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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

'Une sorte de vaste sensation collective': Story and Experience in the work of Marcel Proust, Walter Benjamin, and Annie Ernaux

Godard, Caroline
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1563891435485933

Abstract Details

2019, Master of Arts, Miami University, French, Italian, and Classical Studies.
This thesis, written in English, is a comparative analysis of Walter Benjamin's and Annie Ernaux's readings of 'A la recherche du temps perdu' by Marcel Proust. While Benjamin emphasizes Proust's storytelling capabilities and commends Proust for his descriptions of involuntary memory, Ernaux works more critically to reimagine a writing process removed of spontaneous experience. To develop this point, we apply Benjamin's definitions of `storyteller' and `experience'; to Ernaux's Les Annees (2008), an autobiography written almost entirely without the first-person singular pronoun. Using Benjamin's terminology, we question the relationship between writing and collectivity, not only asking `how is Les Annees a collective autobiography,' but also `how can one write collectively?' We conclude by unraveling the mechanics of the `collective image' at work in Les Annees: Ernaux's collective image does not speak for all people, nor does it claim to be an objective rendition of the past; rather, writing such an image is an ethical exercise, a social engagement with one's community and one's selves.
Audrey Wasser, Dr. (Advisor)
Elisabeth Hodges, Dr. (Committee Member)
Jonathan Strauss, Dr. (Committee Member)
49 p.
Comparative Literature; Literature; Modern Language; Modern Literature; Technology
Marcel Proust; Walter Benjamin; Annie Ernaux; Virginia Woolf; involuntary memory; forgetting; storyteller; experience; autobiography; text and image; technology; collective image; generation; intertextuality

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Godard, C. (2019). 'Une sorte de vaste sensation collective': Story and Experience in the work of Marcel Proust, Walter Benjamin, and Annie Ernaux [Master's thesis, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1563891435485933

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Godard, Caroline. 'Une sorte de vaste sensation collective': Story and Experience in the work of Marcel Proust, Walter Benjamin, and Annie Ernaux. 2019. Miami University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1563891435485933.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Godard, Caroline. "'Une sorte de vaste sensation collective': Story and Experience in the work of Marcel Proust, Walter Benjamin, and Annie Ernaux." Master's thesis, Miami University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1563891435485933

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.