Hey everyone! I’m so excited to do this first blog entry and get started with the course! This week’s reading, Marcel Proust’s “Combray” was genuinely like stepping into a whole new universe and was so different compared to anything I’ve read before. It was tough and there were moments of difficulty reading the text but […]
Posted in Blogs, Proust | Tagged with books, Characters, Dreams, family, Gothic, in-search-of-lost-time, life, literature, marcel proust, memory, time, youth
Initially delving into the pages of Proust’s “Combray” was confusing and complex for me, his text definitely requires a slow and careful read. I found his storytelling to be similar to a puzzle, a bit perplexing but equally enchanting. However, upon further reading, and being able to understand the text, I enjoyed the chaoticness of […]
Posted in Blogs, Proust | Tagged with books, in-search-of-lost-time, literature, marcel proust, week1
Like most of my classmates have stated in their posts about this week’s book, it’s definitely a more challenging read than expected. It felt slower and harder to get through than most books as there were parts I found slightly boring, and it took me a bit of time to get a feel of the […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with childhood, marcel proust, memory, nostalgia, Symbolism
“Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were” Swann’s way is written in a way that tells two related stories, first of which revolves around young marcel, the younger version of the narrator and his memories and experiences of his childhood town ”Combray”.The narrator has waves of nostalgia and […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with book review, book-reviews, books, marcel proust, swanns way
This weeks’ text is titled ‘Combray’, the first part of the book titled ‘Swann’s Way’ by French author Marcel Proust. The text focuses on both the narrator of the story, and a M.Swann. In the first pages of the text, the narrator appears to be a young boy when first meeting and perceiving M.Swann. To […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with Dreams, marcel proust, Romance Studies
The first thing that struck me when reading Proust’s Combray was how smooth, continuous, and flowing the prose was. While many books are cut up quite finely by short sentences, paragraph breaks, and general changes in topic, Combray reads like one smooth flow. It features very long sentences and paragraphs, and it moves through descriptionContinue reading “Combray – A Childhood Proust’s Stream of Consciousness”
Posted in Blogs, Proust | Tagged with books, childhood, in-search-of-lost-time, literature, marcel proust
My impressions of Marcel Proust’s, “Combray” were that the novel was overall intriguing, and I felt fairly engaged with the material. The use of imagery was very well articulated and even though the images created were set in dated time and caste, their presence still felt familiar. The story glides through time in and out […]
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with marcel proust, Week two
Let me preface all this by saying that I did not understand what I was reading, and this was further emphasised to me when I read the sparknotes pages after finishing “Combray“.
I really wanted to fall in love with this text. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust has an almost revered place in my home; my stepdad, who is at the beloved centre of our family first read Swann’s Way when he was my current age (20), albeit in the Persian translation. Since then, he has read it in English too, and is learning French for the sole purpose of being able to read all seven volumes of this masterful novel in the original language. I’m not kidding, Proust is the reason why he is learning French, and why the act of language-learning is a constant for us all.
I didn’t understand what was going on at all. I didn’t even realise that things were going on. I didn’t pick up a plot, I couldn’t follow the paragraph-long sentences—may I refer to a 192-word long sentence about buttercups—I was just lost. I remember asking my stepdad, who is a very intelligent man, if he understood what was going on when he was reading it for the first time at my age. He said that he didn’t, and that felt a little validating, to be honest.
Nonetheless, I did pick up a few small things. Now obviously, Marcel Proust and the narrator come from an affluent, upper-class background and, as with many writings from the early 20th century, there’s going to be some analysis about social class. I really liked the part of the story where he speculates about the appearance of the Duchess. He has all these theories and ideas about what she’s going to look like, before actually seeing her and being disappointed by her mundane-ness. She just looks like any other person in his social circle. She just looks like a person.
I’m sure that people have idolised the appearances of the upper class for many, many years. I think of European monarchs in the 1500s who would have portraits commissioned with their flaws concealed and their youth exaggerated, just to have the paintings taken around the country for their subjects to see what they supposedly looked like. I imagine there’s always been this notion that higher class automatically means more beauty, so it’s thought-provoking to see that notion shatter before the narrator’s eyes.
Also, I didn’t like that he pretends that Gilberte and the Duchess’ eyes are blue, just because he associates blue eyes with beauty. Sure, go on about beauty standards and all that but let it be known that I stand with my fellow brown-eyed people and would like to make it clear that brown eyes are also very beautiful and they deserve as much hype as blue eyes.
My question upon reading this part of the novel is that to what extent is the narrator’s relationship with each of his parents normal and/or healthy? Because I’m seeing some Oedipal subtexts and I can’t say I enjoy it.
Posted in Blogs, Proust | Tagged with classism, marcel proust, oedipus, perception, perspective
Let me preface all this by saying that I did not understand what I was reading, and this was further emphasised to me when I read the sparknotes pages after finishing “Combray“.
I really wanted to fall in love with this text. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust has an almost revered place in my home; my stepdad, who is at the beloved centre of our family first read Swann’s Way when he was my current age (20), albeit in the Persian translation. Since then, he has read it in English too, and is learning French for the sole purpose of being able to read all seven volumes of this masterful novel in the original language. I’m not kidding, Proust is the reason why he is learning French, and why the act of language-learning is a constant for us all.
I didn’t understand what was going on at all. I didn’t even realise that things were going on. I didn’t pick up a plot, I couldn’t follow the paragraph-long sentences—may I refer to a 192-word long sentence about buttercups—I was just lost. I remember asking my stepdad, who is a very intelligent man, if he understood what was going on when he was reading it for the first time at my age. He said that he didn’t, and that felt a little validating, to be honest.
Nonetheless, I did pick up a few small things. Now obviously, Marcel Proust and the narrator come from an affluent, upper-class background and, as with many writings from the early 20th century, there’s going to be some analysis about social class. I really liked the part of the story where he speculates about the appearance of the Duchess. He has all these theories and ideas about what she’s going to look like, before actually seeing her and being disappointed by her mundane-ness. She just looks like any other person in his social circle. She just looks like a person.
I’m sure that people have idolised the appearances of the upper class for many, many years. I think of European monarchs in the 1500s who would have portraits commissioned with their flaws concealed and their youth exaggerated, just to have the paintings taken around the country for their subjects to see what they supposedly looked like. I imagine there’s always been this notion that higher class automatically means more beauty, so it’s thought-provoking to see that notion shatter before the narrator’s eyes.
Also, I didn’t like that he pretends that Gilberte and the Duchess’ eyes are blue, just because he associates blue eyes with beauty. Sure, go on about beauty standards and all that but let it be known that I stand with my fellow brown-eyed people and would like to make it clear that brown eyes are also very beautiful and they deserve as much hype as blue eyes.
My question upon reading this part of the novel is that to what extent is the narrator’s relationship with each of his parents normal and/or healthy? Because I’m seeing some Oedipal subtexts and I can’t say I enjoy it.
Posted in Blogs, Proust | Tagged with classism, marcel proust, oedipus, perception, perspective
