Proustian Passions: The Uses of Self-Justification for A la recherche du temps perdu

by Ingrid Wassenaar

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Summary

Writing on A la recherche du temps perdu has tended to celebrate the wonders of the moi sensible uncritically. This overlooks the rigour with which Proust tries to understand exactly why explaining one's own actions is so difficult. Can we decide, he asks, whether justifying oneself should be written off as morally repugnant, or taken seriously as evidence of moral probity? Proustian Passions examines the case for taking self-justification seriously. This is a brand new vision of a novel whose plunge into subjectivity now seems prescient of the entire twentieth century's cultural trajectory.

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