Swann’s Way
question
Is Proust ridiculing bourgeious manners in the early 20th century?
David
Apr 20, 2016 08:05PM
I've started reading "Swann's Way" (in swedish) and I have soon finished the first part "Combray". I really like Proust style this far. I usually get bored with long descriptions of quite minute details, but he makes them feel essential.
With that said I'm unsure whether Proust is ridiculing/ironizing over bourgeious relations in the first part. I get that late 19th-early 20th century was a time when subtle social manners was at its height in bourgeious circles. I still feel the writing is over the top on occasions where characters interact and actions of others are discussed. The fall out between the family and Legradin, starting with a failure to of Legradin to greet the protagonist and the father in a proper way, and also the meeting between Swann and monsieur Vinteuil, who has a daughter rumored to be involved in a love affair with another woman, are two passages I feel are written a bit tongue in cheek. On the other hand the language is not to far off other descriptions of for example gardens or the protagonist's desire to get a good night kiss from his mother.
So, is Proust just giving a vivid, but faithful, description of bourgeious social codes and relations or is he ridiculing them?
With that said I'm unsure whether Proust is ridiculing/ironizing over bourgeious relations in the first part. I get that late 19th-early 20th century was a time when subtle social manners was at its height in bourgeious circles. I still feel the writing is over the top on occasions where characters interact and actions of others are discussed. The fall out between the family and Legradin, starting with a failure to of Legradin to greet the protagonist and the father in a proper way, and also the meeting between Swann and monsieur Vinteuil, who has a daughter rumored to be involved in a love affair with another woman, are two passages I feel are written a bit tongue in cheek. On the other hand the language is not to far off other descriptions of for example gardens or the protagonist's desire to get a good night kiss from his mother.
So, is Proust just giving a vivid, but faithful, description of bourgeious social codes and relations or is he ridiculing them?
Irony needn't be ridicule, and it certainly isn't unengaged description. Irony dominates because Marcel knows his search is paradoxical and ultimately fruitless. But the only sarcasm expressed is for the 'pseuds' like the Princess Les Laumes who disguise their power to hurt even as they use it. The fin de siecle class structure is something Proust is acutely attuned to but he is neither a revolutionary nor a reactionary. On the one hand Swann's involvement with Odette is courageous since it is ostensibly in the name of love and endangers his social standing. On the other hand his departure from social norms is foolish since it puts him outside the domaine of civilised behaviour. The mores of the time are not his real concern, which is rather the absurdity of what we do, perhaps must do, to ourselves as human beings.
Proust is both insider and outsider in that very mannered world he writes about. But I found myself laughing out loud when I read the dinner party scene in which Swann delivers wine to the sisters. When asked later if the two had properly thanked Swann, they gave an equivocal answer that they needn't have gushed over the whole matter. But there's a sting in this isnt there! Social commentary presented through humour. Would the sisters have made excessive noises about the gift from a Jewish neighbour? Perhaps that's the clue to how scenes work in Proust. Fun, yes, ridicule, yes, biting commentary, very much so.
I don't take it that Proust is ridiculing them at all. We read the entire In Search Of Lost Time novel for a college class and analyzed it to death. Proust was a romantic and as I take it quite sincere.
If you are interested in ridiculing the social codes if the time go straight to the source: Balzac. After having read the entire In Search Of Lost Time, I am now reading through The Human Comedy (this will take much longer) - Balzac is much more biting and opinionated. You could say Proust is a more tam Balzac, without a doubt influenced by Balzac in more ways than one. For me, I prefer Balzac, sarcasm, opinion, passion of this sort, but I don't have a negative thing to say about Proust's writing. 👍
If you are interested in ridiculing the social codes if the time go straight to the source: Balzac. After having read the entire In Search Of Lost Time, I am now reading through The Human Comedy (this will take much longer) - Balzac is much more biting and opinionated. You could say Proust is a more tam Balzac, without a doubt influenced by Balzac in more ways than one. For me, I prefer Balzac, sarcasm, opinion, passion of this sort, but I don't have a negative thing to say about Proust's writing. 👍
I've started the third book and I am dying to speak to someone who has read In Search Of Lost Time
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Aug 12, 2016 05:57PM