The 'Enveloppe Close': reading Minds in Proust's À La Recherche du Temps Perdu

Thesis

This thesis aims to provide a nuanced evaluation of the ‘theory of mind’ and mind-reading practice depicted in the Recherche, and to bring out the positive aspects offsetting the negatives that have come to dominate critical accounts of intersubjectivity in the novel. I explore the interaction between diegesis, narratorial commentary, and imagery to restore the balance which is lost when one focuses disproportionately upon the narrator’s despondent pronouncements. I set such prono...

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Authors: Kerr, S

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-ngk4w4bn7
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: intersubjectivity; Marcel Proust; theory of mind; Leibniz; spatial representation; mind-reading; unknowability; problem of other minds; monadology; psychologie dans l'espace; situation-limite; pessimism; optimism; epistemology
• Subjects: French Literature; Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922