Editing Michel Butor (section)

==Life and work==
Michel Marie François Butor was born in [[Mons-en-Barœul]], a suburb of [[Lille]], the third of seven children. His parents were Émile Butor (1891–1960), a railroad inspector and Anna ({{nee}} Brajeux, 1896–1972). He studied philosophy at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]], graduating in 1947.<ref>His DES thesis (''{{Interlanguage link|diplôme d'études supérieures|fr}}'', roughly equivalent to an [[Master of Arts|MA]] thesis) under [[Gaston Bachelard]] was titled ''Les Mathématiques et l'idée de nécessité'', "Mathematics and the Idea of Necessity" (see Mary Lydon, ''Perpetuum Mobile: A Study of the Novels and Aesthetics of Michel Butor'', University of Alberta, 1980, p. 156 n. 31).</ref>

In 1950–51, he taught French in [[Minya, Egypt|Minya]], Egypt, followed by teaching assignments in [[Manchester]] (1951–53), [[Thessaloniki]] (1954–55) and [[Geneva]] (1956–57). In 1958, he married Marie-Josèphe (née Mas); they had four daughters.

His first novel, ''Passage de Milan'', was published in 1954, followed by ''L'Emploi du temps'' (1956), which won the [[Prix Fénéon]], and by ''[[La Modification]]'' in 1957, which won the [[Prix Renaudot]]. His final novel, ''Degrés'', was published in 1960.

In 1960, he was a visiting professor at [[Bryn Mawr College]] and [[Middlebury College]]. His travels around the United States at this time resulted in his first experimental book, ''Mobile'', published in 1962 to a controversial reception.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Daniels |first=T. Tilden |date=2008-07-01 |title=Michel Butor's Mobile: Modernism, Postmodernism, and American Art |url=https://doi.org/10.3200/SYMP.62.2.99-112 |journal=Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=99–112 |doi=10.3200/SYMP.62.2.99-112 |s2cid=192193498 |issn=0039-7709|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In the following years, he wrote in a variety of forms, from essays to poetry to [[Artist's book|artist's books]].<ref name="example">[[Manuel Casimiro]], ''Books on Manuel Casimiro''.</ref> For artist's books he collaborated with artists like [[Gérard Serée]].<ref>[https://www.mchampetier.com/biography-Gerard-Ser%C3%A9e.html Gerard Seree, Notes of biography], Gallery Michelle Champetier, 2020</ref> Literature, painting and travel were subjects particularly dear to Butor. Part of the fascination of his writing is the way it combines the rigorous symmetries that led [[Roland Barthes]] to praise him as an epitome of structuralism (exemplified, for instance, by the architectural scheme of ''Passage de Milan'' or the calendrical structure of ''L'emploi du temps'') with a lyrical sensibility more akin to [[Baudelaire]] than to [[Robbe-Grillet]].

Journalists and critics have associated his novels with the [[nouveau roman]], but Butor himself long resisted that association. The main point of similarity is a very general one, not much beyond that; like exponents of the nouveau roman, he can be described as an experimental writer.<ref>[https://amisdelegeard.wordpress.com/2016/03/24/michel-butor-la-modification/ Une Conversation avec Michel Butor] {{in lang|fr}} quotation: {{blockquote|La littérature, c’est l’expérimentation sur le langage.}}</ref> His best-known novel, ''[[La Modification]]'', for instance, is written entirely in the second person.<ref>[http://www.connotations.de/article/joshua-parker-in-their-own-words-on-writing-in-second-person/ Joshua Parker: On writing in second person, Published in Connotations Vol. 21.2–3 (2011/12)]</ref> In his 1967 ''La critique et l'invention'', he famously said that even the most literal quotation is already a kind of parody because of its "trans-contextualization."<ref>Linda Hutcheon (1985), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FoHXjEauvKIC&pg=PA41 A theory of parody: the teachings of twentieth-century art forms]'', p. 41</ref><ref>Allan H. Pasco (1994), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=CWxcAAAAMAAJ Allusion: a literary graft]'', p. 217</ref><ref>Original quotation: {{blockquote|La citation la plus littérale est déjà dans une certaine mesure une parodie. Le simple prélèvement la transforme, le choix dans lequel je l'insère, sa découpure (deux critiques peuvent citer le même passage en fixant ses bords différemment), les allégements que j'opère à l'intérieur, lesquels peuvent substituer une autre grammaire à l'originelle et naturellement, la façon dont je l'aborde, dont elle est prise dans mon commentaire}}</ref><ref>Michel Butor (1981), [https://books.google.com/books?id=R5K2AAAAIAAJ ''Letters from the Antipodes''], p. 162 quotation: {{blockquote|A whole ideology of ownership and transmission is implied by the commercial promotion of books and a certain kind of discourse in newspapers, schools and universities, with its emphasis on greatness, uniqueness, and influence—often via quotation—as a one-way process. This ideology has received a battering for many years now at the hands of authors such as James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Jorge Luis Borges (Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote) and Butor himself.}}</ref>

After meeting in 1977, Butor became a friend of Elinor S. Miller, a French professor at [[Rollins College]] at the time.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=Elinor |date=1977-09-01 |title=Approaches to the Cataract: Butor's Niagara |url=https://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol2/iss1/4 |journal=Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature |volume=2 |issue=1 |doi=10.4148/2334-4415.1045 |issn=2334-4415|doi-access=free }}</ref> They worked collaboratively on translations, catalogues and lectures. In 2002, Miller published a book on Butor entitled ''Prisms and Rainbows: Michel Butor's Collaborations with Jacques Monory, Jiri Kolar, and Pierre Alechinsky.''<ref>[http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/butor/bioghist.html The Fales Library of NYU's guide to Elinor Miller Paper] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091130023620/http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/butor.html|date=2009-11-30}}</ref>

In an interview in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, conducted in 2006,<ref>[http://media.moma.org/audio/2006/pub_prog/ModernPoets_113006.mp3 Audio file]</ref> the poet [[John Ashbery]] described how he wanted to sit next to Michel Butor at a dinner in New York.

In 2013, Butor was awarded the [[Grand Prix de Littérature de l'Académie française|Grand prix de littérature de l'Académie française]]. He died on 24 August 2016 in southeastern France.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Grimes |first=William |date=4 September 2016 |title=Michel Butor, French Novelist Who Shattered Conventions, Dies at 89 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/05/books/michel-butor-experimental-french-novelist-dies-at-89.html |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

Michel Butor was a foundational member of [https://raymondroussel.org The Raymond Roussel Society], established in 2016 alongside notable contemporaries including [[John Ashbery]], [[Miquel Barceló]], Joan Bofill-Amargós, [[Thor Halvorssen (human rights activist)|Thor Halvorssen]], and Hermes Salceda. The society, dedicated to celebrating and studying the works of the innovative and enigmatic writer [[Raymond Roussel]], brought together a group of intellectuals and artists with a shared passion for Roussel's literary legacy. Through this collaboration, Butor's influence and expertise contributed significantly to the society's mission of exploring Roussel's unique literary techniques and promoting a deeper understanding of his innovative contributions to the world of literature.