Proust and Emotion: The Importance of Affect in "A la recherche du temps perdu"

by Inge Crosman Wimmers

In Proust and Emotion , Inge Crosman Wimmers proposes a new approach to A la recherche du temps perdu that centres on the role of affect. Through close reading of the hero-narrator's personal history, the author shows how emotional paradigms (especially separation anxiety), involuntary memory, and other compelling impressions give focus and structure to Proust's novel. Drawing on reader-oriented and emotion theories, she shows how affect commands the attention of the 'motivated reader' and is crucial to the process of self-understanding for both the narrator and the reader. This is the first extensive study in English to take fully into consideration the drafts ( esquisses ) published in the new Pléiade edition of the novel, the Mauriac edition of Albertine disparue , and material from the unpublished Proust manuscripts - all of which shed further light on the importance of affect in A la recherche . Proust and Emotion will appeal to readers interested in an approach to Proust that combines insights from philosophy, psychology, and literary aesthetics and in a poetics of reading that pays particular attention to emotion.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published December 6, 2003