<p>What role does the body play in Marcel Proust's A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu? Concentrating particularly on Combray and Un Amour de Swann, the following study traces Proust's transformation of the physical body by metaphor. Because the presentation of the body is a barometer indicating both a character's conscious and subconscious thought, critical interpretation of the body is a vital part of understanding Proustian desire. In "chapter one" on the metaphors of bodily processes, the narrator's desire is discussed. Swann's love for Odette is the focus of "chapter two" on the body of desire. Finally, "chapter three" which deals with the body as "sign" in the social world, describes the problems which accompany the interpretation of the body in the text.What role does the body play in Marcel Proust's A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu? Concentrating particularly on Combray and Un Amour de Swann, the following study traces Proust's transformation of the physical body by metaphor. Because the presentation of the body is a barometer indicating both a character's conscious and subconscious thought, critical interpretation of the body is a vital part of understanding Proustian desire. In "chapter one" on the metaphors of bodily processes, the narrator's desire is discussed. Swann's love for Odette is the focus of "chapter two" on the body of desire. Finally, "chapter three" which deals with the body as "sign" in the social world, describes the problems which accompany the interpretation of the body in the text.</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This thesis, consisting of five chapters, studies descriptions and images in the novels of Claude Simon which show death as an “effect of character”, in other words, as a sort of character endowed with the same traits as actual literary characters. The first chapter examines how theoreticians define literary characters. Due to the fact that death materializes as a quasi-character during the act of reading since the reader needs to decipher textual clues in order to visualize death as an effect of character, I refer to Vincent Jouve’s theory of the character-effect. The chapters that follow seek therefore to demonstrate that death possesses an anatomy which resembles that of literary characters. The second chapter concentrates on images of the dying body which are reminiscent of themes in the artistic works of the Dance of Death, of Vanitas, and of the grotesque, and which produce in the reader the impression that death has a physical body. The third chapter also analyzes descriptions of the suffering body, as well as metaphorical language in order to show that death possesses a speaking body. The fourth chapter focuses on the presence of the life drive in the representation of death. It seems that death desires life in the same way as the other characters, therefore I envision death with a body composed of drives. The fifth and final chapter pursues the affective body of death by studying descriptions of intense bodily experiences. By accumulating all the images of the different bodies, one sees the sketch of a character that I identify by the designation “the effect of character of death”. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)