Proust and the Sense of Time

by Julia Kristeva, Stephen Bann (Translator)

Noted literary critic, psychoanalyst, and theorist Julia Kristeva presents a thoroughly original and compelling reading of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, just delivered at the 1992 T.S. Eliot Memorial Lectures at Canterbury. Kristeva's first essay, "Proust and Time Embodied," takes a broadly psychoanalytical, linguistically sensitive approach to Proust's exploration of time and the operation of memory. Next in "In Search of Madeline," she delves into Proust's concept of the little cake that flooded him with the taste of childhood regained, providing an explanation for Proust's search for the deeper levels of childhood grounded in her psychoanalytic experience. Throughout Proust and the Sense of Time, Kristeva draws on Proust's notebooks and manuscripts, pointing out significant variations in the different versions of his work. She examines his early philosophical training and the philosophical trends in Paris at the turn of the century, seeking to explain how he his concept of the primacy of memory and sensation.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Theory, Literature, France, Essays

103 pages, Hardcover

First published November 4, 1993

About the author

Julia Kristeva is professor emerita of linguistics at the Université de Paris VII and author of many acclaimed works. Her Columbia University Press books include Hatred and Forgiveness (2012); The Severed Head: Capital Visions (2014); and, with Philippe Sollers, Marriage as a Fine Art (2016).

Reviews

[Dream.M · Rating 4 out of 5]

برای درک بهتر مجموعه "در جستجوی زمان از دست رفته" مطالعه این کتاب به شدت توصیه میشه .
ترجمه برام خیلی روشن نبود ولی بااینحال ازش بهره مند شدم.
.....
هدیه گرفتمش 😊

[Narjes Dorzade · Rating 4 out of 5]

کریستوا به دقت و ظرافت پروست را مورد تحلیل قرار داده.کتابِ رولان بارت[پروست و من]اگرچه کتاب نسبتا خوبی‌ست اما بیشتر درباره‌ی علاقه‌ی بارت به پروست است،همان‌طور که اتاق روشن علاقه‌اش به عکاسی.اما کتاب میزگرد پروست تنها به گفت‌وگویی ناتمام محدود شده.
با این حال کتاب ژیل دلوز را به گفته‌ی کریستوا باید خواند که تفسیری درخشان‌تر نوشته همان‌طور که تفسیر درخشان‌اش از نقاشی‌های فرانسیس بیکن در کتابی به نام منطق احساس.

[Nick Wellings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking. Twenty years old but still refreshing. Less a celebration that a rational investigation. "Apologia for Metaphor" and "Embodied Time" were the strongest lectures here for me.

In her third lecture: Wonderful sustained reading of P in relation to his creation of images ("impressions") via metonymy and analogy, metaphors gifted with more than counter poise between two objects. Reminded me a little of De Man. Offers a great close reading of Swann using above framework: "Odette becomes analogous to the 'little phrase'". As Kristeva says for Proust "the analogical is the ontological. Proustian metaphor brings together appearances, but it also reveals the profundity of being." As she says, through this movement and side by side display, "life acquires depths." His artistic project is mediated through the lens of the analogical/ontological distinction, elevating art above straight reflection and ratiocination (pg67). The same process linking the novel internally through its constructed time, and mentally in the readers mind, till triumph of that same project at novel's close. Kristeva suggests Prousts legacy beyond his descendants and contemporaries, his continued readership and relevance is precisely because of the investigative, artistic method. (73)

Lecture on the madeleine more concerned with showing Kristeva's intellectual dexterity, at expense of lecture's credibility (incest theme, mother based eroticism). Excusable due to her intellectual debts and background (Freud).

Sums up Bergotte as anti-Proust = ("like")
Counters Deleuze's neo-Platonistic reading.
Sees Narrators disappointment with Fauborg as "an empty centre" around which the novel revolves.
Draws our attention to the 'insanity of a dog' idea which reminded me of Francoise's pithy saying about a certain something smelling of roses, which Davis renders well, but could be even stronger.
Nice bit about all other arts being 'enslaved to mimesis'. Foregrounding again the majesty of Proust's fictional edifice. Reminds us at close of his cathedral metaphor, one I am unwilling to fully subscribe to.
Small book but idea to page ratio is high. Recommended.

"Review" (jottings) written in iPhone. Corrections to (probably) follow.

[Hosna · Rating 5 out of 5]

کالبدشکافی شگفت‌انگیز پروست. کارهای کریستوا همه چنین تاثیرگذارند و نمی‌دانم چرا این اندازه کم ترجمه شده است.

