Marcel Proust (1871-1922)

Marcel Proust (1871-1922)
Swann’s Way
French
Modernism
Marcel Proust was born in July of 1871 in Auteuil, a suburb of Paris. His father was a highly respected doctor. His mother, whom he was devoted to during her lifetime, was well-educated. Proust developed asthma in 1880. He would battle this illness all of life. His ailments did not keep him from completing his law degree in 1893 and obtaining a degree in literature in 1895. He would go on to complete a year of military service in 1889. While he published some short works for magazines early on in his life (1882-1889), he became more devoted to writing after his parents’ deaths in 1905. He was fascinated by the works of John Ruskin, a prominent Victorian art and social critic, because of Ruskin’s ideas about the relationship audience and author. Proust translated some of Rushin’s works into French in 1899. Proust would go on to translate Ruskin’s work into French. Ruskin’s work inspired Proust’s theories of the dynamic between text and reader. Proust believed that the literary work gave the reader an entryway into the inner self of the writer, and it should inspire the reader to reflect on his or her own inner life. His theory influenced narratology. His most renowned literary work, Remembrance of Things Past or A la Recherché du Temps Perdu, which is also translated as In Search of Lost Time (1913-1927), is a multivolume work that where Proust experiments with psychology, time, and memory. Using a stream-of-consciousness narrative technique, Proust explores the narrator’s conception of memory as a mental construction and a physical construction. Swann’s Way (Du côté de chez Swann; 1913) was one of the first volumes published. In this work, Proust draws on some autobiographical material to set up the development of young Marcel, his narrator. Marcel’s life explores the relationship between body, mind, dream, appearance, social class, and reality. Proust was awarded the Goncourt Prize after the publication of the second volume in 1917, making him a national literary sensation.
Consider while reading:

1. Since there is no traditional plot in “Swann’s Way,” how does Proust move the story forward?
2. Compare Marcel’s narration as a child to his narration as an adult. What has changed? Why?
3. How does Proust explore the boundary between the mind and the body? Why is that significant to the text?
4. What does memory mean for the younger and older Marcel?

Written by Laura Ng