Proust, the body, and literary form

Description:

This study examines the connections between Proust's fin-de-siecle 'nervousness' and his apprehensions regarding literary form. Michael Finn shows that Proust's anxieties both about bodily weakness and about novel-writing were fed by a set of intriguing psychological and medical texts, and were mirrored in the nerve-based afflictions of other writers including Flaubert, Baudelaire, Nerval and the Goncourt brothers. Finn argues that once Proust cast off his nervous concerns he was free to poke fun at the supposed purity of the novel form.

subjects: Criticism and interpretation,  Hysteria in literature,  Neuroses in literature,  Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922,  French fiction, history and criticism,  Critique et interprétation,  Névroses dans la littérature,  Hystérie dans la littérature,  LITERARY CRITICISM,  European,  French,  Neurose,  Neurosen,  Hysterie,  Hystérie,  Dans la littérature,  Névroses,  Modern Literature,  Human Body,  In literature

People: Marcel Proust (1871-1922)