A LA RENCONTRE DE JEAN SANTEUIL ET DE STEPHEN
DAEDALUS
OU
LE MONOLOGUE INTERIEUR
It may seem rather audacious to try to compare two writers as different
as Marcel Proust and James Joyce. Many things distinguish one from regard
to the other:
Proust was rather settled in one place, too sick to leave Paris for long,
and preferring the gatherings of posh societies, while Joyce, on the other
hand, was really unsettled. He had to leave Ireland in 1904, when he was
24, to escape the intolerance of his country especially that of the
Catholic Church. Wandering through Europe, he had to fight every day to be
able to afford to write but also, sometimes, to be able to feed his
family. His works are so characteristic of the life of Dublin, which is so
different from Paris, and where pub life and poverty are so present.
The subject of this short exposé is not to prove one influenced the other,
but to show a strange similarity between two such dissimilar lives.
Proust was born in 1871. He was 11 when Joyce was born. The first clues
of similarities came in 1900. At this moment Proust was writing "Jean
Santeuil" and Joyce "Stephen hero". These are two novels with a vaguely
autobiographical texture. These novels were not finished. But both were
used as drafts for the following works:
" Jean Santeuil " is the draft of "A la recherche du temps perdu" and "
Stephen hero " the draft of "A portrait of the artist as a young man".
Everyone knows the importance of each of these two books for these
writers. The explanation of these two works is the quest for a personal
and satisfying style, free of any imitation.
There is no direct social and politic message either in Proust or in
Joyce. Their works are rather far from the reality of daily life. But, in
each of the situation found in these books, it is possible to read,
between the lines, to find a precise description of reality.
Proust, for instance, never writes about political facts, but his
characters can have their own ideas about politics. The main thing for him
is not to express his own point of view through his heroes but to make
these ideas apparent through the personality of his characters without
judging them.
Joyce’s vehemence towards Catholicism concerns himself and nobody else.
The way of life of Stephen's friends is nothing other than the color of
the characters (their personality).
The atmosphere of their novels is more intimate than naturalist. But the
reader can feel through these micro- societies, the weight of the whole
society and also the main laws of human behavior. For this reason these
novels will never be outdated.
Come. I thirst. Clouding over. No black clouds anywhere, are there?
Thunderstorm. Allbright he falls, proud lightning of the intellect,
Lucifer, dico, qui nescit occasum. No. My cockle hat and staff and hismy
sandal shoon. Where? To evening lands. Evening will find itself .
[Allons. J'ai soif. Le ciel se couvre. II n'y a pourtant pas de nuages
noirs. Orage. II tombe tout étincelant, orgueilleux éclair de l'intellect.
Lucifer, dico, qui nescit occasum. Non. Mon chapeau coquillard, mon bâton
de pèlerin, et ses miennes sandalantes chaussures. Où? Vers les terres du
soir. Le soir se retrouvera ]
This kind of novel shows deep egotistic feelings. Proust like Joyce is
omnipresent in nearly every character. All the situations show the
distress of their life and their contradictions:
For Stephen/Joyce Catholicism must be removed from the conscience. But
even in the most rebellious attitudes, Stephen cannot escape his Irish and
Catholic roots. In fact, his situation is always that of a believer in
state of sin. In the same way, he always criticizes Ireland and the Irish
people but he can't stop speaking about them and Dublin life.
For Jean/Proust mundaneness is hypocrisy and ambition. But he is really
attracted by it. For him, to love is to lose the advantage, to become
vulnerable, to depend on the indecipherable mystery of the other, but he
can't change his destiny.
Both represent the real weakness of humans when faced with their own
contradictions.
First night when I saw her at Mat Dillon's in Terenure. Yellow black
lace she wore. Musical chairs. We two the last. Fate. After her. Fate.
Round and round slow. Quick round. We two. All looked. Halt. Down she
sat. All ousted looked. Lips laughing. [ Le soir où je l'ai vue
pour la première fois chez Mat Dillon à Terenure. En jaune, avec de la
dentelle noire. Jeu de chaises. Nous deux les derniers. Le destin. La
suivre. Le destin. Tours lents. Puis vite. Nous deux. Tous regardaient. Sa
bouche riante.]
The origin of Proust's and Joyce’s drafts shows their difficulty finding
their own aesthetic of writing. Their "technique" will be studied in the
next part. Here, we are going to analyse the aesthetic taste of each
writer.
In "La Recherche" aestheticism is omnipresent. The sonata of Vinteuil, the
painting of Elstir or Vermeer, Bergotte's book show the importance of Art
in this work. Art gives meaning to life since God doesn't exist (Joyce
will say the same thing). For Proust there are no arts but Art. Every
sentence must refer to painting or music. Bergotte/Proust watching "the
View of Delft" by Vermeer says:
"C'est ainsi que j'aurais dû écrire mes derniers livres sont trop
secs, il aurait fallu passer plusieurs couches de couleur, rendre ma
phrase en elle- même précieuse comme ce petit pan de mur jaune".
This sentence is very relevant to Proust's aestheticism.
Joyce was passionately fond of Ibsen [ (1828-1906), Norwegian writer,
famous for his theatrical works is a representative for his anarchist and
symbolist ideas. ] just as Proust was of Ruskin [(1819-1900), English
writer, art critic and social reformer had a considerable influence on the
taste of the Victorian period]. Stephen has the same feeling for Ibsen but
also for St Thomas Aquinis whose aesthetic is perfectly defined: Beauty
needs three things:
The soul of the most common thing, its adjusted structure seems to
radiate to us: the object achieves its epiphany. It is when the reality of
things invades us like a revelation. In fact for Joyce this revelation
allows as to fill the empty space left by an improbable God. Even this
thought seems very close to the future Sartre's idea about existentialism,
Proust is not really far: the relativity of feelings, of things in time
appear episodically in his books. In fact, things are not felt through
their essence but through existence in a precise moment of life.
