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ouvroir

English translation: Workshop for Potential Literature

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (Oulipo)
English translation:Workshop for Potential Literature
Entered by: Nanny Wintjens

22:26 Jul 16, 2004
French to English translations [PRO]
Poetry & Literature
French term or phrase: ouvroir
CE LIVRE, ÉCRIT EN 1969, EST UNE ŒUVRE MAJEURE DE L’OULIPO (L’OUVROIR DE LITTÉRATURE POTENTIELLE).
Matthew Roy, Ph.D.
Local time: 12:31
Workshop for Potential Literature
Explanation:
See :

"Harry Mathews, the experimental poet, fiction writer, and charismatic English-language ambassador of the French literary society ***Oulipo***, swept into town last week to flog his new book, the Oulipo Compendium (Atlas, $19.99). A bearish man with the slightly addled manner of a dadaist Garrison Keillor, Mathews kicked off a two-week festival of Oulipian readings, workshops, and parties before a capacity crowd of poetry fans at KGB, many of whom, until recently, have had little exposure to the deliriously intricate linguistic experiments for which the Oulipo is known.
Founded in 1960 by the novelist and polymath Raymond Queneau and the mathematical historian François Le Lionnais, ***Oulipo*** (an acronym for ***Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle***, or ***Workshop for Potential Literature***) is a motley organization of writers and mathematicians who use fiendishly elaborate arithmetic formulae as vehicles for the composition of poetry and fiction. Sonnets, pangrams, and palindromes are a walk in the park by comparison to some of Oulipo's far-fetched language games, from left-handed lipograms (a lipogram is a text that omits one or more letters; a left-handed lipogram is composed using only the keys on the left side of the typewriter) to N + 7, a literary algorithm in which every noun is replaced by the seventh noun that follows it in a dictionary. It's a stricture that yields such gems as "To be or not to be: that is the quibble" and, in a phrase that doubles as an Oulipian manifesto of sorts, "And God said, Let there be limit: and there was limit."
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/9846/bing.php
Selected response from:

Nanny Wintjens
Spain
Local time: 20:31
Grading comment
Graded automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +5Workshop for Potential Literature
Nanny Wintjens
3 +5workshop
swisstell


  

Answers


10 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +5
workshop


Explanation:
this may be a bit farfetched but, according to my very very old LaRousse, an ouvroir in medieval times was where females gathered to do mostly work involving textiles/dress making. Later, ouvroirs were known as gathering places in convents etc. where again females congregated to do some joint work. - I put this type of surrounding into contemprary terms i.e. a workshop.


    La Rousse
swisstell
Italy
Local time: 21:31
Works in field
Native speaker of: German
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Allan Jeffs: Good one
5 hrs
  -> merci Allan
agree  Franck Le Gac (X): Not farfetched at all -workshop expresses well the collaborative and performative nature of their activity. Too bad the play on words with 'ouvrir' does not come out in 'workshop', but I guess it is implicit in 'potentiel' anyways.
10 hrs
  -> thanks, Franck
agree  Brian Gaffney: You're absolutely right, Little Robert gives the same def.
17 hrs
  -> thanks, Brian
agree  Maurice Thibaux: very true! and there is also a connotation of benevolence or charity.
1 day 10 hrs
  -> merci Maurice
agree  sarahl (X): not only in medieval times, I think they still have them in Europe.
2 days 3 hrs
  -> merci sarahl - I am sure they do, hence my "contemporary term"
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

32 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +5
Workshop for Potential Literature


Explanation:
See :

"Harry Mathews, the experimental poet, fiction writer, and charismatic English-language ambassador of the French literary society ***Oulipo***, swept into town last week to flog his new book, the Oulipo Compendium (Atlas, $19.99). A bearish man with the slightly addled manner of a dadaist Garrison Keillor, Mathews kicked off a two-week festival of Oulipian readings, workshops, and parties before a capacity crowd of poetry fans at KGB, many of whom, until recently, have had little exposure to the deliriously intricate linguistic experiments for which the Oulipo is known.
Founded in 1960 by the novelist and polymath Raymond Queneau and the mathematical historian François Le Lionnais, ***Oulipo*** (an acronym for ***Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle***, or ***Workshop for Potential Literature***) is a motley organization of writers and mathematicians who use fiendishly elaborate arithmetic formulae as vehicles for the composition of poetry and fiction. Sonnets, pangrams, and palindromes are a walk in the park by comparison to some of Oulipo's far-fetched language games, from left-handed lipograms (a lipogram is a text that omits one or more letters; a left-handed lipogram is composed using only the keys on the left side of the typewriter) to N + 7, a literary algorithm in which every noun is replaced by the seventh noun that follows it in a dictionary. It's a stricture that yields such gems as "To be or not to be: that is the quibble" and, in a phrase that doubles as an Oulipian manifesto of sorts, "And God said, Let there be limit: and there was limit."
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/9846/bing.php


Nanny Wintjens
Spain
Local time: 20:31
Native speaker of: French
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Graded automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Kim Metzger: Nice research!
1 hr
  -> Thanks Kim !
agree  Martine Brault: That's it!
3 hrs
  -> Thanks Traviata !
agree  Allan Jeffs: Good one
5 hrs
  -> Thanks Allan !
agree  Vicky Papaprodromou
8 hrs
  -> Thanks Vicky
agree  Brian Gaffney: Well done!
17 hrs
  -> Thanks Brian
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



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