Le thème de la mort dans "A la recherche du temps perdu" de Marcel Proust
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Abstract EN:
What is the role of the death in in search of lost time ? this question is taken as the starting point of this dissertation, and the attempt to answer it has led us into the author's + workshop ;, into the labyrinths of proust's + avanttextes ;. We have traced the genesis of an imaginary universe in numerous notebooks and drafts, a universe which draws its inspiration from several sources : from literature, the arts, history, nineteenth century philosophy and science. Proust never ceased making use of themes taken from the works or his predecessors and of his contemporaries, as can be seen in all his notebooks from the + carnet de 1908 ; up until the last+ ajouts ; notebooks. Balzac's human comedy and the operas of wagner, in particular parsifal and tristan and isolde, are key elements of the proustian edifice. The subject of money which, since the writing of the text against sainte-beuve, proust had associated with death, as well as the idea of mystical quest which is omnipresent in the work of wagner, run through the entire structure of in search of lost time. Basing his writings on ideas that he seems to borrow from other writers, proust describes the education of a man, the history of a vocation. The personal development of proust's hero-narrator coincides with discovery of the passage of time and of human finitude. In search of lost time is a novel which is haunted by death. Illness, old age and the degeneration of races are only some of masks behind which the face of thanatos lies concealed. And even if the work of art seems to appear as a response to oblivion, as well as a promise of survival, the thermal death predicted by physicists emerges as a final warning from the darkness of the beyond.
Abstract FR:
Quelles fonctions la mort joue-t-elle dans a la recherche du temps perdu ? cette question est a l'origine de notre reflexion, laquelle nous a conduit dans l' + atelier ; du romancier, a dirige notre voyage dans les labyrinthes des avant-textes. De cahier en cahier, d'esquisse en esquisse, nous avons suivi la genese d'un univers imaginaire qui se nourrit a la fois de la litterature, des arts, de l'histoire, de la pensee philosophique et scientifique du xixe siecle. Depuis le + carnet de 1908 ;, jusqu'aux derniers cahiers d' + ajouts ;, proust n'a cesse de puiser, dans les oeuvres de ses predecesseurs et de ces contemporains, des motifs qu'il exploite au cours de la mise en forme du recit. La comedie humaine de balzac et les operas wagneriens, notamment parsifal et tristan et isolde, constituent des clefs de voute de la cathedrale proustienne. Le theme de l'argent, que proust associe a celui de la mort, des la redaction des cahiers du contre sainte-beuve, ainsi que le motif de la quete mystique, omnipresent dans l'oeuvre de wagner, sous-tendent la structure de la recherche. Proust decrit, a partir de scenarios qu'il parait emprunter a ses precurseurs, l'apprentissage d'un homme, l'histoire d'une vocation. L'evolution intime du heros-narrateur proustien coincide avec la decouverte tragique du passage du temps et de la finitude humaine. Car, c'est la mort qui hante la recherche. La maladie, le vieillissement, la degenerescence des races, ne sont que quelques-uns des masques derriere lesquels se cache le visage de thanatos. Et, si l'oeuvre d'art parait une reponse a l'oubli, une promesse de survie, la mort thermique, annoncee par les physiciens, retentit, comme un dernier avertissement qui surgit de la nuit de l'au-dela.