Michel Butor Book order
September 14, 1926 – August 24, 2016
Michel Butor was a pioneering experimental novelist, often associated with the nouveau roman, though he long resisted the label. His works are characterized by innovative techniques, such as writing entirely in the second person in his most celebrated novel. Butor explored the relationship between language and reality, viewing even literal quotations as a form of parody due to their "trans-contextualization." Beyond novels, he engaged with essays, poetry, and artist's books, often blending rigorous structural symmetries with a lyrical sensibility, establishing himself as a significant figure in literary experimentation.
- 2021
- 2017
Changing Track
- 240 pages
- 9 hours of reading
Published in 1957 and awarded the prestigious Prix Renaudot, Michel Butor's groundbreaking third novel remains the most popular and widely read work of the nouveau roman genre.
- 2015
One day I went to interview Dan Graham about the legendary John Daniels Gallery in New York, which he ran from 1964 to '65. Right after I arrived, Dan started talking to me about Michel Butor and his fascination with the writer's work back in the 1960s. I merely asked: "And did you ever meet him?" Dan answered: "No. Some people wanted to introduce us, but it never happened." I asked: "And would you like to meet him?" And he said, with his very own smile: "Of course I would." --From the editor's preface In the fall of 2013, Dan Graham and Mieko Meguro traveled with Donatien Grau to a town in the French Alps to meet Michel Butor, one of the foremost innovators of postwar literature. This is their conversation. Michel Butor is a writer. He redefined the genre of the novel, notably with Second Thoughts (1957), further developing new forms with Mobile (1962) and other fundamental works. Dan Graham is an artist. A major retrospective of his work was held in 2009 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Whitney Museum, New York; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
- 1996
As James Joyce was working on Finnegans Wake, he asked his friend T.S. This celebrated episode, Anna Livia Plurabelle, was the first part of Joyce's extraordinary text to be published in England, printed in pamphlet form in 1930.
