{"product_id":"the-politics-of-play-oulipo-and-the-legacy-of-french-literary-ludics-9780810149274","title":"The Politics of Play: Oulipo and the Legacy of French Literary Ludics","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eShowing the political importance of play in postwar French literature\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn postwar France, authors approached writing ludically, placing rules and conditions on language and on the context of composition itself. They eliminated \"e's\" and feminized texts; they traveled according to strict rules and invented outright silly public personas. \u003ci\u003eThe Politics of Play: Oulipo and the Legacy of French Literary Ludics \u003c\/i\u003eis a comprehensive examination of how and why French authors turned to these ludic methods to grapple with their political moment. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThese writers were responding to a range of historical upheavals, from the rise and fall of French feminist and Third-Worldist groups to the aftermath of international socialism both at home, in the former Parisian Belt and in France more broadly, and abroad, in post-Yugoslavia Balkan states and elsewhere. Juxtaposing an array of case studies and drawing on cross-disciplinary methodologies, Aubrey Gabel reads three generations of the formalist literary group Oulipo, including Raymond Queneau, Georges Perec, and Jacques Jouet, alongside writers not traditionally deemed ludic--or sometimes not even conventionally known as novelists--such as the lesbian activist-writer Monique Wittig and the editor François Maspero. Gabel argues that literary ludics serve as both an authorial strategy and a political form: playful methods allow writers not only to represent history in code but also to intervene creatively--as political actors--in the fraught social fields of midcentury France and beyond. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAUBREY GABEL \u003c\/b\u003eis an assistant professor in the Department of French at Columbia University.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Northwestern University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51705357271314,"sku":"9780810149274","price":41.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f3eb7396-c5f7-40b9-a5fa-f4520066385f.jpg?v=1762346098","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-politics-of-play-oulipo-and-the-legacy-of-french-literary-ludics-9780810149274","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}