{"product_id":"constraining-chance-georges-perec-and-the-oulipo-paperback-softback-9780810125315","title":"Constraining Chance; Georges Perec and the Oulipo (Paperback \/ softback) 9780810125315","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eConstraining Chance\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eGeorges Perec and the Oulipo\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eAlison James (Author), Marjorie Perloff (Series edited by), Rainer Rumold (Series edited by)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780810125315\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 28 February 2009\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e320 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.6 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.508 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eWarren F. Motte calls it an erudite, engaging, intellectually intrepid reflection on the ways in which one of the most powerful authors of the twentieth century grappled with the notion of chance. [James] writes with both elegance and authority, inviting us to see Georges Perec's work through a new lens, one where chance may be viewed as a positive potential, fully enlisted in the service of 'intentional' literature.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eA token of the world's instability and of human powerlessness, chance is inevitably a crucial literary theme. It also presents formal problems: Must the artist struggle against chance in pursuit of a flawless work? Or does chance have a place in the artistic process or product? This book examines the representation and staging of chance in literature through the study of a specific case - the work of the twentieth-century French writer Georges Perec (1936-82).In \"\"Constraining Chance\"\", James explores the ways in which Perec's texts exploit the possibilities of chance, by both tapping into its creative potential and controlling its operation. These works, she demonstrates, strive to capture essential aspects of human life: its 'considerable energy' (Perec's phrase), its boundless possibilities, but also the constraints and limitations that bind it. A member of the Ouvroir de litterature potentielle (known as Oulipo), Perec adopted the group's dictum that the literary work should be 'anti-chance' - a product of fully conscious creative processes. James shows how Perec gave this notion a twist, using Oulipian precepts both to explore the role of chance in human existence and to redefine the possibilities of literary form. Thus the investigation of chance links Perec's writing methods, which harness chance for creative purposes, to the thematic exploration of causality, chance, and fate in his writings.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e The Notion of Chance\u003cbr\u003e Chance and Literature\u003cbr\u003e Perec and the Oulipo\u003cbr\u003e Mastering History\u003cbr\u003e History, Politics, and La Ligne generale\u003cbr\u003e Commitment or Chance\u003cbr\u003e Conquering the World\u003cbr\u003e Les Choses: Tensions and Tenses\u003cbr\u003e Escaping History: Un homme qui dort\u003cbr\u003e Chance and Circumstance\u003cbr\u003e Questioning Destiny\u003cbr\u003e Power and Passivity\u003cbr\u003e Chance and the Law\u003cbr\u003e Life as Lottery: Perec and Borges\u003cbr\u003e Possibilities\u003cbr\u003e Games of Anti-Chance\u003cbr\u003e Fortune and Fate\u003cbr\u003e Cause and Effect\u003cbr\u003e Incidents and Accidents\u003cbr\u003e Reversals and Recognitions\u003cbr\u003e Chance and Calamity\u003cbr\u003e Stories Without Event\u003cbr\u003e Retrospection and Rupture\u003cbr\u003e Digression and Damnation\u003cbr\u003e Traps and Machinations\u003cbr\u003e Hidden Signals\u003cbr\u003e Means and Ends\u003cbr\u003e Schemes and Disguises\u003cbr\u003e Chance and Detection\u003cbr\u003e Clue and Coincidence\u003cbr\u003e Red Herrings\u003cbr\u003e Text and World\u003cbr\u003e A Challenge to Chance\u003cbr\u003e The Poetics of the Oulipo\u003cbr\u003e Chance and the Oulipo's Critics\u003cbr\u003e Voluntary Literature: Oulipian Anti-Surrealism\u003cbr\u003e Aleatory Art\u003cbr\u003e Controlling Chance\u003cbr\u003e Chance and Language\u003cbr\u003e Mysticism, Mathematics, Meaning\u003cbr\u003e Method and Mechanism: S+7\u003cbr\u003e Perec's Constraints: Combination, Coincidence, Clinamen\u003cbr\u003e La Disparition\u003cbr\u003e Codes and Cliches\u003cbr\u003e Alphabets: Chaotic Language\u003cbr\u003e La Vie mode d' emploi: Combination and Clinamen\u003cbr\u003e From List to Text\u003cbr\u003e Coherence and Multiplicity\u003cbr\u003e Form Versus Diagram\u003cbr\u003e Constraint and Chaos\u003cbr\u003e Labyrinths and Puzzles\u003cbr\u003e Literary Labyrinths\u003cbr\u003e The Rat in the Maze\u003cbr\u003e Ceiling and City\u003cbr\u003e Verbal Ruses and Oulipian Rats\u003cbr\u003e Complications\u003cbr\u003e The Art of the Jigsaw\u003cbr\u003e Artists and Quests\u003cbr\u003e Chance and System\u003cbr\u003e Ordering the Infra-Ordinary\u003cbr\u003e Chance and the Real\u003cbr\u003e Les Choses: Objects as Signs\u003cbr\u003e Common Things: Perec and the Infra-Ordinary\u003cbr\u003e Chance, Perception, Habit: Tentative d' epuisement d' une lieu parisien\u003cbr\u003e The Event and the Everyday\u003cbr\u003e Perec's Lists\u003cbr\u003e Classifications\u003cbr\u003e The World as Jigsaw\u003cbr\u003e Order and Constraint\u003cbr\u003e Conclusion\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Northwestern University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52695027679512,"sku":"9780810125315","price":28.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/constraining-chance-georges-perec-and-the-oulipo-paperback-softback-9780810125315","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}