In Proustian aesthetics, the act of reading constitutes a fundamental activity in the elaboration of Remembrance of Things Past. The representation of each art form which the novel proposes to synthesize (architecture, painting, and literature) is based on intertextual relationships that unite texts from non literary (Ruskin, Male), literary (Sand, Sevigne, Racine) and philosophical (Schopenhauer) sources, that contribute to a general conception of art that reintegrates the problem of the reception of art works in the context of an essentially literary experience. In accordance with Hans-Robert Jauss' theory, the presence of such texts enables the reconstitution of the reader's expectations, and provides the context for the multiple representations of the work of art. Consequently, the implicit and explicit interrelations between the Proustian text and its intertext, perceived as an indication of the readers liberty, introduce different strategies of reading into the novel. Not only does the narrative, through its characters, offers a series of examples that are didactic in nature, but the use of quotations creates dynamics that underscores the specificity of the Proustian act of reading and its interdependence on the act of writing. The reception of the text implied by the Proustian reading of the work of art therefore contributes in making Remembrance of Things Past, not a dogmatic exposition of a theory, but rather a long quest through literary creation for knowledge that transcends Plato's idea of the transmission of meaning through art and of communication through the act of reading.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.26675 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Barr, Philippe. |
| Contributors | Lane-Mercier, Gillian (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Département de langue et littérature françaises.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001572424, proquestno: MQ29480, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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