« Un formidable tonneau de vidange » : les figures et les formes de l‘abjection dans À la recherche du temps perdu
Abstract
This contribution focuses on the representation of the abject in À la recherche du temps perdu. Through the description of some sections of Marcel Proust‘s early writings, I will demonstrate that the French writer has worked on this topic since his literary debut. On the other hand, the assessment of the few occurrences referring to the morphological series of “abject” in Recherche will show how the author develop the semantic field of the word. Finally, in light of the link between abject matter and verbal violence, the formal features of insults and backbitings in Proust‘s novel will be centered on the episode of Mlle Vinteuil‘s friend. The mission of this article is to point out how the abject matter could converge towards the sublime and become, therefore, a carrier of aesthetic conversion.
