Marcel Proust in the “great time” of historical poetics (based on the works of S. N. Broitman and A. V. Mikhailov)

About the author:

Galina I. Danilina, Dr. Sci. (Philol.), Associate Professor, Department of Russian and Foreign Literature, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; g.i.danilina@utmn.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0100-0948

Abstract:

This article presents the result of studying M. Proust’s novel from the perspective of the historical poetics scientific school. The research material is based on S. N. Broitman’s “Historical Poe­tics” (2004) and A. V. Mikhailov’s “Methods and Styles of Literature” (1980s), “The Character Problem in Art: Painting, Sculpture, Music” (1988). The research problem is based on Bakhtin’s “Great Time” idea. The author shows how S. N. Broitman uses this idea while analyzing M. Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time”, namely, the ways and the results of the “Great Time” idea implementation. Bakhtin represents “dialogue in the Great Time” as a conversation between “I and the other, the author and the character”, besides, he separates compositional and architectonic forms. Based on these ideas, S. N. Broitman reveals the architectonic novelty of Proust’s novel: the intersubjectivity of the author and the hero, the unsteady plot, and the revival of the ancient poetic imagery. The other way of analyzing Proust’s novel is realized in A. V. Mikhailov’s conception. It is aimed at revealing the process of rethinking the keywords of culture in the “Great Time” of historical poetics. In Mikhailov’s opinion, “Personality” and “Character” are the most significant, representative keywords as far as in Proust’s times the process of their rethinking was completed. It has led to the birth of a new “I” and its new relationships with the time and the environment. According to Mikhailov’s logic, the meaning of “In Search of Lost Time” is fundamental in this regard, and the article reveals what this value consists of. There is one more aspect in Mikhailov’s conception the author of the article pays attention to. The researcher considers his methodology of analyzing transitional language of culture and art at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries as a perspective way of Proust’s novel research. In Broitman’s concept, the novelty of Proust’s works is revealed at the level of the depicted world structure (author-character, plot, syncretic imagery), in Mikhailov’s concept, the one is revealed by the world depicting (“I” and the new poetics of the time). This proves creative productivity of Bakhtin’s ideas for a multilateral study of Proust’s novel in the light of historical poetics.

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