Proust at Home: A Centenary Celebration of Le Côté de Guermantes
H-France Salon Special Issue and University College London Virtual Colloquium
Organised by Patrick Bray and Jennifer Rushworth
Marcel Proust published Le Côté de Guermantes in two volumes in 1920 and 1921. To celebrate this twin anniversary, H-France Salon will publish a special issue in 2021 dedicated to the theme of ‘Proust at Home.’ The third volume of Proust’s Recherche begins with the narrator’s family moving into the Hôtel de Guermantes, marking a changed sense of domesticity in the novel as characters from vastly different social spheres cohabitate in close proximity. Other major themes of this volume also resonate today, such as the Doncières episode, the first descriptions of the Affaire Dreyfus, Swann’s illness, and the grandmother’s death.
Contemporary readers of Proust have just experienced months of lockdown, confined to our homes, close to but separated from neighbours and family. At this time, we might particularly envy aspects of the protagonist’s social life, such as his attending a performance of La Berma at the Opéra, dining with Saint-Loup and friends at Doncières, watching Saint-Loup’s mistress Rachel on stage, or dinner with the Guermantes. And yet, like the narrator, we have had to come to terms with new ways of living at home, some by compulsive Zooming (the narrator’s telephone call to his grandmother), some by cooking (Françoise’s déjeuner or the society dîner), others by taking up craft projects (Mme de Villeparisis painting), and others still by rereading Proust. How do we engage with Proust at home, as opposed to at the office or in the library?
We seek a range of contributions that reflect H-France Salon’s unique blend of text and video which offers a platform for recorded video talks, traditional articles, and other forms of scholarly exchange. Contributions on any aspect of ‘Proust at Home’ or on Le Côté de Guermantes, whether academic or personal, are welcome. In spring 2021, we will host a recorded webinar to discuss contributions.
Please send a brief abstract (200 words in English or in French) and bio (150 words) to Patrick Bray (p.bray@ucl.ac.uk) and Jennifer Rushworth (j.rushworth@ucl.ac.uk) by 15 September, 2020.
The deadline for final submission will be in January 2021.