SOURCE: Chavdarian, Seda A. “Problems of Representation in Butor's Ou.” International Fiction Review 14, no. 2 (summer 1987): 100–02.

In the following essay, Chavdarian interprets Butor's Ou as a discourse on the nature of representation and various forms of creative expression.

In spite of its tremendous diversity, Michel Butor's work has an underlying current that connects all of it together. While deeply anchored in ethno-cultural and mythological references, his books are attempts to understand and define artistic expression. In his earlier novels, Butor comments on the literary process indirectly through a fictional author, but becomes directly involved later on. Among the many aspects of artistic expression pursued in his work is literary representation. Butor's interest in it dates back to his early works and is closely connected to his concept of genius loci, first communicated to us in Le Génie du lieu (1957). Butor once distinguished modern civilization from the ancients as...