Proustian Passions: The Uses of Self-justification for A la Recherche Du Temps PerduOxford University Press, 2000 - 266 páginas A la recherche du temps perdu occupies an undisputed place in the unfolding intellectual history of the 'moi' in France. There is, however, a general tendency in writing on this novel to celebrate the wonders of the moi sensible uncritically. This effaces all that is morally dubious or frankly experimental about Proust's account of selfhood. It denies the rigour with which Proust tries to understand exactly why it is so difficult to explain one's own actions to another. The great party scenes, for example, or the countless digressions, read like manuals on how acts of self-justification take place. Proust, however, is not merely interested in some kind of taxonomy of excuses, hypocrisy, disingenuousness, and Schadenfreude. He wants to know why self-justification tends to be interpreted as indicative of moral or psychological weakness. He asks himself whether self-justification informs isolated moments of everyday existence or whether it endures in an overall conception of self that lasts an individual's lifetime. He investigates whether it dictates the functioning of an entire social group. Can we decide, he asks, whether justifying one's self should be written off as morally repugnant, or taken seriously as evidence of moral probity? |
Contenido
Making | 75 |
The Cloison | 97 |
The Reverses of Character | 130 |
The Ethics | 171 |
SelfJustification Judgement Indifference | 209 |
Appendices | 215 |
Cloison Instances in A la recherche du temps perdu | 238 |
263 | |
Términos y frases comunes
Albertine disparue Albertine's attempt autre avait Balbec bien Bloch Brichot c'est c'était caractère character Charlus Charlus's chose cloison cloisonnée cœur Combray contre côté coup critical d'une death désir desire deux digression dire direct speech Dreyfus Affair duchesse elle été être eût faisait fait Faubourg Faubourg Saint-Germain femme first-person Freud functioning Gérard Genette grand-mère grandmother Guermantes homme homosexuality indifference j'ai j'avais jamais jeune jour judgement Jupien justification justificatory kind l'autre language Le Temps retrouvé literary livre Malcolm Bowie Marcel Marcel Proust ment metaphor monde moral Morel mort mourning n'est narrative narrator narrator's Norpois Norpois's novel pain parties personne petit peut peut-être plaisir pre-emptive Proust Proustian qu'elle qu'il qu'on qu'un question reader reading recherche du temps rhetorical rien Roland Barthes s'il Saint-Loup salon self-justification self-justificatory seul seulement sexual signify Sodome et Gomorrhe souvenir Swann temps perdu textual tion tout Verdurin Villeparisis vulnerability writing