“Le Bal des têtes”: Proust and the ageing body
Gzil, Fabrice
“Le Bal des têtes”: Proust and the ageing body - 2015.
8
In the last one hundred pages of Le Temps retrouvé, the Narrator of À la recherche du temps perdu is struck, during a matinée in the Guermantes’ house, by the sudden ageing of the attending persons, and by the considerable influence that the passage of time has had on their bodies. This observation, and the resulting thoughts raised in the Narrator’s mind, constitute the very famous episode called “Le Bal des têtes”—a portrait gallery of the main characters of the novel. The marks of time on the bodies in general, and in particular on the faces, give rise in the Narrator to a philosophical astonishment and lead him to a deep insight on the relationship between body and time. This reflection suggests that time should not be considered as a destructive or creative force, acting on the bodies from the outside. Rather, Proust invites us to consider ageing bodies as bodies in which Time has been “embodied.”
“Le Bal des têtes”: Proust and the ageing body - 2015.
8
In the last one hundred pages of Le Temps retrouvé, the Narrator of À la recherche du temps perdu is struck, during a matinée in the Guermantes’ house, by the sudden ageing of the attending persons, and by the considerable influence that the passage of time has had on their bodies. This observation, and the resulting thoughts raised in the Narrator’s mind, constitute the very famous episode called “Le Bal des têtes”—a portrait gallery of the main characters of the novel. The marks of time on the bodies in general, and in particular on the faces, give rise in the Narrator to a philosophical astonishment and lead him to a deep insight on the relationship between body and time. This reflection suggests that time should not be considered as a destructive or creative force, acting on the bodies from the outside. Rather, Proust invites us to consider ageing bodies as bodies in which Time has been “embodied.”
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