In this paper, we try to show the relationship between plagiarism, rewriting and writing in the case of Nerval. To write on the others means, for this author, to let himself be read through the papers of the others. The plagiarism, the movement and the replacement of the words, the misappropriations of the senses (a single changed letter – music in tunic – is enough, at Nerval, to change an episode of orgy in an episode of platonic love), the estrangement of the original text (the author changes the real data, invents and mystifies a lot) are constants of the nervalian writing. Nothing is more constant in the work of Nerval than the practice of rewriting (under all the forms that this one takes, worth knowing, the re-use, the adaptation, the deletion, the omission, the quotation, the collage, the loan, the allusion, the compilation of several books, the condensation, the adaptation or the closeness of inspiration) and the plagiarism at the same time. All these techniques make of the work a real textual mosaic, as if there was really no weakness, at Nerval, between reading and writing or between writing, rewriting and plagiarism. Basically, the originality of this author consists in its effort of assembling the loans and even in the contesting of the originality.
 

In this paper, we try to show the relationship between plagiarism, rewriting and writing in the case of Nerval. To write on the others means, for this author, to let himself be read through the papers of the others. The plagiarism, the movement and the replacement of the words, the misappropriations of the senses (a single changed letter – music in tunic – is enough, at Nerval, to change an episode of orgy in an episode of platonic love), the estrangement of the original text (the author changes the real data, invents and mystifies a lot) are constants of the nervalian writing. Nothing is more constant in the work of Nerval than the practice of rewriting (under all the forms that this one takes, worth knowing, the re-use, the adaptation, the deletion, the omission, the quotation, the collage, the loan, the allusion, the compilation of several books, the condensation, the adaptation or the closeness of inspiration) and the plagiarism at the same time. All these techniques make of the work a real textual mosaic, as if there was really no weakness, at Nerval, between reading and writing or between writing, rewriting and plagiarism. Basically, the originality of this author consists in its effort of assembling the loans and even in the contesting of the originality.