Nicola Luckhurst (review)

Abstract

MLR,96.3,200 I 837 thelinguistic procedures that carry Proust's themes andtotackle thequestions of coherence andorder ofevents ina narrative that isfamously non-linear. SinceLSa Recherche isa collage ofintermittent andoften abruptly interrupted time sequences, a considerable partofthethesis is rightly dependent on gradations oftenses. Linguistic studies inrecent Proust criticism areclearly surveyed, showing a position removed from Milly andDeleuze, andclosest toGenette, butusing herownterms: planembraye replacing diegesis ortelling andplannon embraye ordebraye replacing mimesis orshowing. Thereisa wideselection ofextracts (thelargest partofthe book) towhich hertechniques ofnarrative analysis, ina series ofsubeategories and subdivisions ofsubeategories, arerigorously applied. Itisa method, however, that initsintricacy proves tobevery demanding ofthereader's attention. Itdoesnot particularly illuminate thenovel, which disappears behind this relentless procrusteanbedapproach . Proust's owncomment, inhisinterview inI9I3 ontheeveof the publication ofCombray, might havebeena goodcorrective. There herefers toa narrator 'quiraconte, quidit:"Je"(etquin'est pasmoi)'.Thisalerts ustoProust's early understanding ofthe problems offictionality andreality, since behind itishis awareness that,whilenotinterested in confession, he is moving towards the resolution ofa personal obsession already sketched inJean Santeuil: howtojustify art tolife ingeneral andhislife toartinparticular. Thethesis isweakest incoming to terms with this fictionality) a particularly Proustian long-term strategy inwhich his life andhisartconverge, a life considered well-spent working onhisfiction almost tohislastbreath. Thecomplexity ofProust's artistic motivation isadmitted inthe inherent slipperiness ofhisunconscious blending ofstyles, which isseenasa special difficulty: 'comme Proust "brouille" deliberement lesfrontieres entre cesdivers types de narration, presque toutes sortes de melanges peuvent etrerencontres.' (p.42). In thelongterm we havetoacceptthatthese scrupulous definitions of narrative only work intheearly part ofLaRecherche. Bythetime thereader reaches LeXemps retrouve itbecomes difficult todistinquish 'lemoi narre dumoi intermediaire' (p. 273). It seemsthatthemorewe proceedthelesshelpful theseveryfine distinctions become: Cdans LaRecherche, lesfrontieres entre lestypes narratifs actoriel etauctoriel sont tres floues a causedel'existence duniveau hypodiegetique etdu sujet intermediaire quin'appartient clairement niaumonde narre niaumonde ou l'on narre'(p.e75). The mainquestion regarding La Recherche, as combining fictionality anda personal aesthetic adventure, isleft open. UNIVERSITY OFGLASGOW W.L. HODSON Science and Structure inProust's 54larecherche dutemps perdu'. ByNICOLA LUCKHURST. Oxford: ClarendonPress. 2000.262PP. £45. Alarecherche dutemps perdu isa notoriously hybrid text: likeother modern classics of theearlytwentieth century (Musil'sDerMannohne Eigenschaften, Mann'sDer Zauberberg, Woolf's The Pargiters), itcombines theessayistic andthenovelistic, the general andtheparticular, maxim andmetaphor. Critics tendon thewholeto privilege themetaphoric inProust overhisanalytical ormoralistic side.In this erudite andthoroughly researched book, NicolaLuckhurst proposes toredress the balancebetween thetwowith a viewtorehabilitating Proust the'moraliste' and 'scientist' whoisoften neglected infavour ofProust the'poet'.After tracing the intertextual connections between Proust andthe French moralistes ofthe seventeenth century, sheexplores hiswriting inthelight oflatenineteenth-century andearly twentieth-century science which served asa powerful intellectual andhermeneutic model for thenovel. Theauthor shows that Proust makes extensive useofscientific 838 Revzews modelling and hypothesis throughout thenovel, mostimportantly in Sodome et Gomorrhe andintheAlbertine volumes which dramatize thelover's obsessive quest for knowledge. Bothhismetaphors andhismaxims areunderpinned byscientific imagery ontheonehandand,ontheother, a quasi-scientific desire tounderstand thecommon lawsbehindpassion, jealousy, and sexuality. Crucially, whereas modern authors likeProust lookedto science foran understanding ofhuman nature, modern scientists turned toart tounderstand intuition andcreativity. Using theexample ofProust, Luckhurst takes us on a fascinating journey through the evolution ofscience inthelatenineteenth andearly twentieth centuries andits changing relations withartandliterature. Her commanding knowledge ofthe history ofscience andoftheinteraction between thetwocultures attheturn ofthe century opensup valuablenewperspectives forourunderstanding ofmodern literature. There ismuch inthis book which will beofinterest toscholars interested in theinterface between scienceand literature. FortheProust specialist, the numerous closereadings ofthenovel will bemost rewarding. Chapters 5 and6 in particular, whichoffer a highly original and authoritative new readingof homosexuality andbisexuality inthe Recherche, area must for anyone working inthis particular areaofProust scholarship. UNIVERSITY OFEDINBURGH MARION SCHMID Leon-Paul Fargue. ByBARBARA PASCAREL. (Bibliographie desecrivains fran,cais, 2 I ). ParisandRome:EditionsMemini. 2000. 2I2pp. 300F. Thispromises tobea series ofabout 500titles, eachtaking a single author orgroup oftexts. Constraints imposed byeditorial principles, notably theavailability ofa highly-qualified compiler, havelent aneclectic airtothe early list, Pontus deTyard rubbing shoulders with RolandBarthes. Thepresent volume marks a further stage intherediscovery oftheLeon-Paul Fargue, poetandchronicler ofParis, after the belated creation ofthat indispensable motor ofinterest andresearch, an'Association desamis',orin Fargue's case 'deslecteurs', andGoujon'sbiography (Leon-Paul Fargue (Paris:Gallimard, I997)). Withone or tworeservations itis difficult to imagine the work better done.Thebareseries title undersells it, for itisnomere list ofI,242items, butanextensively annotated, carefully categorized andthoughtfully analytical survey. The primary bibliography, 48I entries, includes probably...