Illustrations II, from dawn to dawn

Abstract

The article is an analysis of the drafts of Illustrations II, of Michel Butor — book composed of previously published texts that were reworked and linked in a different way. This analysis reveals the procedures of integration of the texts: suppression, replacement, condensation, graphic recomposition and transformations indicated by three kinds of writing — typescript, blue ink and black pencil — that were similar all through the book. Re-writing or self-recycling - the operations used in this manuscript that are typical aspects of intertextuality, — lead to key-concepts in the Butorian project: non-achievement, continuation, construction, polishment, variation and dialogue.