Signs and Designs Art and Architecture in the Work of Michel Butor

by Duffy, Jean H.

• ISBN13: 9780853237785
• ISBN10: 0853237786
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-07-01
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Summary

In the course of a writing career spanning half a century, Michel Butor has produced a remarkable range and volume of publications, including fiction, travel works, poetry, critical essays and various types of mixed-genre works which resist ready categorization. Much of this very diverse oeuvre is marked by his life-long passion for the visual arts. This study is the first full-length analysis of the role played by the references to the visual, plastic and architectural arts in Butor2s work. It addresses a wide range of issues including the role of the artwork, building or monument as narrative generator; the reflexive functions of the visual and architectural references; the interaction between visual/architectural references and intertextual citation; the role of collaboration in Butor2s oeuvre; the relationship between cultural baggage and the workings of the unconscious; the tension between Butor2s fascination for non-European artistic traditions and his continuing dialogue with the Western tradition.

Author Biography

Jean H. Duffy is Professor of French at-the-University of Edinburgh.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vi
List of Illustrations	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Unfulfilled, Incomplete and Indefinitely Deferred: Desire and Art in Butor and Duchamp	p. 15
High and Low Culture in L'Emploi du temps	p. 57
Art, Architecture and Catholicism in La Modification	p. 103
Illustration, Edification and Delusion in Degres	p. 149
Beyond Words: Collage, Collaboration, Text and Image	p. 189
Conclusion	p. 257
Select Bibliography	p. 269
Index	p. 294
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.