Quiet Proust

Scholarship on Proust has often emphasized particular scenes – and orthodox readings of those select scenes – from the breadth of À la Recherche du temps perdu. This edited collection seeks out the aesthetics of Proust's thought in the less-explored and "quiet" passages of this monumental work.French novelist Marcel Proust is often spoken of as one of modernity’s most demanding writers. The length and complexity of his la Recherche has assumed mythical status, and while reading it is often cited as a challenge or rite of passage in popular culture, the majority of scholarship tends to fixate on a handful of "representative" scenes. This volume takes the breadth of Proust’s novel seriously, arguing that its quiet moments of insight not only convey the novel’s silent, unexplored potential, but ways of thinking that exceed “loud” representational categories.The essays in this collection argue that through the experience of this extensive reading, Proust tells us something about the aesthetic nature of thinking. Rather than sound all its meanings, Proust’s text washes over its reader, performing the work of temporality and forgetting, demonstrating rather than merely describing its sensations. Quiet Proust explores this complexity as a vital component of Proust’s writing, conveying experiences not confined to their direct, formal communication. Instead, Proust’s long narrative works across discrete temporal confines, suggesting that thinking, interpreting, and remembering the world are all included in the same aesthetic experience.