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Si, dans "À la recherche du temps perdu", la grand-mère initie le narrateur à aimer ce qui est ancien, ainsi que l’art et la nature, c’est que Proust s’intéresse à l’histoire tout comme de nombreux écrivains du XIXe siècle. Sa prédilection est destinée en particulier au Moyen Âge et à l’Ancien Régime. Par ailleurs, l’histoire chez Proust est liée à la géographie comme chez le Michelet du Tableau de la France. Ainsi, les images renvoyant à ces deux époques servent à constituer trois paradis perdus proustiens, Combray, Doncières et Venise. Au sujet de Combray et de Doncières, on peut noter une vision nostalgique chez Proust vis-à-vis des communautés d’autrefois, semblables à la commune médiévale où la collectivité est respectée. En particulier Combray, qui se présente comme une société idéale dans laquelle la vie collective est intégrée dans le temps cyclique de la nature, comme celle d’une société primitive. Le rapport avec le passé, la nature et la collectivité constituent le paradis perdu chez Proust, la recherche de l’origine est doublée par celle des temps primitifs. Quant à la Venise proustienne, à première vue, elle constitue un espace où le passé et le présent s’entrecroisent, tout en prenant une dimension à la fois historique et artistique. Tandis que Doncières est liée à l’Ancien Régime et à la jeunesse du narrateur, la Venise proustienne se rapporte à l’âge d’or, ou, plutôt à la fin de l’âge d’or, puisque, au sein de la ville italienne vouée à disparaître dans l’eau, le narrateur se forme l’idée du vieillissement et de la mort. Par ailleurs, Venise est liée à Combray à travers le nom de Saint Louis : tandis que la flèche de l’église du village conserve la mémoire du départ du roi (pour les Croisades), un doge vénitien offre à celui-ci des reliques lors d’une croisade. En outre, dans l’imagination de Proust, traducteur de Ruskin, Venise est liée à Amiens, la ville française nommée par ce dernier « Venise du nord » et qui nous semble l’un des modèles de Balbec. Venise constitue donc un entrecroisement à la fois temporel et spatial, dans l’imaginaire proustien. L’entrecroisement du passé et du présent est symbolisé par le thème des ruines discrètement introduit dans le roman proustien, on comprend ainsi l’une des raisons pour lesquelles Proust est fasciné par l’œuvre d’Hubert Robert, peintre « ruiniste » du Siècle des Lumières. Nous concluons la première partie en notant que, dans ces trois villes paradisiaques, le temps historique s’arrête comme dans les ruines réintégrées dans la nature chez le peintre.Proust s’intéresse également à l’histoire contemporaine, ce qui amène des chercheurs à entreprendre une étude socio-historique. Le romancier oppose ces trois ville appartenant au passé, à Paris et à Balbec, qui se montrent des villes modernes (pourtant, elles sont aussi en réalité marquées de traces du passé). Dans ces deux villes, à la différence des trois autres, le temps historique est en mouvement. Il décrit le paysage urbain modifié par le progrès industriel (cela apporte le thème des ruines de Paris chez Proust, comme chez Hugo), ici, on peut remarquer une affinité avec Baudelaire dans l’élaboration de l’esthétique de la modernité ou de l’âge de fer. Proust décrit aussi le changement des mentalités de son temps, celle du peuple, celle des bourgeois ou celle des aristocrates, en particulier à travers deux grands événements historiques, l’affaire Dreyfus et la Grande Guerre. Nous ne nions pas que le récit mondain du roman proustien est inspiré par la réalité historique : la victoire de la bourgeoisie sur l’aristocratie. Notre étude nous conduit à affirmer que la vision de Proust est différente de celle que l’historien de l’époque conçoit : le mouvement de l’histoire ne prend pas la forme linéaire, mais l’histoire prend un même mouvement à plusieurs reprises, la fin du faubourg Saint-Germain est com |
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In "À la recherche du temps perdu", the grandmother initiates the narrator into the admiration of what is old, as the art and the nature, because Proust is interesting in the history, like many writers of the 19th century. His favorite ages are the Middle Ages and the Ancient Régime. Otherwise, the history in Proust is tied to the geography just as in the Tableau de la France by Michelet. So, Images referring to these two periods are used to create three proustian lost paradises, Combray, Doncières and Venetia. About Combray and Doncières, we can remark a nostalgic vision in Proust forward to a old-time community, like a medieval commune where the collectivity was respected, Combray in particular presents an ideal society because its collective life is integrated into the cyclic time of the nature, like the life of a primitive society. The relation between the old time, the nature and the collectivity brings the lost paradise to life in Proust, the quest for the origin is doubled by the quest of the primitive times. About Venetia in the novel, at first view, the city looks like a space where past and present are intersected, which takes a both a historic and artistic dimension. With Doncières tied to the Ancient Régime and to the youth, the proustian Venetia refers to the golden age or rather to its end, because, as Venetia disappearing into the water, the narrator forms the idea of elderliness and death. Otherwise, Venetia is tied to Combray through the name of Saint Louis: while the spire of Combray’s Church keeps the memory of the leaving of the king (for