Intertextuality and Spatiotemporal Agency in Butor’s La Modification

Abstract

Michel Butor’s body of work has always defied the classic literary classification, which
is the main reason why he is often, against his own accord, associated with the Nouveau
Roman movement. His magnum opus, La Modification (1957) is the epitome of the
time-space collateral where the linear time is deconstructed and is led towards being
spatial. This paper intends to analyse the spatial and temporal semiotic world that the
author creates by mean of intertexts and workings of time and memory, and therefore
provides a better understanding of the work. Intertextuality is the main meaningmaking mechanism that Butor relies upon and the takeaway from this study, thus, can
be summarized in a six-pronged model with regard to the references made to art and
architecture in Paris and Rome throughout the novel. Time in the narrative of the work
starts with the looming clock in the train station and slowly transforms from linear to
a multi-layered form. Butor tamers with the concept of time, which only develops
within the central character’s mind, throughout the novel with the technique of timemontage. Considering which, the eidetic image of time in the novel is investigated in
this study and the eleven strata of time which the narration of the work is constructed
on is enumerated.