The Rhetoric of Pseudo-Nature: Or, Tropes and Dialectic in Proust's Novel
The matching of different tropes used by Proust with the categories of idealist dialectic show that the novelist's rhetoric is informed by a system markedly different from that proposed by commentators intent on seeing metonymy as the leading figure in Remembrance of Things Past. Nature is repr...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Penn State Univ. Press
1988
|
In: |
Style
Year: 1988, Volume: 22, Issue: 3, Pages: 382-390 |
Further subjects: | B
Girard, René (1923-2015)
|
Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
Summary: | The matching of different tropes used by Proust with the categories of idealist dialectic show that the novelist's rhetoric is informed by a system markedly different from that proposed by commentators intent on seeing metonymy as the leading figure in Remembrance of Things Past. Nature is represented by Françoise and her naive images, while culture (epitomized by characters such as Norpois) displays a pronounced tendency to use metonymies, periphrases, and antonomasias. As for the reconciliation between nature and culture, it is achieved by the narrator's discourse, constantly oriented towards a use of metaphor which eschews the spontaneousness of the illiterate servant. A special category of culture labeled "pseudo-nature" is that of the hypercivilized Aesthete (marked by an exacerbated and self-conscious use of images) and that of the Barbarian, whose privileged mode of expression is irony. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 2374-6629 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Style
|