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Butor's Use of Literary Texts in Degrés

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2020

Jennifer R. Walters
Jennifer R. Walters*
Affiliation:
University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia
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Abstract

The construction of Degrés is based on a series of texts taken from Western literature and ranging from Homer to Keats. These are grouped in different ways around a brief sequence of events, and it is the responsibility of each reader to elaborate on the scanty story by using the information offered by these texts, to the extent of his knowledge, awareness, and willingness to participate in the creation of the novel. An analysis of the texts extracts the information each contains, then correlates relevant fact and possible interpretation in order to show clearly the two major themes of the novel: the relationship of Vernier to his nephew Eller, and the vast possibilities open to man in the world; and the three styles of presentation: as a structure, a personal experience, and a retrospective fact. Butor teaches his readers to understand his work by attempting to break down mental barriers between different fields of experience and force people to draw on the full range of their knowledge at all times.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 88 , Issue 2 , March 1973 , pp. 311 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1973

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References

1 Michel Butor, “La Critique et l'invention,” Repertoire III (Paris: Gallimard, 1968), p. 7.

2 Repertoire III, p. 9.

3 Butor, Histoire extraordinaire (Paris: Gallimard, 1961), p. 19.

4 “Michel Butor's Criticism of Geometry and Vision.”

5 Degres (Paris: Gallimard, 1960), p. 12. All furtherreferences to the novel will be to this edition.

6 The importance of the lesson and texts is not stated until p. 318.

7 “Recherches sur la technique du roman,” Repertoire II (Paris: Gallimard, 1964), pp. 88–89. M. Chapsal, Les Ecrivains en personne (Paris: Grasset, 1960), pp. 58–59: “Une transformation chez le lecteur est une transformation de la reality qui va determiner un livre futur qui lui-meme aura de nouvelles transformations.”

8 “L'Espace du roman,” Repertoire II, pp. 42–50.

9 Degres, pp. 287, 291, quotations from Montaigne.

10 Rabelais's works are used to exemplify the struggle to improve the system of education. Degres, p. 184.

11 It is interesting to note in passing that Alain Mouron leaves Bourges for Paris as soon as he begins to grow up.

12 Degres, pp. 12, 129, 187, 267, 283.

13 Ulysses and Nausicaa, p. 220 (and Micheline Pavin is mentioned on p. 221), and p. 328. (On p. 327 there is mention of “les victimes de l'amour” in Dante's Inferno and on p. 328 Vernier goes to meet M. Pavin.)Dido and Aeneas, pp. 12, 131, 146, 149.

14 Shakespeare, Julius Caesar i.ii, and Degres, p. 132.

15 Degres, pp. 342–46. The movement of the association of ideas is from Macbeth “What, can the devil speak true ?” to Brutus, then to Marlowe's Faust, witches, Caesar, the Lupercales (double link with licentiousness and wolves),Ulysses, Hannibal, Marot (Epistre a Lyon Jamet), Cassius' and Eller's birthday invitation from Vernier.

16 Degres, p. 19, “Out c'est Agamemnon, c'est ton roi qui t'eveille.” This line has multiple resonance when considered together with the Caesar quotations and Vernier's intention when he begins to write his book.

17 Degres, p. 276, “. . . quelles sont les raisons qui ont fait dire a Racine dans sa preface d'lphigenie, que sans ['intervention du personnage d'Eriphile, il n'aurait jamais ose entreprendre cette trag6die?”

18 Degres, p. 251. The reference to Junie is followed immediately by mention of Vernier and is preceded by a report of Micheline Pavin talking about Vernier's book.

19 Degres, p. 182. Eller, “J'ai eu un peu peur et je n'ai pas pu m'empecher de t'appliquer cette parole.”

20 Degres, pp. 143, 145, 179.

21 Degres, pp. Ill, 184.

22 P. 88: “archaisme,” which is what Bailly's wife accuses him of. P. 129: a forewarning of what becomes explicit on p. 154,1. 14, “il etait enfin decide au divorce, qu'il avait eu une scene atroce avec Elizabeth.”

L. 328, “Et les eleves de philosophie, le mardi suivant n'ont pas compris pourquoi il est devenu soudain si ner-veux, lorsqu'il leur a explique le passage oil l'invite a la noce entend la musique nuptiale, sans pouvoir rejoindre la fete, contraint d'ecouter l'ancient mariner, le vieillard aux yeux etincellants, raconter son voyage au pays de la glace et des bruits terribles.”

Alain Mouron notait sous ta dictee: “developpement de la guerre de Trente Ans.”

23 Essais sur les Essais (Paris: Gallimard, 1968), p. 216.