The Material Object in the Work of Marcel Proust (Modern French Identities)

Baldwin, Tom

ISBN 10: 3039103237 / ISBN 13: 9783039103232

Published by Peter Lang, 2005

About this Item

pp. 188.

Seller Inventory # 18373263378

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Material Object in the Work of Marcel Proust (Modern French Identities)
• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3039103237
• ISBN 13: 9783039103232
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the 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.