The Craft of Fiction: In Search of Lost Time

Marcel Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time,” a sequence of seven novels written between 1909 and 1922, is one of the landmarks of world literature. By exploring the events of his life from childhood on, Proust wrote with revolutionary precision and openness about an incredible range of subjects: every variety of love from the maternal to the sexual; art, music, and literature; politics, including the explosive Dreyfus Affair; jealousy and possessiveness; social status and snobbery; the marginality of Jews and gays; and much more. This seminar will be devoted to reading the complete “In Search of Lost Time,” discovering Proust’s world and examining the themes and structures of his novels. Reading assignments will average 250 pages each week.