Proust, Beckett, and Narration

by James H. Reid

Overview

This comparison of the narrative techniques of two of the twentieth century's most important writers of prose combines theoretical analysis and text study of Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu and Beckett's trilogy of novels, Molloy, Malone dies, and The Unnamable. James Reid's study is an important contribution to the critical literature, and offers fresh perspectives on the crucial significance of the Recherche and the trilogy in the context of the twentieth-century novel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521141857
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/25/2010
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

James H. Reid is Associate Professor of French Literature at Illinois State University. He is the author of Narration and Description in the French Realist Novel (Cambridge, 1993) and of numerous articles.

Table of Contents

List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Remembering forgetting: Le drame du coucher; 2. Impressions, the instant of artistic consciousness, and history; 3. Lying, irony, and power: Proust's deceptive allegories; 4. Proust's forgetful ironies; 5. Molloy's way: the parody of allegory; 6. Moran's way: the forgetful spiral of irony; 7. Malone Dies and the impossibility of not saying I; 8. The Unnamable: the death of the ironical self and the return of history; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Proust, Beckett and Narration is a welcome addition to the literature on novelistic self-consciousness." - Derek Schilling, Rutgers University

From the Publisher