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La Recherche (1913-1922) de Marcel Proust (1871-1922) est remarquable par ses details emblematiqu... more La Recherche (1913-1922) de Marcel Proust (1871-1922) est remarquable par ses details emblematiques: la 'petite madeleine', 'la petite bande de jeunes filles', 'le petit pan de mur jaune'. Dans chacun des cas, Proust insiste sur la taille infime. Pourtant, en depit de cette restriction, chacun fait paradoxalement ressortir un evenement majeur: les miettes du gâteau font vivre au Narrateur sa premiere experience de la memoire involontaire; de la petite bande s'extrait Albertine, personnage incontournable de la Recherche; et le pan de mur jaune donne a Bergotte une lecon de style. Cette constatation nous amene a interroger la hierarchie du petit et du fragment dans l'œuvre de Proust. La these aura ainsi pour but d'indiquer si nous sommes en presence d'exemples ponctuels qui incarnent une grandeur transcendantale, ou s'il y a chez Proust une strategie du detail hypersemantise. Nous aborderons la question par une approche comparatiste. Nous co...

Approcher la litterature sous le spectre de la science, c’est ce que se propose de faire Jean‑Pie... more Approcher la litterature sous le spectre de la science, c’est ce que se propose de faire Jean‑Pierre Ollivier au profit d’A la recherche du temps perdu (1913‑1927). Medecin et ancien chef de service de cardiologie, J.‑P. Ollivier exploite ses connaissances pour eclairer et questionner la veracite des analyses entreprises dans l’œuvre autour du cœur. Notons que la symbolique de l’organe est tres presente dans la critique proustienne. Dans Science and Structure in Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu (2000), Nicola Luckhurst s’est par exemple interessee de pres au rythme cardiaque. Elle compare la formation des grandes lois au rythme des pulsations :The dynamic law statements might be described as pulsing according to a system of systole and diastole; contracting around the key regulatory maxims of desire, love, jealousy and habit, dilating outwards, speculatively, over a range of topic1.L’ouvrage de J.‑P. Ollivier, Proust cardiologue, propose de revenir a une image anatomique du cœ...

The thematic of smallness in Marcel Proust's Swann's Way.

Talks by Marine Authier

In Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu (1913-1927), Albertine is described as a fragmen... more In Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu (1913-1927), Albertine is described as a fragmented character. Her extreme complexity does not allow the Narrator to define her as a whole. Throughout the novel, she remains ‘un être de fuite’ (creature of flight). For Nicola Luckhurst, Albertine is ‘a knot’ (2000: 102), while she seems more like ‘a nebula’ (1998: 2) according to Malcolm Bowie. Finally, Gilles Deleuze states that ‘there are so many Albertines that we should give a distinct name to each’ (2000: 68).
In this paper, I will argue that, in the Recherche, the fragmentation of Albertine is supported by previous mechanisms (enlargement, extraction, decomposition). The more the Narrator comes closer to Albertine, the more he notices the proliferation of fragments: her physical appearance is constantly shifting, her speech is full of intentional holes and her sexual inclination is left uncertain.
I aim to demonstrate the two contradictory approaches regarding Albertine’s fragments. On the one hand, the Narrator, as a jealous lover, gets himself tangled up in the obsession of deciphering. He desperately collects fragments but realises they do not fit together. Therefore, he never gets to know the truth about the young woman. On the other hand, Proust deliberately maintains Albertine in the mysterious realm of inexplicable multiplicity and takes the time to describe his Narrator’s turmoil. In doing so, I will insist on the shift which occurs with the Recherche: the negative proliferation of incoherent fragments becomes the essential subject of the Proustian creation.

In 2013 the 100th Anniversary of Marcel Proust’s first publication of Du Côté de chez Swann (Swan... more In 2013 the 100th Anniversary of Marcel Proust’s first publication of Du Côté de chez Swann (Swann’s Way) reminded us of A la recherche du temps perdu’s (In Search of Lost Time) central place in French literary history and of a marked tendency for critics to focus their work on this last novel only. Deleuze, Guattari, Richard and Barthes, for instance, have considered and highlighted the fragmented universe described throughout the seven volumes of la Recherche. This paper aims to go back to Proust’s underresearched early works, more specifically Jean Santeuil (1895),to study the mechanisms of fragmentation and to determine whether it represents a starting point or peripheral experience of the fragment.

Erratum page 4: She begins her analysis by highlighting the obvious inherent negativity

Book Reviews by Marine Authier

https://www.fabula.org/revue/document12034.php

http://www.fabula.org/lodel/acta/index.php?id=10534

Conference Presentations by Marine Authier

'The Image in Pieces: The Movable Mosaic in Marcel Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu' Mosai... more 'The Image in Pieces: The Movable Mosaic in Marcel Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu'

Mosaics: Difference, Diversity and Assemblage - FRIT Graduate Conference.

As William C. Carter states, Proust ‘always worked like a mosaicist, taking a particular scene, anecdote, impression, image, and crafting it to completion’ (2002: 39). The construction and assembly of the image in Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu (1913-1927) is often described as being like a mosaic. The Narrator slowly accumulates fragments and pieces in order to create a precise and complete image of what he observes. The mosaic – a whole made of diverse fragments – is a relevant metaphor here: it symbolises the Narrator’s interest in going from fragmentation to unity.
However, I want to argue that the fixity and stability of the mosaic leaves out an important feature in Proust’s writing: its movement and mobility. The paper will develop Margaret Topping’s definition of the mosaic in Proust’s text as something that ‘embodies the desire to transcend broad brushstroke preconceptions’ (2016: 150). I aim to show that in A la recherche, the image does not remain stable – that the Narrator oscillates between composition and decomposition, assemblage and dismantling, and that his oscillations and variations reveal the impossibility of fixing any one image. In doing so, I will introduce the idea of a mobile mosaic that both embodies a drive towards assembly and unity and is undermined by the reality of temporality and destruction.

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