RUcore Resource Object
RUcore Resource Object
PDF-1(2.20 MB)
TitleCorrespondances, transposition, traduction: la poétique symboliste de la suggestion dans "A la recherche du temps perdu"
NameBanu, Anamaria (author), Shaw, Mary (chair), Schilling, Derek (internal member), Swenson, James (internal member), Flieger, Jerry Aline (internal member), Benhaim, André (outside member), Rutgers University, Graduate School - New Brunswick,
Degree Date2010
Date Created2010
SubjectFrench,
Symbolism in literature,
Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922--Criticism and interpretation,
Baudelaire, Charles, 1821-1867--Criticism and interpretation,
Mallarmé, Stéphane, 1842-1898--Criticism and interpretation,
Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922. À la recherche du temps perdu--Criticism and interpretation,
Wagner, Richard, 1813-1883--Influence
DescriptionWhat gives Marcel Proust’s novel its supremely poetic appeal? Critics have characterized it as modern or postmodern, yet I argue that Proust’s aesthetic is more
pointedly informed by poetic symbolism and the Wagnerian vision of the interconnectedness of disparate art genres. Rather than focusing exclusively on the notion of artistic ‘unity’ or totality that critics have often associated with this vision, I emphasize
the crucial function difference plays in generating this literary aesthetic. Looking closely at the many passages comparing the arts, I draw out the importance of metaphor in Proust’s writing, one which both theorizes and poetically extends throughout the narrative the overarching structure of art as similarity in difference. Among all French writers, Proust, I argue, best understood the Wagnerian theory of the Gesamtkunstwerk, which aimed to posit on the same level and to encompass the visual, dramatic, and musical aspects of the artwork. But what Proust ultimately aimed to achieve was not the kind of synthesis we find in Wagner’s Festivals. Rather, it is a
peculiarly French translation of the opera in a purely literary form – a narrative translation for which previous French Symbolist poets had paradoxically served as
mediators. Focusing on affinities largely neglected by Proust scholars, my study shows that Proust’s transposition of Wagner is in fact anticipated and prepared by Baudelaire’s and Mallarmé’s conceptions of correspondences (between literature, music, and painting) elaborated in critical writings, and by their own practices of writing as translation. I point to how these poets’ formal innovations come to play within the transposition of the Gesamtkunstwerk performed in Proust’s novel. Thus, from Proust’s first English ‘master,’ Ruskin, who loved the irregularity that
makes ancient architecture come to life, and anticipated its connection with late nineteenth-century Impressionism and Symbolism, to the identity-in-difference of literature and other arts articulated by Baudelaire and Mallarmé, my thesis examines a
crucial set of models that shape La Recherche. Its principal aim is to explain how and why Proust, after his initials attempts at prose poems collected in Les Plaisirs et les Jours, came ultimately to effect a transposition of Wagnerian music-drama into a novel-poem.
pointedly informed by poetic symbolism and the Wagnerian vision of the interconnectedness of disparate art genres. Rather than focusing exclusively on the notion of artistic ‘unity’ or totality that critics have often associated with this vision, I emphasize
the crucial function difference plays in generating this literary aesthetic. Looking closely at the many passages comparing the arts, I draw out the importance of metaphor in Proust’s writing, one which both theorizes and poetically extends throughout the narrative the overarching structure of art as similarity in difference. Among all French writers, Proust, I argue, best understood the Wagnerian theory of the Gesamtkunstwerk, which aimed to posit on the same level and to encompass the visual, dramatic, and musical aspects of the artwork. But what Proust ultimately aimed to achieve was not the kind of synthesis we find in Wagner’s Festivals. Rather, it is a
peculiarly French translation of the opera in a purely literary form – a narrative translation for which previous French Symbolist poets had paradoxically served as
mediators. Focusing on affinities largely neglected by Proust scholars, my study shows that Proust’s transposition of Wagner is in fact anticipated and prepared by Baudelaire’s and Mallarmé’s conceptions of correspondences (between literature, music, and painting) elaborated in critical writings, and by their own practices of writing as translation. I point to how these poets’ formal innovations come to play within the transposition of the Gesamtkunstwerk performed in Proust’s novel. Thus, from Proust’s first English ‘master,’ Ruskin, who loved the irregularity that
makes ancient architecture come to life, and anticipated its connection with late nineteenth-century Impressionism and Symbolism, to the identity-in-difference of literature and other arts articulated by Baudelaire and Mallarmé, my thesis examines a
crucial set of models that shape La Recherche. Its principal aim is to explain how and why Proust, after his initials attempts at prose poems collected in Les Plaisirs et les Jours, came ultimately to effect a transposition of Wagnerian music-drama into a novel-poem.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes abstract
NoteVita
NoteAbstract in English ; text in French
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Anamaria Banu
Genretheses
Persistent URLhttp://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10001600001.ETD.000053608
Languagefre
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.