Proustian Passions

'Acutely perceptive reading of Proust... Proustian Passions represents not only a major, original achievement in what might be considered the highly congested terrain of Proust studies. Its complex, enlightening arguments are also centrally relevant to life-writing, not least the ethically ambiguous character of Proustian writing in which personal vulnerability, as Wassenaar writes, 'shades into irresponsibility' -Modern Language ReviewWriting on A la recherche du temps perdu has tended to celebrate the wonders of the moi sensible uncritically. This overlooks the rigour with which Proust tries to understand exactly why explaining one's own actions is so difficult. Can we decide, he asks, whether justifying oneself should be written off as morally repugnant, or taken seriously as evidence of moral probity? Proustian Passions examines the case for taking self-justification seriously. This is a brand new vision of a novel whose plunge into subjectivity now seems prescient of the entire twentieth century's cultural trajectory.