Welcome to Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art,

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art ›› 2021, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (5): 167-175.

• Issue in Focus: Phenomenological and Hermeneutic Studies • Previous Articles     Next Articles

 A la Recherche du Temps Perdu: Enlightenment on "Hatred" and "Love"

Guo Xiaolei   

  1. Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Sun Yat-Sen University
  • Online:2021-09-25 Published:2021-09-26
  • About author:Guo Xiaolei, Ph.D. in French and Comparative Literature at University Paris XII, is a postdoctoral fellow in Chinese Language and Literature of Fudan University, and a lecturer in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Sun Yat-Sen University. Her major research interests are Proust studies, European literary history, literary phenomenology, and narratology.

Abstract:

Marcel Proust’s long narrative A la Recherche du Temps Perdu reveals that the inevitable form of existence of the temporal ego, “I”, is alienation, with desire as its psychological expression and “hating the neighbor” as its ethical expression. But Proust also suggests an extra-temporal ego, the “true I.” The narratives of the true I and I are isomorphic to Sartre’s pre/non-reflective consciousness and reflective consciousness. The temporal ego is fictional and the ego is polyphonic. This means that, although hatred” is the inevitable ethical impulse of the I towards the world, non-hatred is also a realistic and existential possibility. Lacan intends to demonstrate the inevitability of loving your desire as yourself so as to provide an ontological proof for loving your neighbor as yourself and to overcome traditional moral legalism’s abuse of existence. However, Jacques Lacan has in reality risked losing love’s ethical value. The I in A la Recherche refutes Lacan’s optimistic prospect of loving your neighbor as yourself, while the true I, free from of alienation because of its extra-historical nature, provides a negative logical starting point for love. By exposing the polyphonic form of existence of the ego, A la Recherche has given love and hatred ethical significance.

Key words:

Marcel Proust, St. Augustine, Immanuel Kant, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Lacan