Proust and the Arts

Offers new perspectives on Proust's complex and creative relation to a variety of art forms from different eras.

Christie McDonald (Edited by), François Proulx (Edited by)

9781107103368, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 November 2015

303 pages, 53 b/w illus. 2 music examples
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.63 kg

Proust and the Arts brings together expert Proustians and renowned interdisciplinary scholars in a major reconsideration of the novelist's relation to the arts. Going beyond the classic question of the models used by Proust for his fictional artists, the essays collected here explore how he learned from and integrated, in highly personal ways, the work of such creators as Wagner or Carpaccio. This volume reveals the breadth of Proust's engagement with varied art forms from different eras: from "primitive" arts to sound recordings, from medieval sculpture to Art Nouveau glassmaking, and from portrait photography to the private art of doodling. Chapters bring into focus issues of perception and detail in examining how Proust encountered and responded to works of art, and attend to the ways art shaped his complex relationship to identity, sexuality, humor, and the craft of writing.

1. Introduction
Part I. Art's Way: 2. Primitives and primitive arts in the Recherche Nathalie Mauriac Dyer
3. 'Some dear or sad fantasy': faith, idolatry, infidelity Sophie Duval
4. I am [not] a painting: how Chardin and Moreau dialogue in Proust's writing Christie McDonald
Part II. Apprenticing and Integrating: 5. Art and craft in Marcel Proust's life and work Virginie Greene
6. 'Those blessed days': Ruskin, Proust, and Carpaccio in Venice Susan Ricci Stebbins
7. 'Cette douceur, pour ainsi dire wagnérienne': musical resonance in Proust's Recherche John Hamilton
Part III. Expanding the Arts: 8. Proust and archeological discovery Kazuyoshi Yoshikawa
9. Swann's gift, Odette's face: photography, money and desire in À la recherche du temps perdu Suzanne Guerlac
10. Oriane's artful fashions Caroline Weber
11. Glass and clay: Proust and Gallé Elaine Scarry
Part IV. Perceiving and Transforming: 12. Proust's eye Françoise Leriche
13. Sound and music in Proust: what the Symbolists heard Sindhumathi Revuluri
14. Inside a red cover: Proust and the art of the book Evelyne Ender and Serafina Lawrence
Part V. Creative Identities: 15. Proust and the Marx Brothers Elisabeth Ladenson
16. Proust, Jews, and the arts Maurice Samuels
17. 'Irregular' kin: Madeleine Lemaire and Reynaldo Hahn in Les plaisirs et les jours François Proulx
18. The day Proust recognized he was a great writer Antoine Compagnon
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], The arts [A]