The Material Object in the Work of Marcel Proust
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.
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The Material Object in the Work of Marcel Proust
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.
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The Material Object in the Work of Marcel Proust

The Material Object in the Work of Marcel Proust

The Material Object in the Work of Marcel Proust

The Material Object in the Work of Marcel Proust

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9783039103232
Publisher: Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Publication date: 05/17/2005
Series: Modern French Identities , #40
Pages: 194
Product dimensions: 5.91(w) x 8.66(h) x (d)

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.

Table of Contents

Contents: Critics and Proust’s objects – The literary influences on Proust’s way with objects – Proust’s taste in objects: from the natural to the man-made – The role of ‘simple’ objects and pictured objects – The creation of a distance between subject and object – The use of ‘material’ and ‘matter’ in À la recherche du temps perdu – The use of ‘surface’ in À la recherche du temps perdu.

Preface

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Related Subjects

Literature
Literary Criticism
French Literature
20th Century French Literature - Literary Criticism
Literature
Literary Criticism
French Literature
20th Century French Literature - Literary Criticism

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