Machines-a-Ecrire, a CD-ROM which demonstrates the functions of combinatory literature from the great rhetoricians to the present

The present paper describes the structure and workings of Machines a ecrire , a CD-ROM produced in collaboration with Antoine Denize. This CD-ROM, whic h includes Raymond Queneau's "Un conte a votre facon" and "Cent mille milli ards de poemes" as well as Georeges Perec's "Deux cent quarante-trois carte s postales," demonstrates the workings of combinatory literature from the G rands Rhethoriqueurs to the present day. Machines a ecrire offers new ways of approaching literature and an opportunity to discover and appreciate tex ts which are generally neglected and misunderstood.