Abstract

The present article summarizes and outlines key aspects of literary text creation theory, with a specific focus on intermediality. In this context, intermediality is defined as an interdisciplinary approach to studying literary discourse. The article incorporates both traditional and modern techniques for analyzing the essential components of literary narratives. In contemporary interdisciplinary studies, intermedial analysis can be employed to examine literary narratives, particularly in French literature, to uncover unique intratextual relationships. These relationships are established through the mutual correlations and internal connections of various artistic codes across different art forms. This research examines the diary of Françoise Sagan, a renowned twentieth-century French writer, focusing on her work Toxique. The study takes into consideration the modernist format utilized in this text creation. One of the most striking characteristics of Sagan’s writing is the narrator’s emphasis on reduced actions and her focus on reflecting the author’s mental and sensory experiences during her time in a clinic, where she sought to overcome her addiction to narcotic drugs. In Sagan’s literary narrative, intermediality is highlighted through the use of figurative and stylistic elements that illustrate the role of non-verbal creativity—specifically, the visual arts—in shaping meaning and form of the work. The harmonious and insightful blending of aesthetic codes from both fiction and visual art, like graphics and drawings, enriches the construction of the modernist narrative reality. This approach allows analyzing Sagan’s literary narrative in terms of performativity, mediality, and iconicity.