Chronotope in Michel Butor’s La Modification: A Bakhtinian Reading within the French New Novel Tradition

Atik Ş.

Turkish Studies Language and Literature, cilt.21, sa.Özel sayı, ss.1473-1515, 2026 (TRDizin)

Özet

Postmodern narratives differ from traditional realist novels in their treatment of chronology, character, time, and space. One important phase in the development of these new narrative forms was the French New Novel Movement, which gained prominence in France during the 1950s. Michel Butor occupies a distinctive place within this movement through his treatment of time, space, memory, and perspective in La Modification. This study examines the novel through Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope and aims to identify the chronotopes of the road, exchange, provincial town, and threshold through textual evidence. This qualitative study uses document analysis. Three experts examined La Modification, identified relevant passages representing the four chronotopes, and interpreted these passages in relation to the theoretical framework adopted. The road chronotope is central to the structure of the novel. During his train journey from Paris to Rome, Léon Delmont moves between what he observes in the present and his memories, expectations, and decisions. The exchange chronotope appears when Delmont thinks about the book he intends to write, bringing fiction and the reader’s world into contact. Rome serves as the provincial town chronotope and is associated with Delmont’s memories, expectations, desire, freedom, and renewal. The threshold chronotope appears inDelmont’s moments of crisis, hesitation, and transformation as he confronts competing choices. The study shows that chronotope helps to explain Butor’s layered narrative structure in La Modification. It also helps readers understand how time, space, movement, memory, and decisions contribute to meaning in works belonging to the New Novel tradition. Keywords: Chronotope, New Novel Movement, Carnival, Dostoyevsky, Time, Space