The Syllables of Time
Proust and the History of Reading

Teresa Whitington

Cover of The Syllables of Time

Research Monographs in French Studies 26

Legenda

17 July 2009  •  128pp

ISBN: 978-1-906540-24-1 (hardback)  •  RRP £80, $110, €95

ISBN: 978-1-315085-11-1 (Taylor & Francis ebook)

ModernFrenchFiction

This study reveals reading to be one of the main activities to occupy the inhabitants of the world of Marcel Proust's novel A la recherche du temps perdu. Characters do not only read books, they have access to the journals and newspapers of a rapidly expanding print industry. They receive letters and postcards from family and friends. The posters of a nascent advertising industry tempt them to spend an evening at the theatre or a holiday by the sea, and new forms of communication, such as telegraphy, enter their lives. All human activity is glossed by means of a series of metaphors of reading, extending the reader's domain beyond the written text. Through a series of illuminating analyses, Teresa Whitington shows how this web of references builds into a specifically Proustian account of both the outer, social context of reading and the inner, psychological world of the reader. Proust offers a contribution to the history of reading in the France of his own lifetime and suggests that reading is the very condition of the writing of his fiction.

Teresa Whitington is a librarian working in Dublin.

Reviews:

  • ‘En faisant de la lecture et des livres, le cœur de la Recherche, A. Watt et T. Whitington soulignent et établissent, en fin de compte, une communauté de lecteurs; la récurrence des épisodes de lecture invite nécessairement le lecteur du roman à s'interroger sur sa propre condition et sur ses identifications possibles avec le héros. Par un effet de miroir récurrent, le lecteur est amené à se voir lire, à retrouver ses sensations de lectures d'enfance et à se poser inévitablement la question de l'écriture. T. Whitington en proposant un judicieux rapprochement entre un passage de Jeunes filles et le Contre Sainte-Beuve identifie cette communauté de lecteurs. Le narrateur, évoquant en effet le «cœur de celui qui, assassin dans la vie, reste tendre comme amateur de feuilletons, [et se tourne] vers le faible, le juste et le persécuté», semble se souvenir du credo que défend le narrateur du Contre Sainte-Beuve, selon lequel il convient de distinguer nettement le moi social du moi créateur.’ — Matthieu Vernet; joint review with Adam Watt, Reading in Proust’s À la Recherche, OUP 2009, Fabula 26 April 2010
  • ‘Manages to address some of the complex and multi-layered realities at play in any history of reading and provides some valuable evidence for Proust’s significant contribution to such a history.’ — Kathrin Yacavone, Modern Language Review 106.4, 2011, 1162-63 (full text online)

Bibliography entry:

Whitington, Teresa, The Syllables of Time: Proust and the History of Reading, Research Monographs in French Studies, 26 (Cambridge: Legenda, 2009)

First footnote reference: 35 Teresa Whitington, The Syllables of Time: Proust and the History of Reading, Research Monographs in French Studies, 26 (Cambridge: Legenda, 2009), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Whitington, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Whitington, Teresa. 2009. The Syllables of Time: Proust and the History of Reading, Research Monographs in French Studies, 26 (Cambridge: Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Whitington 2009: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Whitington 2009: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

This Legenda title was first published by Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing but rights to it are now held by Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge.

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www.mhra.org.uk/publications/Syllables-Time
www.mhra.org.uk/publications/rmfs-26