Oulipo (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle, or "Workshop of Potential Literature") is a French literary movement founded in 1960 by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais that explores the creative possibilities of constrained writing techniques—such as lipograms (omitting specific letters), palindromes, or mathematical structures—to generate poetic and narrative forms; Oulipian poets like Georges Perec or Italo Calvino use these self-imposed formal restrictions not as limitations but as generative frameworks that stimulate linguistic innovation and reveal hidden potentials within language itself.

French experimental movement using mathematical constraints (lipograms, N+7, etc.). Founded 1960 by Queneau and others. Try simple constraints first like avoiding a letter to understand creative restriction.