[Adriana Scarpin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A grande sacada da Kristeva aqui é colocar a perspectiva filosófica que influênciou Proust na construção do Em Busca do Tempo Perdido, que, segundo ela, ele foi muito mais influenciado por Schopenhauer do que por Bergson.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inessential but painless (short!) secondary reading on Proust. Although Kristeva does little more than summarize, with too much obscurantist jargon, the ideas that Proust develops in the recherche, finding room for them in her idiosyncratic Freudian schema, it's always nice to revisit these insights from different angles and approaches. The final lecture is best, while the first was my least favorite.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kristeva doing, really, what she does best and alas, also what she doesn't do very often: writing about literature. As a linguist and one who also has deeply researched the roots of the Western novel, Kristeva is adeptly gifted in exploring Proust and her background as a psychotherapist is also well-suited for Proust. For Joyce, we had Cixous' scholarship and likewise, for Prout who could be better than Kristeva? That said, she doesn't in fact delve as far into him in this book as she could have—she's written two book-length works in French on Proust and this is the longest yet the English translation leaves out portions of the French original. For that, and the fact Kristeva simply could have gotten even more from Proust than she has here, I dock it one star. The translation though, it must be said, is superb overall and Kristeva will help you better understand not only Proust and In Search of Lost Time, but literature in general and especially French literature. Do not forget that, despite her vast understanding of Francophone culture, Kristeva herself is Bulgarian and moved to Paris for graduate study. She was once an outsider who mastered some of the most difficult nuances of French literature and thought.

[Jacob Hurley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kristeva was a 'semiotician', but in this book sticks to interpreting Proust and his symbols. She makes some interesting connections, such as the sado-masochism of guilt as the central intensity behind complex emotions and therefore the hidden core of the 'lost time' Proust seeks to regain by memory; she finds enough evidence in old drafts and stories of Proust's to indicate that the famous madeleine has the Biblical overtone of Mary Magdalene and consequently confers an entire theological sense upon the entire novel. Kristeva also spends some time trying to clarify Proust's philosophic positions, feeling that his constant use of mixed metaphor makes Proust an early hermeneuticist, and that Proust's aesthetic theories placing emotional intensities, reached via art, at the center of reality can be traced back to Schoepenhaeur and a number of specific french disciples (the aesthete's will to art is the principle element of reality, to which all social and natural strata can be reduced to mere representation).

To an extent, Kristeva tries to demonstrate the error of Deleuze' book, which paints Proust as a Plastonist and a totally irrational hunter of emotion, by emphasizing the specificity of Proust's literal assertions and his decidedly German (and not Platonic) worldview; however, all these quibbles seem to indicate is that all these latter-day philosophers are mostly adding unoriginal reformulations to what Proust already said of himself in the final volume, Time Regained, where a thorough and explicit theory of aesthetics is delivered (and which suffices to explain Proust's own works). Indeed, all the interesting ideas in any of these commentaries seem already to be present in the original text -- are they, perhaps, written for those who don't want to read the novel itself?

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Proust's "À la recherche du temps perdu", and I enjoy the challenge of Kristeva, so I was reasonably sure to have fun and savor some brain food too. I was not disappointed. Less confounding than most of the Kristeva I have read, and therefore significantly more satisfying and thought-provoking. I won't try summarizing, but if you have read Proust's masterpiece, than you might like this too.

[Gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Czytanie tej książki to była dla mnie prawdziwa przygoda. Z każdym rozdziałem robiłum się coraz bardziej podekscytowane. Momentami robiło mi się bardzo smutno, że nie znam francuskiego (szczególnie gdy zdania były słowo po słowie analizowane). Wiem, że bez języka w pełni nie uda mi się pojąć tego, o czym pisała Kristeva, ale jestem bardzo zadowolone, że mogłum towarzyszyć jej w tej podróży przez język.
Dużo się dowiedziałum, moje zrozumienie się zwiększyło. Jestem szczególnie wdzięczne za ostatni rozdział, który był już odejściem od samego Prousta i literackim podsumowaniem pracy autorki. Te kilka stron pomogło mi gładko zakończyć tą prawie dwutygodniową podróż.
Nie znam nikogo komu mogłubym polecić tą książkę, piszę tą recenzję raczej w celu podzielenia się swoją radością.

[Carlo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The latest Proustian text I've read--complex. In search of the madeleine, time embodied, time regained, those long Proustian sentences, and Merleau-Ponty's perception. 'Love is space and time made perceptible to the heart.' Can't say I always understood it, but it was well worth the time...

[Ariana · Rating 4 out of 5]

مارسل پروست و ادراک زمان
ژولیا کریستوا
ترجمه بهزاد برکت

.
کیک مادلن…در حقیقت خلاصهٔ ته مزهٔ رمان پروست برای همهٔ آنهایی است که رمان را نخوانده‌اند.(صفحه ۶۷)



ژولیا کریستوا، منتقد ادبی، فیلسوف، روانکاو، فمینیست و نویسنده بلغاری-فرانسوی، در این کتاب چهارگفتار را در باب اثر سترگ در جستجوی زمان از دست رفته، با دیدگاهی نه بلاغی، که از منظر تاریخی و همراه با تبارشناسی سوبژکتیویته، از منظری جامع بر مارسل در مقام نویسنده، راوی و قهرمان داستان به رشته تحریر در آورده است.


با تأویل کریستوا پروست زمان را مفهومی برای پیوستگی دو ادراک از دل نشانه‌ها و تأثرات فردی در نظر داشته که به سوی «من» سرازیر شده‌اند. غور کردن فرد در خود باعث بازیافتن زمانی می‌شود که در ماست؛ نوعی درک وجود در میان تیرگی‌ها و هرآنچه میراث زمان در چندهزار سال تطور بشر و جامعه بشری بوده.
چرا که پروست معتقد بود حافظه غیرارادی است که سبب می‌شود گدازه‌های خاطرات و امال گذشته گرداگرد حسیتی از حال چنبره زنند.

