cut-up technique

British  

noun

1. a technique of writing involving cutting up lines or pages of prose and rearranging these fragments, popularized by the novelist William Burroughs (1914–97)

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Example Sentences

Handwritten lyrics for songs like “Fame,” Heroes” and “Ashes to Ashes” will also be on display, including examples of Bowie’s cut-up technique.

From New York Times • Feb. 23, 2023

Like many of Burroughs’s rock progeny, Bowie was an adherent of the cut-up technique that originated with the Surrealists but was popularized in the late 1950s by Burroughs and the artist Brion Gysin.

From Washington Post • Jun. 21, 2019

Somebody once tracked the route taken in the song and concluded that Morrison must have deployed William Burroughs’ cut-up technique on his road map, but such literalism misses the point.

From The Guardian • Jun. 1, 2016