The Analyses of Oulipian Mechanisms in Reza Amirkhani’s Novel Bivatan

In contemporary novel, applying a set constrained writing techniques, is a concern of some novelists, since the novel is known as a literary type, which unlike poetic genre, does not follow definite rules and principles.  In French literature, a literary group, called Oulipo, has been able to create unique literary works by devising constrained writing techniques and rules that are particularly used in the novel. The striking point is that some non-Oulipian authors are comparable to the style of this literary group. Raza Amirkhani, the Iranian writer, has created such an Oulipian-like novel in his Bivatan, without knowing Oulipo. This study shows that Amirkhani has been able to create a novel in Persian language, by combining literature and mathematics, alongside challenging the reader by different language and literature games, and most importantly, by observing Jacques Roubaud’s first principle.