O the rain falls on my heavy locks
And the dew wets my skin, My babe lies cold...
(from a song: The lass of Aughrim)
To put this idea into concrete form, remember this part of "The Dead"
from The Dubliners (or the same moment in Huston's film): Gretta listening
downstairs to this song.
A similar moment in the last Davies' film "Distant Voices". (Part of
Ulysses has the same title )
These two situations might as well have come from Proust or from Joyce.
There is a yawning abyss between J. and P. in style. But many analogies
remain even still.
In the last paragraph we met an important word of Joyce: Epiphany. Joyce
doesn't hesitate to use words out of their meaning. He also often creates
new words (see Work in Progress or Ulysses). For him the sentence
structure must bend, according to his need and his will. From a precise
meaning, the word can be used also for its music. Here is Joyce’s real
style.
In Proust's writings, there is the same desire to arrange the sentence to
obtain anything other than the simple meaning. If Joyce’s style is
essentially to get away from the vocabulary, Proust on the other hand
prefers to play with the sentence. He is really a fanatic of the
digression. This is why his sentences are sometimes so long: beginning
with a simple idea, he immediately connects the sensation felt with a
similar sensation that we could feel in our life.
« II se tut mais continuait à hocher la tête, à regarder d'un air
indécis, comme un instrument à pédale qui après avoir joué un air, ne
rentre dans le silence qu'en continuant à prolonger de plus en plus
indistinctement les derniers sons, et pendant un instant encore est si
imprégné de l'harmonie qu'il vient de laisser échapper, et qu'on croit
presque ne plus entendre, que si à ce moment vous vouliez en tirer
immédiatement une différente, cela ferait une dissonance. »
This is why Proust's works are so out of time. But, in the same way as in
Joyce, alliteration, harmonics, rhythms and repetitions give his sentences
a real musical texture. They also both have, the same solicitude to give
life to each of their characters by adapting a personal voice, with
specific vocabulary, tricks of speech, etc....
These two writers'works need close and continuous attention. So, in order
to merit pleasure and satisfaction, the reader's work is never done but
must always be in progress.
Even the last works of Joyce are distrained by difficulties, certainly
more than those of Proust, these two writers were the opportunity of a
plentiful literature, especially theoretic studies.
In fact, their works are so rich, it is impossible to pretend to have read
them. It is always necessary to read them again and again, and every
reading brings a lot of information like a puzzle. If that is really true
for Proust, it is more difficult for Joyce. It is possible to reach
different levels in Proust's writing. For Joyce’s writing, it is not so
true. His works needs a deep knowledge of Ireland, especially of Dublin,
but also of Joyce himself. But both their analyses about Man go the same
way.
It is the purpose of this little study: to understand Joyce through
Proust.
“At various points along the eight lines tramcars with motionless
trolleys stood in their tracks, bound for or from Rathmines,
Rathfarnham, Blackrock, Kingstown and dalkey, Sandymount Green, Ringsend
and Sandymount Tower, Donnybrook, Palmerston Park and Upper Rathmines,
all still, becalmed in short circuit.”[ Irrégulièrement échelonnés
le long des huit lignes, et trolleys inertes, les trams attendaient en
direction ou retour
de Rathmines,….., tous immobilisés dans le calme plat d'un
court-circuit.]
With the same passion for an original aestheticism, three elements are
fundamental for Joyce and Proust: game, time and geography:
In opposition Joyce prefers simultaneity:
In Ulysses different scenes take place in the same time. Time space is
regulated by the coming and back of a blindman or sandwich-man. A ringing
bell is heard from different places. That anticipates more or less
Beckett, Dos Passos (42nd Parallel) or Sartre (les Chemins de la Liberte).
“Tap blind walked tapping by the tap the curbstone tapping, tap by
tap” [Toc, l'aveugle s'en venait toquant toc à toc, toquant le
trottoir, toc, toc.]
Proust wrote a part of "Du Coté de chez Swann" about "Les noms de Pays". Places are as important as the characters who are connected to them.
.
Geography is nearly present in every title of "La Recherche"
In Joyce’s geography is also fundamental: Dublin is the main character of
Ulysses. There is no page without the name of place mentioned on it.
Game, time and place are connected immediately to movies. The books of
these two authors can be appreciated as a real reference method of cutting
before time.
Especially nowadays, it is difficult to escape from Proust's influences,
in literature as in the movie (from "La Règle du jeu" by J. Renoir to "La
Maman et la Putain" by J. Eustache).
For Joyce it is more difficult. If Beckett is a sort of spiritual heir,
his influences can be seen in the new English movie with S. Frears or P.
Greenaway.
Whatever the method chosen to express the sensitivity of the past both
these men were capable, with the same precision of drawing accurately on
the deep sensibility of their own experience. Their books allow everyone
to accede with the same acuteness of emotion to the everyday or the
exceptional experience which life presents them with: This constitutes a
new vision of the world.
With so many similarities between these two writers, it seems strange that
they didn't attract each other. Despite a real reciprocal admiration, they
had virtually nothing to talk, when they met in 1920 in Paris, to the
great surprise of everyone!
AT juin 1989