Proust and the Discourse on Habit

ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: PROUST AND THE DISCOURSE ON HABIT Amy Ross Loeserman, Doctor of Philosophy , 2004 Dissertation directed by: Professor Pierre Verdaguer Department of French and Italian A la recherche du temps perdu b y Marcel Proust is replete with a discourse by the principal character, the narrator Marcel, on the subject of habit (“habitude” in French). This discourse meticulously explores the ubiquitous but concealed role that habit plays with respect to the most s ignificant aspects of life, such as emotions, cognitive processes, and aesthetic experiences, and it explicitly relates not only to the novel’s characters, but to humanity in general. The critical commentary on the novel has largely ignored this subject. This dissertation provides the only comprehensive collection and analysis of the Proustian commentary on habit in A la recherche du temps perdu. It is not by chance that habit was deeply explored in Proust’s novel or that it has been largely overlooked by the critical commentary. Historically, philosophers have paid substantial attention to habit. Habit was a focus of controversial philosophical/psychological theories in 19th century France regarding memory and consciousness, spirit and matter. Pro ust’s commentary was directly related to the prominent philosophical issues of his time. This dissertation discusses the broad meanings of habit, first as developed by Aristotle and St. Thomas; then by French essayists, through Montaigne, Pascal, and the philosophes ; and finally culminating in the great 19th century works on habit by Maine de Biran and Félix Ravaisson. It also reviews substantial contributions on habit made by other French writers and philosophers, notably Stendhal and Alfred Fouillée. Proust’s reflections on habit may thus be appreciated in context. This dissertation then analyzes the contributions which Proust’s novel made to contemporary theories on habit and argues that they were substantial. It also argues that presentations of t he major themes in the novel should include, prominently, habit. For example, on the philosophical plane, Proust’s theories relating to involuntary memory and time are inextricably interwoven with his theories on habit. Finally, this dissertation considers why habit fell out of the philosophical/psychological discourse after about 1930, and the extent to which Proust’s novel may inform the philosophical/psychological/biological discourse in the 21st century, which is reflecting a renewed interest in habit . PROUST AND THE DISCOURSE ON HABIT By Amy Ross Loeserman Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2004 Advisory Committee: Professor Pierre Verdaguer, Chair Professor Joseph Brami Professor Caroline Eades Professor Madeleine Hage Professor Jerrold Levinson Copyright © by AMY ROSS LOESERMAN 2004 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………... 1 II : PROUST ON HABITUDE IN A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU ……………………………….. 13 A. Introduction……………………………………………............... 13 B. Passions or Emotions…………………………………………… 19 1. Love……………………………………………………... 19 2. Identity …………………………………………………... 26 3. Pleasure ………………………………………………...... 29 C. The Cognitive Processes ………………………………………... 33 1. Language and literature ………………………………….. 34 2. Reason and creativity ……………………………………. 36 3. Sleep or subconscious thought…………………………... 37 4. Memory ………………………………………………….. 38 D. The Aesthetic Experience: Creating and Appreciating Art …….. 41 E. Additional Generalizations Regarding Habitude………………. 44 1. Derivation……………………………………………….. 44 2. Operation………………………………………………… 46 3. The “Other”……………………………………………. 49 F. Ultimate Value Judgment on Habitude…………………………. 50 G. Immutability of the “Laws” of Habitude………………………. 52 III. THE CRITICAL DISCOURSE ON HABITUDE IN PROUST’S A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU …………………………. 56 A. An Overview: Habitude Ignored or Noted Superficially………. 56 B. The Few Important Commentators: Zéphir, Beckett, Blondel…. 62 IV. PRE -19TH CENTURY BENCHMARKS IN THE FRENCH DISCOURSE ON HAB ITUDE……………………………………. 73 A. Introduction…………………………………………………….. 73 B. The Canonical Forebears: Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas…. 73 C. Montaigne………………………………………………………. 89 D. Pascal…………………………………………………………… 91 E. The Philosophes : Diderot, Rousseau, and D’Aumont (L’Encyclopédie)………………………………….. 92 iii Page V. THE DISCOURSE ON HABITUDE EXPLODES: 19TH CENTURY FRANCE AND BELLE ÉPOQUE ……………….. 97 A. Maine de Bir an………………………………………………….. 97 B. Stendhal……………………………………………………….....115 C. Ravaisson……………………………………………………….. 127 D. Fouillée…………………………………………………………..139 E. Boutroux, Janet, Bergson, Parodi, Dumont, Lemoine, Rignano... 147 G. The « Manuels de Philosophie » - Textbooks………………… 154 VI. A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU : PROUSTIAN CONTRIBUTIONS AND INNOVATIONS TO THE DISCOURSE ON HABITUDE…………………………………….. 