از سویی کریستوا در این کتاب وقایع زندگی پروست را با نوشته‌ها و تحولات احساسی و فکری او تطبیق داده و در پی شناخت بهتر هرآنچه ریشه جهان‌بینی پروستی است، به مفهوم مادلن(حتی معنای نام آن که از زنی بدکاره تا یک شیرینی استحاله یافته.) و مادرانگی و عشق و سادومازوخیسم پرداخته است.

خود/دگرآزاری در سودوم و عموره حقیقت نهفته در شهوانیت و حتی شور و احساسات آدم‌هاست و در ساحتی عمیق‌تر رشته پیوند آحاد جامعه است.(صفحه۴۶)

کریستوا درجستجو را تجربه‌ای سوبژکتیو، ناآگاه و حسی می‌داند. و راز مادلن را در جستجوی همین جلوه‌های را��آمیز و شهوانی عشق و مادرانگی.
با این حال برخلاف ژیل دلوز اثر پروست را نه جستجوی نشانه‌ها که جستجوی تأثرات ناشی از آنها درنظر می‌گیرد. چرا که از دید پروست نومیدی برخاسته از لذت‌هاست و رنج است که این نشانه‌ها را به سوی معنا شدن هدایت می‌کند.

کریستوا در پایان نشان می‌دهد چگونه پروست با وامداری از شوپنهاور و دیدگاه جهان همچو اراده و تصور او( تصور به معنای ابژگی بلافاصل اراده و اراده در جایگاه شناخت جوهری و نه بازنمایی شهودی ماده) و دیدگاه تارد در جامعه شناسی( که برخلاف مارکس و هم‌کیشان جامعه را نه برساخته از الزام تأمین نیاز که محاط با میراث باستانی و زیر سلطه علائق، تقلید و باورهای جمعی است.) دیدگاه هنری خود را شاکله داده و به تعریفی نوین از جهان و هنر و جامعه همت گمارده است.

از سویی کریستوا به کاربرد استعاره و مجاز و حسن تقدم پروست در بررسی جامعه نمایشی می‌پردازد.

در جستجو را می‌توان تجسم یکی از نخستین دیدگاه‌های مدرن به جامعه نمایشی در نظر گرفت.(۱۱۳)




از دید کریستوا رمانتیک‌های آلمان و افراطیون انقلاب فرانسه بودند که خواست وجودی و وجود داشتن در هستی را به خواست قدرت تغییر و برای آنها وجود به جامعه تقلیل پیداکرد و سوژه به قامت ناموزون رابطه میان سلطه‌گر و تحت سلطه، ستمگر و ستمدیده ظاهر شد و این نزول تجربه فردی تا سطح تجربه اجتماعی شکل وخیم ناامنی را به افراد در داخل گروه‌ها القا کرد و عطش نیاز به سلطه بر دیگران در رژیم‌های تمامیت‌خواه ثمره آن شد. پروست و هنرمندانی همچو او، با دقت و کنکاش در وجود و رابطه‌های اجتماعی، فراتر از مُدها و ارزش‌های بی ارزش‌جمعی، مخاطبان هنر و ادبیات را به نوعی سرخوشی ناشی از رسیدن به وحدت وجودی دعوت کرده‌اند.

«من» زمانی همه چیز هستم، که ورای خویشتنی که می‌اندیشد و به ادراک حسی قوت می‌یابد، همان من به مدد تخیل بتواند به وجود نائل آید.(صفحه۱۴۲)


در پناه خرد

[Omid Zargari · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...and suddenly the memory revealed itself". I've read a few books about Proust's masterpiece. Indeed, to me "a la recherche"is like "Hafez"; everyone gets his own conclusion but for a better "sense" and to enjoy more you need a guide, a lantern. Julia Kristeva with her amazing linguistic knowledge made me enjoy "a la recherche" more than before. Her psychoanalysis of "madeleine" is simply dazzling!

[Mahdi Khalil Nejad · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب ۱۵۰ صفحه ای ۱ سال طول کشید و اگر بگم نهایت ۵ صفحه ازش رو هم نفهمیدم دروغ نگفتم
بنظرم باید سالها بعد دوباره برگردم بهش

[Dottie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yet another of the peripheral books read since embarking upon my journey reading Proust back in 1998. Not the best but still it yielded fresh bits of info which I love gleaning from the reading I undertake related to a "passion" such as Proust. Proust's works and works ab out him are likely to become a life-long sidebar in my reading.

[Conrad]

I tried hard with this one, I really did. Among recent-ish Francophone feminist writers, I like the novelists better, like Monique Wittig and Helene Cixous.

[Abdullah Başaran · Rating 4 out of 5]

After Deleuze's reading Proust, Kristeva's is such a reading. Nevertheless Kristeva nailed it in a very different sense. Ergo it deserves 4-star.