Proust and Venice

This study of Proust's famous novel A la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past) focuses on Venice.

Peter Collier (Author)

9780521673389, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 June 2005

196 pages, 15 b/w illus.
21.7 x 14 x 1.4 cm, 0.266 kg

Proust's famous novel A la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past) is a fascinating exploration not only of memory and desire, of high society and everyday life, but also of art. The study focuses on Venice, one of the hero's central obsessions, and shows how a whole network of allusions to art (from Titian to Turner, from Ruskin to Emile Mâle, from Giotto to Bellini, from Byzantine mosaic to the dresses designed by Fortuny after paintings by Carpaccio) ties in with the hero's quest for self-knowledge and self-fulfilment. Peter Collier demonstrates how an understanding of the writer's artistic sources and reworkings can shed light both on Proust's complex prose style and on the aesthetic theory proposed by his novel. Most importantly, Venice and Italian art provide a new key to the central themes of the novel: memory and desire.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Proust's travels: 'Impossible venir: mensonge suit'
2. Desire, ideal remembrance: the Venetian syndrome
3. Some Proustian pretexts: Titian, Racine, Vergil, Ruskin
4. 'Superiore all'invidia': Proust's transpositions of Ruskin
5. Into the abyss: Bellini, Mantegna, Giotto
6. Fortuny (1): a phoenix too frequent
7. Fortuny (2): Carpaccio's material
8. Born again: Marcel's mosaic
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index/illustrations.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]