Digital Oulipo Natalie Berkman PART 1 Project description & objectives The nature of this project is tool-building: my project consists in the design and creation of pedagogical, interactive digital versions of various experimental texts that I discuss in my dissertation. The OuLiPo (Workshop of Potential Literature, founded in Paris in 1960) is a unique case in literary history, proposing mathematical methods to conceptualize and produce literature. Founded in the midst of the Cold War, disillusioned by World War II, surrounded by a myriad of scientific and technological developments, the OuLiPo dialogues with other disciplines, capitalizing on the post-war purchase of mathematics as a solution to the two culture debate. My dissertation explores the addition of mathematics as a tool for literary production, which has fascinating effects on the reception of the texts themselves, as evidenced by the heightened role of the reader, who is a more active participant in the creation of the text (s)he reads, cultivating mathematical thought. It consists of five annexes, one for each chapter, and each will be intended to complement the critical analysis in my chapters. By offering the reader of my dissertation electronic versions of Oulipian texts, that reader can learn firsthand how such texts disrupt any traditional linear mode of reading, and hopefully also enjoy a ludic introduction to various mathematical principles. Through the act of designing these electronic editions myself, I am gaining a better understanding of these texts and how they operate, as well as a practical introduction to digital humanities and computer programming. Statement of Significance and Innovation Oulipian texts challenge traditional notions of reading. The reader no longer passively absorbs the text written by another, but must play and construct by himself if he wishes to get anywhere at all. The topic of my dissertation examines the various mathematical aspects in play in Oulipian production and specifically hopes to address this fundamental question: how does the addition of mathematical thought change the reading experience? The significance is twofold: first, these annexes will add an interactive component to my dissertation, allowing the reader to experiment with mathematical texts in a non-threatening, pedagogical way, thereby understanding the mathematical concepts better as well as having a practical illustration of the analysis in my dissertation; second, the Oulipo experimented in its early days with computers but ultimately abandoned most of these projects— experimenting myself with creating such digital editions of their texts will help me in my attempt to understand the Oulipian conception of computers in their overall understanding of constrained literature. Scope My digital analysis of Oulipo procedures will be confined to the following texts/constraints: 1. Set theoretical operations (not an Oulipian procedure) on various canonical texts (Shakespeare, Jonson, Racine, Corneille)

2. S+7 procedure to be carried out on various canonical excerpts (famous poems, Biblical excerpts, etc.) 3. Raymond Queneau's Cent mille milliards de poèmes (translation Stan Chapman) 4. Raymond Queneau's Un conte à votre façon (translation to be selected) 5. Italo Calvino's Le città invisibili (translation William Weaver)

Out-of-scope My project is not concerned with other Oulipian texts or procedures. However, the reader in certain cases will be able to input his/her own texts for experimentation with certain procedures (annexes 1 and 2). Main Deliverables Chapter 1: Set Theory (by the end of February) The first chapter of my dissertation deals with set theory, a relatively recent mathematical development that creates a new language of "sets" or collections of objects. Set theory was extremely important for a highly influential group of mathematicians called Bourbaki, created around 1930, which seems to have inspired the Oulipo to a certain extent, as well as an entire generation of mathematicians. While the Oulipo has no explicit policy based on set theory, my first chapter attempts to document their use of it in the structure of the group, in the language of their manifestos, and in their constraints. For this first digital annex, I propose to view texts as sets of words or perhaps other elements. I intend to choose a few short canonical texts (in both French and English) and create an interface that would allow the reader to experiment with basic operations. The most obvious example would be intersections—for instance, examining the common words in famous plays by Racine and Corneille. But other operations could be equally promising, such as Cartesian products, unions, set differences, etc. Chapter 2: Algebra (by the end of April) In this chapter, I understand algebra broadly as a mathematical discipline dealing with mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating them. This will allow me to discuss everything from arithmetic (operations applied to specific numbers) to elementary algebra (introduces algebraic variables) to number theory (the study of integers and their properties) to abstract algebra (deals with groups — the combination of a set S and a single binary operation — and their properties). Given this broad topic, any number of Oulipian texts could work for a digital annex. I have chosen an Oulipian procedure, known as the S+7, invented by Jean Lescure. In the S+7, one takes a text (preferably a well-known one, so potentially the same texts that I select for Chapter 1 would be appropriate) and replaces every noun (S=substantif, or noun in English) with the noun that is found seven entries later in a dictionary of the author's choice. For my program, I would like to allow the user to experiment with the S+7 on individual texts, but also experiment with the procedure itself. Some potential avenues: replacing S with another part of speech (verb, adverb, etc.); applying a more generalized S+n and seeing how the difference in n's changes the result; changing dictionaries; or a combination of all of these. Finally, I would like to allow the reader to attempt S-7's on Oulipian S+7's to see if it is possible or at the very least probable that the