165 A. Introduction…………………………………………………….. 165 B. Comparison of the Proust and Pre -Pr oust Discourses on Habitude……………………………………………………166 C. Contributions and Innovations to the Discourse on Habitude in A la recherche du temp s perdu……………………180 VII. THE PLACE OF HABITUDE IN A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ON A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU ………………………193 A. Introduction……………………………………………………...193 B. Habit ude in an Everyday Context ………………………………. 194 C. The Philosophical Themes: Time, Memory and Reality………...197 D. The Process of Habitude in the Fabric of Life…………………..204 VI II. PROUST ON HABITUDE IN THE 20TH CENTURY …………….. 210 A. Introduction…………………………………………………….. 210 B. Habitude as of 1929: Jacques Chevalier’s De L’habitude……… 211 C. Tracing the Disappearance of Habitude Post - Chevalier……………………………………………………...215 D. Habitude in Subservient and Then Incognito Status…………….220 E. Irrelevance and Retreat of the “Death -knell” Forces………….. 227 IX. CONCLUSION: PROUST AND HABITUDE IN THE 21ST CENTURY………………………………………................... 233 . BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………. 237 1 PROUST AND THE DISCOURSE ON HABIT CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION In the first twelve pages of Du côté de chez Swann, the first volume of À la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust, there are three discussions about l’habitude, 1 all involving the narrator’s, Marcel’s, experiences in his own bedroom. Thereafter, the phenomenon of l’habitude is discussed and analyzed repeatedly in the novel, especially in the first two volumes, Du côté de chez Swann and À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs , and in the last two, La fugitive and Le temps retrouvé. Habitude is presented as a ubiquitous and powerful, if not, indeed, determinative, influence on virtually every aspect of human life and relationships, on intimate exper iences, and on emotional and aesthetic issues. It appears remarkable, then, that in the last century, so little interest has been paid to Proust’s study of habitude in this novel. Critical studies of À la recherche du temps perdu for the most part ignore the issue. This 20th century lack of interest in Proust’s pervasive analysis of the role of habitude in intellectual, social, and emotional life mirrors the general disinterest in the subject of habitude after about 1930. Thus in a sociological study published in 2001, Ego: Pour une sociologie de l’individu, the well known French sociologist, Jean -Claude Kaufmann writes: “ In the 19th century, the concept [of habitude] is radiating, without doubt too much; it is utilized to treat the most diverse subjec ts…” (112) , whereas by the end of the twentieth century he concludes that : “By an unfortunate chain in the history of 1 English translation: habit. We retain the French word throughout this dissertation for the r easons explained directly below. 2 ideas, l’habitude became a given, without scientific interest, the very symbol of an obvious and even contemptible example of c ommon sense. An intellectual treasure, conveyed since Aristotle, had suddenly been squandered” (114). 2 A full understanding of the meanings of habitude is critical to a comprehension of the subject matter of this thesis; such comprehension is rendered more difficult because everyone thinks he or she knows what the word means, and that its meaning is uncomplicated. A habit, or habitude, is simply what one does regularly, or without much reflection, and there is not in modern -day dialogue any particular mystery that surrounds the subject. But contrary to this ordinary or commonsense understanding, habitude is an extraordinarily complicated, wide-ranging, penetrating, and contentious subject. So that Proust’s ideas and his development of the concept may be understood in context, a significant part of this dissertation is devoted to exploring the meanings of habitude as they were utilized and evolved in France before and during the time that Proust was writing À la recherche du temps perdu. A preliminary word is in or der, however, as to why throughout this dissertation we have chosen to use the French word, habitude, whereas this text is otherwise in English. There are two reasons for this choice. First, we have cited and analyzed Proust’s concepts of habitude only when he has used that word (in the original French text) or a word with habitude as its root, e.g . habituel, habituellement. We have not analyzed the characters or the plot with reference to that concept when not cited specifically by the narrator. Thus, for example, we do not discuss or analyze herein whether Proust relied upon habitual patterns of speech or thought in creating or describing the characters

Load more