the Cruzades), one Venetia doge gave some relics to him. Besides, in the imagination of Proust, who translated Ruskin, Venetia is tied to Amiens, French city named by Ruskin as the “Venetia of the north” and which seems one model for Balbec. Venetia constitutes indeed both a temporal and spatial intersection in Proust’s imagination. The intersection of Past and Present is symbolized by the theme of ruins discreetly introduced to Proust’s novel, we understand why Proust is fascinated by pictures of Hubert Robert, “ruiniste” painter of the illuminating century. We conclude the first part noticing that, in these three paradise cities, the historical time stops in the same way the time of the ruins is integrated into nature, in Hubert Robert’s paintings.As Proust also interests himself at the contemporary history, some researchers undertake a socio-historical study. Proust opposes these three cities belonging to the past to Paris and Balbec, modern cities (however, they are marked with traces of the past too). In these two unlike the other cities, the historic time is under movement. He describes urban scenery modified by industrial progress (it brings the theme of the ruins of Paris into Proust’s novel just as they appear in Hugo’s writings), we can notice an affinity with Baudelaire in the elaboration of the aesthetics of the modernity in the iron age. Proust describes also the change of the mentalities of his time, be the one of the people, the one of the middle class or the one of the aristocracy, in particular through two great historical events, Dreyfus’s case and the First World War. We can’t deny that the social story is inspired from the historical reality: the middle class’s victory over the aristocracy. But our study makes us claim that Proust’s vision is different from the conception of the historians of that time: the movement of history dose look like a linear one, but like a circular one repeating again and again, the end of the faubourg Saint-Germain being comparable with the end of the Ancient Régime. This reiterative movement is illustrated by the reappearance of one fashion, the Empire style for example. Otherwise, Proust denies the historicism because it’s impossible to reach the historical trueness by the scientific way. Here, we can notice an influence of Schopenhauer, who refutes the scientific character of the history and who considers however the historiographical writing as important. We study then the affinity of Proust with Charles Péguy and Walter Benjamin, who approach the problem of the history and of the temporality that modern conditions have modified. It asks the question of the literary creation in the time where the individualism comes to the front of the scene. History is absorbed by art, in spite of its socio-historical aspect, History is absent from Proust’s novel, this one wondering how to catch and write the unity of the time. The thinking about the historical temporality gives him an occasion to meditate upon the temporality.How does Proust conceive now the history? Like Schopenhauer, he considers history as inferior to art and philosophy. Like Péguy, he considers history as a mnemonic operation, which introduces the theme of the Muse of history, first daughter of the Memory. The work of the memory is transcendental, it consists in explore the field of the memory, it’s comparable to the archaeology consisting in scanning the vestiges. The history conceived by Proust is close to the archaeology, it aims at finding the old life, of rescuing dead people from oblivion, it’s what the study of the medieval architecture and the knowledge of archaeology learn him (so, when Proust describes the period he lived in, he is an archaeologiste of the modernity). In this context, the proustian writing could evoke the restoration of a church, because the mnemonic archaeology aims at restoring the past in the writing, as a restorer tries to restore the original state of a monument. This mnemonic and literary reconstitution spatializes the time whose unity is not comprehensible. For the narrator, the matter is not to narrate the history of his time, but to extend the genre of memorials to the autobiographic writing. Following Chateaubriand’s model (Mémoires d’outre-tombes) and Michelet’s model, Proust tries to superimpose collective history and intimate story of his narrator. If the narrator is seduced by the Guermantes, who descend from the count Combray, this is because he is looking for the origin of the Guermantes and the origin of France at the same time. That is why Proust builds a link between Combray, the childhood’s territory and the Moddle Ages, and between the old age and the end of faubourg Saint-Germain, at the end of the novel. Otherwise, we can notice that the story of the first volume takes place just after the franco-germain war in 1870 and the last volume before and after the First World War. The itinerary of the narrator from childhood to old age is doubled by the itinerary of the society under the third Republic. What does matter is the link between the renaissance of a child dreaming of becoming a writer and the world in which he has lived. The specificity of this bridge between individuality and collectivity in Proust’s writing is that it takes a secular or millenary dimension through a biologic or genetic heritage of the humanity, as the theme of the heredity shows. We have roots in us, because ancestor’s memory shakes in us waiting that we dive into the memory to find it. |
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