Proust and Romanticism

Abstract

Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu shares much common ground with German Romanticism. Moreover, there is every reason to think that this is due to an actual influence that German Romanticism exercised on his work. Tadie’s skepticism about the influence of German Romanticism on Proust rests on certain general misconceptions about Proust and especially about German Romanticism; it has in part already been refuted by Henry and Fraisse; and finally, Proust even seems to acknowledge the influence of the leading German Romantics on him within his great work. Proust’s considered judgment on the four disillusionments with German Romantic ideals that threaten thus varies: the Infinite/Absolute and the exaltation of erotic love basically succumb to the threat, but both art and individuality are ultimately saved from it. The German Romanticism in Proust’s work is by no means all of the broken sort.