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The Material Object in the Work of Marcel Proust

by Tom Baldwin (Author)
©2005 Monographs 194 Pages
Series: Modern French Identities, Volume 40

Summary

This book describes the development of Proust’s treatment of material objects from his earliest work Les Plaisirs et les jours to his mature novel À la recherche du temps perdu. It examines the literary influences on Proust’s way with objects in the light of certain critical texts and reconsiders the significance of Ruskin. As the movement from unreflective and spontaneous representation to a meta-narrative of consciousness is traced, some questions as to the banality of the ‘banal object’ arise. The meta-narrative finds resonance in a peculiarly Proustian pictoriality which has been largely unnoticed. It resides in descriptions where objects appear simultaneously or at different times as things in paintings and in the real. By exploring connections between Proust’s pictoriality and his reflections on ‘matière’ and ‘surface’, the author suggests a radical approach to the modernism of À la recherche du temps perdu.

Details

Pages
194
Publication Year
2005
ISBN (Softcover)
9783039103232
Language
English
Keywords
Proust, Marcel recherche du temps perdu Ruskin, John meta-narration Les Plaisirs et les jours Erzähltechnik
Published
Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, 2005. 194 pp.

Biographical notes

Tom Baldwin (Author)

The Author: Thomas Baldwin studied for a BA in French and German at University College London and for a D.Phil. at New College, Oxford. He currently teaches at the École normale supérieure in Paris. He has published articles on Proust, Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Bouveresse.

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Title: The Material Object in the Work of Marcel Proust