Proust (374-0-20)
Instructors
Scott Durham
8474914660
1860 S. Campus Drive, Crowe Hall #2-141
Meeting Info
Harris Hall L04: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
This course will be devoted to an intense engagement with one of the major figures in the history of literature, Marcel Proust, and to his In Search of Lost Time, which remains a crucial text in the development of modern thought. The focus will be on four volumes of the Search: Swann's Way, Within a Budding Grove, Sodom and Gomorrah, and Time Regained. We will explore Proust's reinvention of the novel as a form in relation to a number of Proustian problems and themes: his analyses of desire, perversion and sexuality; his reflections on the nature of time and memory; and his exploration of the relationship of art to life. We will also consider Proust's powers as a satirist and critic of ideology, who mercilessly dismantled the individual and collective illusions of his contemporaries.
Teaching Method
Lecture and discussion.
Evaluation Method
Course work will consist of one mid-term paper of 4-5 pages, one final paper of 7-8 pages, as well as active participation in class.
Class Materials (Required)
Required Texts by Marcel Proust (available at Norris Books):
Swann's Way
Within a Budding Grove
Sodom and Gomorrah
Time Regained
We will be reading the Modern Library Edition of In Search of Lost Time, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, and revised by D.J. Enright (in the case of the first three listed above) and by Andreas Mayor and Terence Kilmartin, and revised by D.J. Enright (in the case of Time Regained).
Class Notes
Taught in English
Class Attributes
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area