Exercises in Criticism is an experiment in applied poetics in which critic and poet Louis Bury utilizes constraint-based methods in order to write about constraint-based literature. By tracing the lineage and enduring influence of early Oulipian classics, he argues that contemporary American writers have, in their adoption of constraint-based methods, transformed such methods from apolitical literary laboratory exercises into a form of cultural critique, whose usage is surprisingly widespread, particularly among poets and ¿experimental¿ novelists. More, Bury¿s own use of critical constraints functions as a commentary on how and why we write and talk about books, culture, and ideas.

Louis Bury is Assistant Professor of English at Hostos Community College, CUNY, in the Bronx, New York.