From Proust to Barthes: the search for literature

Abstract

In the essay ‘Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure…’ published in TheRustle of language, Barthes highlights one of the most important features of the Proustian work : it is neither a Novel nor an Essay, but a third form. This form would be the only possible one to structure the Proustian novel, which focuses, among other elements, on the search of the narrator to become a writer. By analysing this new Proustian logic, Barthes identifies himself with Marcel Proust, for at that given moment the critic was searching a new way to write (literature) having as the departure point his mourning, or in Barthes terms, acedia, i.e. the sloth. The aim of this paper is to go through the Barthesian writings that namely mention Marcel Proust in order to analyse the importance of the French writer to Roland Barthes’ critical and writing production. For that, we propose to remark mainly the following works: New Critical Essays, The Rustle of language and The Preparation of the Novel