procedures were carried out correctly by the original Oulipians (it will always be impossible to know the extent of cheating involved, since there is no way to know what dictionary they used). Chapter 3: Combinatorics (by the end of December) Combinatorics is a branch of mathematics dealing with the study of finite or countable discrete structures. As such, it deals with counting, combinations and permutations of elements, and more generally, the study of entropy and randomness. It is therefore central to the Oulipo and its aesthetics, as the Oulipo has from the beginning defined itself in opposition to chance. The clear example to use in this digital annex is the Cent mille milliards de poèmes, and my electronic version will correct what I criticize as major flaws of many similar online versions of this text. In Queneau's original paper edition, the reader has the freedom to select certain poems: the 10 original that Queneau wrote to produce the set; the poems with certain rhymes that he may like best; the poems that do not satisfy the rules of sonnets (Queneau unintentionally repeated a rhyming word which would create 1012poems that are not valid as sonnets); etc. The interest in rectifying these errors also lies in the pedagogical intention of the text. Not only does allowing the reader a certain amount of freedom help him better appreciate the unconventional nature of this poetry collection, but it could also be useful in teaching him a certain level of mathematical thought. This would be particularly true if I could allow the reader to toy with the probabilities of certain types of poems or the unexpected potential of allowing oneself to swap corresponding verses, creating even more than 1014 poems. Chapter 4: Algorithms (by the end of June) The fourth chapter of my dissertation deals with algorithmic literature, written with computers in mind and often reformatted for computers. In its early years, the Oulipo experimented formally with computers, creating interactive electronic editions of the Cent mille milliards de poèmes as well as other Oulipian texts. They even used these early computers to compose poetry with the exact syntactical structure of Rimbaud's Le dormeur du val but with the most frequent vocabulary of Baudelaire. This early interest in digital technology did not wane. Computer scientist Paul Braffort and mathematician Jacques Roubaud founded the group ALAMO (Atelier de Littérature Assistée par la Mathématique et les Ordinateurs) in 1981. In 2004, the Oulipo released a CD-rom through Gallimard with interactive computerized editions of several of their texts. Understanding these early electronic experimentations is critical to my fourth chapter. Un conte à votre façon, a choose-your-own adventure tale of three little peas in a pod is the obvious choice due to its canonicity and also its brevity. While several online editions already exist, I think that there are improvements that could be made, specifically regarding the reader's involvement. It would be much more interesting for a reader to create his own paths while seeing all the options, constructing graphs (since the basic principle is graph theory, after all) of the potential results, and understanding various "glitches" that occur in Queneau's "program." Chapter 5: Geometry (already completed) This chapter deals with geometry, which comes from the Greek for "measuring the earth." Not surprisingly, the mathematical discipline deals with questions of size, shape, position, and properties of space. The main philosophical conundrum with geometry that I discuss at

