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How does it come about that a novel containing thousands of moral statements is seldom critically examined from a moral point of view? In his inaugural lecture, Professor Bowie presents Proust's narrator as a moral theorist obsessively concerned with the definition of virtue and vice. Bowie argues not just that the moral language of Proust is sufficiently strange and provocative to repay close study but that A la recherche du temps perdu has a distinctive moral architecture which deserves to be included among the wonders of the Proustian world. Bowie's account of Proustian virtue, especially as it appears in the culminating pages of Le Temps retrouve, casts an entirely new light upon the much discussed themes of memory and desire in the novel.
*This lecture investigates the neglected moral dimension of Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu by examining the narrator's role as a systematic moral theorist.* Professor Malcolm Bowie, a distinguished scholar of French literature at the University of Oxford, utilizes his expertise to challenge the traditional critical focus on memory and desire. He argues that the novel possesses a rigorous and distinct moral architecture that defines virtue and vice in ways that warrant serious philosophical inquiry.
What You Will Find
Experts recognize this lecture as a significant contribution to Proustian studies, particularly for its shift toward the ethical implications of the text. Scholars frequently note the clarity and precision of Bowie's prose, which makes complex philosophical arguments accessible to both students and established researchers.
Page Count:
28
Publication Date:
1994-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford Univ Pr
ISBN-10:
0199522650
ISBN-13:
9780199522651
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