Proust’s analysis of social class in De Temps Perdu
Stefan Szczelkun
Nov 2023 · Radical views of 1000 years of literary knowledge in Europe Book 9 · Stefan Szczelkun · AI-narrated by Mary (from Google)
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1 hr 11 min
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With use of many beautiful quotations from Proust's work I will show how de Temps Perdu conveys an invaluable analysis of class oppression in the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie and the working class. This looks at the actual ways that oppression is enacted in social interactions rather than at class exploitation. Marcel Proust is an ethnographer disguised as a novelist. He reports on what he has observed. But it is in the way he forms the narrative with his characteristic eloquence that delivers an incisive class analysis that both teaches us a historical lesson but is also absolutely fresh and relevant to today. This is because he reveals the underlying mechanisms of oppression.
A chapbook.
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5.0
3 reviews
Peter Carty
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December 15, 2023
Social class is rarely tackled head on when discussing Proust, so this is a fresh and informative take which complements mainstream criticism. Szczelkun ably guides us through the ways in which class struggle in never far from the surface in one of the greatest works of European literature. In his persuasive and engaging analysis, he demonstrates how Proust writes about all social classes democratically and takes great pains to tease out their fundamental equality. Very strongly recommended.
chris saunders
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November 30, 2023
This is an excellent and accessible commentary on the dominating power of social class in Proust's In Search if Lost Time. Szscelkun's engaging and warm critique brings alive Proust's sharp, poetic and often comical observations of the middle class take over of the aristocracy's age old supremacy. Szscelkun's erudite and deeply respectful analysis is thorough and original in keeping with Proust's honest, personal and panoramic vision of class oppression. Chris Saunders
Stevo
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January 3, 2024
Szcelkun reframes ‘Temps Perdu’ as a fresh reassessment of its narratives of class as an alternative to the dominance of analysis concerned with its focus on memory. With well-chosen quotation Proust’s novel is dissected to consider its insight into social class and ‘the esoteric rules and strategies by which high society orders itself and polices its boundaries.’
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artist and writer based in London
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