As the panelists introduced themselves, each told their story of how they discovered Proust. Each professor had a similar introduction to Proust, they were in high school or college and decided to challenge themselves with reading Proust. Proust's oeuvre, À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time), includes seven volumes, which proves to be quite the challenging read. Proust's writing style is slow moving but unexpected. Proust writes eloquently, however, this beauty that is present in the French language is shown to a lesser extent in English. It was also stated that Proust's style stands on the border between traditional and modern French literature.
In the first portion of the panel, each panelist read selected passages in French and English. These passages spoke to them and illustrated the beauty and splendor that is present in Proust's writing. Through these selected passages, the audience learned more about Proust. The workings of memory are an important element that is implemented throughout of his work. There are two different types of memory present, which is more visible in the French language. There is "souvenir," which is the object of memory. There is also "memoire," which is the process of memory. Throughout his work, Proust exams and explores these two different types of memory.
A short break was taken, during this time students and faculty had the opportunity to dip madeleines, a French butter cake, in tea. Madeleines became iconic through a famous literary passage of Proust's discussing the significance and discovery of memory and déjà vu as he is transported back in time when he tastes the madeleine.
The focus of the second portion of this event was on Le Questionnaire de Proust. In 1890, when Proust was still a teenager, he completed an English-language questionnaire entitled "An Album to Record Thoughts, Feelings, etc." During this time, it was popular for English families to complete the list of questions, which would reveal the tastes and aspirations of the taker. Although there are varying degrees of complexity in the questions, each question requires the taker to reflection carefully before answering. There are questions such as one's favorite color and there are other questions such as the principal aspect of your personality. Proust answered each of these questions quite wittily, except for question four (your chief characteristics) , which he left blank. Each panelist and member of the audience was assigned a question at random and was given time to reflect upon his or her response. Afterwards, there was a large discussion about the results and how they compared to Proust's answers.
This event allowed students and faculty across various disciplines to discover, learn and discuss Proust. Proust's work is still applicable for readers today no matter their chosen discipline of study. With this discovery, students and faculty alike may have found a new favorite prose author.
No comments:
Post a Comment