Proust as Musician

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Cambridge University Press, Mar 16, 1989 - Literary Criticism - 122 pages
Does one need to know the rules of harmony to be considered a musician? Throughout A la recherche du temps perdu, and particularly ' Swann in Love', Proust displays a surprising sensitivity to the way music is heard, a sensitivity to which we owe some of the most beautiful writing on music. Through a study of the texts devoted to the Sonata and Septet of Vinteui, Jean-Jacques Nattiez demonstrates the fundamental role played by music in the evolution of the novel. He also shows how Debussy, Wagner and Beethoven provide the basis for a mystical quest whose goal is pure music and the literary absolute. Music as model for literature: this is the subject of Professor Nattiez's essay, which unravels the various musical themes running through Proust's work, and which thus constitutes a particularly clear and perceptive introduction to his writing.
 

Contents

Parsifal as redemptive model for the redemptive work
12
Music as redemptive model for literature
34
From Vinteuil to Schopenhauer
78
Passages from A la recherche translated
92
Notes
110
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