The gay bashing scene chez Proust.

Abstract

This essay presents a contemporary translation of and brief commentary on the gay bashing scene found in Marcel Proust's A la Recherche du Temps perdu: Le Côté de Guermantes, Tome I. The paper notes that Proust argues in this passage for the acceptance of homosexuality for two main reasons: because gay bashing won't eradicate it; and because gayness is the simple, direct movement of a being toward perceived beauty. The paper suggests that Proust reveals his own gayness (and that of his protagonist) by employing the latter argument in defense of homosexuality whereas, throughout the novel, he presents heterosexual attraction as an immensely indirect, artistically manufactured construct.