific literary effect) were writers affiliated with the Workshop of Potential Literature, or Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle in French, Oulipo in short. However, in order for an irregularity or lapse to come into being, one must first establish . . . norms and rules. And since the Oulipians did not suffer from lack of imagination, the rules they set were anything but ordinary.

The Potential of Order

If the Oulipo had not been founded in Paris in 1960, the group would have been invented later on. After all, its members implement many ideas that stem from the age-old question “what if . . .” and experiment with literary games that seem too bold to be carried out. Thanks to the Oulipo’s games, contemporary literature can develop in its own rhythm—Oulipians tested its boundaries, asked the most important questions, and experimented with the fabric of the text, undertaking new challenges when necessary.