length in this chapter is the difficulty of reconciling the abstracted space with the physical space in which we live. This becomes a central problematic in two texts who are organized geometrically, a structure that is indicated by the table of contents: Italo Calvino's Le città invisibili and Michèle Audin's Mai quai Conti. Unsurprisingly, both of these authors who meticulously organize their novels according to geometrical structures then struggle to reconcile the messiness of their topics with the regular design. In Italo Calvino's Le città invisibili, the Italian author organizes a fragmented and incoherent collection of theoretical prose poems according to a rigid mathematical figure (a parallelogram). However, the philosophical and theoretical content of each of the pieces does not seem to correspond with the crystalline structure at all. What I propose to create to accompany this chapter is an interactive table of contents for Calvino's novel, where one can enter into the text from any angle, allowing for multiple readings that lead to various conclusions. Dissertation: These annexes will not only serve to provide concrete examples that complement my dissertation, but preparing them will help me think more critically about the topics of each of these chapters. While I already have a first draft of my first, fourth, and fifth chapters, working on the corresponding annexes will enrich my analysis. I plan on revisiting my first chapter while working on the first annex, to add a more practical take on my discussion of set theory, which has been so far mostly historical and theoretical. The work I have done on my third annex has already enriched my conception of Queneau's Cent mille milliards de poèmes, and I am currently working on the third chapter which includes the analysis on this text. The fourth chapter as well will greatly benefit from this practical introduction to computing, since I will be able to use my own experience while discussing why the OuLiPo has shifted away from its early experimentation on computers in recent years. The fifth chapter as well will greatly benefit from the fifth annex which I have already finished, as it represents a useful way to organize information pertaining to Le città invisibili, which is a very rich book that does not lend itself very easily to concrete analysis. Finally, I expect to finish drafting my second chapter alongside my completion of the second annex. Working on the two concurrently will be beneficial.

Project Team Primary Investigator and project manager: Natalie Berkman Technical lead: Clifford Wulfman Resources needed and budget Tinderbox License — already purchased ($249) Risks Time constraints and difficulties learning Python, as well as copyright restrictions that would prevent me from publishing any of these open source.

   

Part 2 Annex 1 (Set Theory) I will create a simple tool that allows the reader to experiment with basic set-theoretic operations on texts: intersections, unions, subsets; additions, subtractions, Cartesian products, set differences, etc. based on various aspects of the text's word set (grammatical, etc.). I will collect or create machine-readable transcriptions of several 17th-century French dramatic texts (Racine, Corneille; titles to be determined), and several plays of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson as English analogues (titles to be determined). I will create a set of simple Python programs that perform set-theoretic operations on texts. These programs are specifically set theoretical; for example, word frequency, a commonly used metric in digital text analysis, will not be included in the set of operations. These simple programs will be bundled as a Python module with a driver program that lets the user choose the texts and the operations.

Annex 2 (Algebra: S+7) I will write a Python module that implements Jean Lescure's S+7 algorithm, taking as input a text, one or more dictionaries, the syntactic category to operate upon (S or V) and the distance (7 by d efault) and emitting a text with the appropriate substitutions performed. Then I will allow the reader to implement a more generalized S + n or S – n procedure, which would also allow the user to perform S – 7 on an Oulipian S + 7 text, seeing if the Oulipian potentially cheated.

Annex 3 (Permutation) I will produce a tool that lets the user manipulate Cent mille milliards de poems, permuting the verses in the ways Queneau intended and in other ways, and that visualizes the combinatorial potential of the poem. I will write a Python module that encodes Queneau's 10 original sonnets, plus a series of small programs: • • •

A program that takes a generalized verse number, Vn (1 ≤ n ≤ 14) and replaces it with the corresponding verse in any of the other 10 poems; A program that, given a certain verse or certain rhyme, calculate the probability of that verse or rhyme showing up in a poem; A program that, given a set of constraints, calculates the number of poems that could be generated.

Annex 4 (Algorithmic Fiction) This is the most ambitious of the annexes, programmatically. I will create a tool that lets the user experiment with algorithmic fiction: creating paths; viewing options; constructing graphs. • • •

I will develop a schema that allows me to encode texts as graphs or state machines; I will encode Un conte a votre façon in this schema; I will write a program that displays the text graph and gives feedback on the paths: the number of possible paths at any point; the number of paths that are/are not legitimate stories.

Annex 5 (Geometry) I will develop an interactive, hypertext-based model of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. Using this model, the reader should be able to use a visual, parallel network graph of the chapters and interact with it. This proves to be an excellent tool for note-taking, especially for such an enigmatic and chaotic text. Additionally, for an author as well-read as Calvino, such a tool can be used to organize information relative to his varied and multiple sources which he possibly had in mind during the composition of the novel. This annex will be developed using Tinderbox, a commercial program for creating and visualizing hypertexts.