The recherche as “tout-monde:” toward a francophone proust

Abstract

Thanks to art, instead of seeing one world only, our own, we see that world multiply itself and we have at our disposal as many worlds as there are original artists, worlds more different one from the other than those which revolve in infinite space, worlds which, centuries after the extinction of the fire from which their light first emanated, whether it is called Rembrandt or Vermeer, send us still each one its special radiance.

–Marcel Proust

Time Regained

Notes

Jérôme Cornette taught at Columbia University and Reed College before joining the faculty of the University of Utah. His primary field of research is twentieth- and twenty-first century French and francophone prose, with a special interest in the Caribbean and the Maghreb. His other main area of expertise is French and francophone cinema, and film theory. On Proust, he has published, notably, an article in Critique and a chapter in Proust in Perspective (Illinois, 2002). He is currently working on his first book-length project, Proust and the Deprogramming of the Classic, which argues that Proust's novel undermines a neo-classical program of nation, clarity, and order, while establishing itself as the classic of French literature.

 Oddly, no discussion of Glissant's use of Deleuze is to be found in Michael Dash's otherwise excellent monograph. Dash's translation of selected essays from Le Discours antillais regrettably omits the two notes that directly precede the “Techniques” section, which specifically discusses Proust. The first one engages “rhizomatic thought of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari” (338–40).

 This is the only occurrence of the syntagm “les Antilles” in the entire novel.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jérôme Cornette

Jérôme Cornette taught at Columbia University and Reed College before joining the faculty of the University of Utah. His primary field of research is twentieth- and twenty-first century French and francophone prose, with a special interest in the Caribbean and the Maghreb. His other main area of expertise is French and francophone cinema, and film theory. On Proust, he has published, notably, an article in Critique and a chapter in Proust in Perspective (Illinois, 2002). He is currently working on his first book-length project, Proust and the Deprogramming of the Classic, which argues that Proust's novel undermines a neo-classical program of nation, clarity, and order, while establishing itself as the classic of French literature.