Proust, Beckett, and Narration [Hardcover]

This is a comprehensive comparison of the narrative techniques of Marcel Proust and Samuel Beckett.This is the first book-length comparison of the narrative techniques of two of the twentieth century's most important writers of prose. Using a combination of theoretical analysis and close readings of Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu and Beckett's trilogy of novels, Molloy, Malone dies, and The Unnamable, James H. Reid compares the two novelists' use of first-person narration. This study is an important contribution to critical literature, and offers fresh perspectives on the crucial importance of the Recherche and the trilogy in the context of the twentieth-century novel.This is the first book-length comparison of the narrative techniques of two of the twentieth century's most important writers of prose. Using a combination of theoretical analysis and close readings of Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu and Beckett's trilogy of novels, Molloy, Malone dies, and The Unnamable, James H. Reid compares the two novelists' use of first-person narration. This study is an important contribution to critical literature, and offers fresh perspectives on the crucial importance of the Recherche and the trilogy in the context of the twentieth-century novel.This comparison of the narrative techniques of two of the twentieth century's most important writers of prose combines theoretical analysis and text study of Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu and Beckett's trilogy of novels, Molloy, Malone dies, and The Unnamable. James Reid's study is an important contribution to the critical literature, and offers fresh perspectives on the crucial significance of the Recherche and the trilogy in the context of the twentieth-century novel.List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Remembering forgetting: Le drame du coucher; 2. Impressions, the instant of artistic consciousness, and history; 3. Lying, irony, and power: Proust's deceptive allegories; 4. Proust's forgetful ironies; 5. lCØ