Nietzsche and Proust : a comparative study
Affinities between Nietzsche and Proust have been suggested by a variety of influential critics (Georges Bataille and Maurice Blanchot, more recently Paul de Man, Alexander Nehamas and Richard Rorty), but this is the first full-length comparative study of the two writers. Proust was intimately familiar with nineteenth-century post-Kantian aesthetics, and indeed the narrator in A la recherche du temps perdu glosses his involuntary memories using an explicitly idealist philosophical vocabulary, but by developing Vincent Descombes's thesis that Proust's novel is more advanced than the philosophical interpretations it contains, I argue that Proust ultimately moves beyond the Schopenhauerian position which has often been imputed to him, and that he joins Nietzsche in an overcoming of dualistic metaphysics. After first considering those critical works which have prepared the ground for a comparative study of the two writers - in particular Gilles Deleuze's Proust et les signes, whose Nietzschean contours I argue have been insufficiently appreciated - I then discuss the surprising amount Proust actually wrote about Nietzsche, in A la recherche and elsewhere, and focus on the theme of friendship, which is Proust's
Large, Duncan
Influence ; Knowledge ; Philosophy ; Literature
Nietzsche and Proust : a comparative study. Affinities between Nietzsche and Proust have been suggested by a variety of influential critics (Georges Bataille and Maurice Blanchot, more recently Paul de Man, Alexander Nehamas and Richard Rorty), but this is the first full-length comparative study of the two writers. Proust was intimately familiar with nineteenth-century post-Kantian aesthetics, and indeed the narrator in A la recherche du temps perdu glosses his involuntary memories using an explicitly idealist philosophical vocabulary, but by developing Vincent Descombes's thesis that Proust's novel is more advanced than the philosophical interpretations it contains, I argue that Proust ultimately moves beyond the Schopenhauerian position which has often been imputed to him, and that he joins Nietzsche in an overcoming of dualistic metaphysics. After first considering those critical works which have prepared the ground for a comparative study of the two writers - in particular Gilles Deleuze's Proust et les signes, whose Nietzschean contours I argue have been insufficiently appreciated - I then discuss the surprising amount Proust actually wrote about Nietzsche, in A la recherche and elsewhere, and focus on the theme of friendship, which is Proust's
nietzsche comparative_study nietzsche suggest variety influential critic recently paul man alexander first_full length comparative_study writer intimately familiar nineteenth_century post kantian aesthetic indeed narrator gloss memory use explicitly idealist philosophical vocabulary develop novel advance philosophical interpretation contains argue ultimately move_beyond position often join nietzsche overcome dualistic metaphysics first consider critical work prepare ground comparative_study writer particular deleuze whose nietzschean contour argue insufficiently appreciate discus surprising amount actually write nietzsche elsewhere focus theme friendship