Proust, Pastiche, and the Postmodern or Why Style Matters [Paperback]

Austin's repeated claim to work under the banner of his poststructuralist mentors should not discourage readers. Austin (Connecticut College) writes well and clearly about his subject. He has carefully read the relevant Proust criticism, basing his analyses appropriately on Jean Milly, though he is regrettably negligent in regard to larger theory on related, intertextual devices like allusion. Contrary to Austin's claim, he has not revised the history of pastiche. The device has long been performative and parodic. Still, his fine analysis of Proust's treatment offers an original view through the lens of pastiche. Although this side of Proust is most often associated with Pastiches et m?langes, it is also and perhaps especially a major element in ? la recherche du temps perdu, where it allowed him to engage Homer, the Goncourts, and, more interestingly, his own characters and, indeed, himself. Proust was a stylistic master, able to integrate his pastiches seamlessly into his masterpiece. Austin also considers pastiche in subsequent writers like Maurois, Martin-Chauffier, Modiano, and Perec in some detail. He finally considers pastiche in major directors like Godard, Rohmer, and Agn?s Varda. Summing Up: Recommended. Researchers, faculty.In this book, Austin argues against the traditional critical view that minimizes Prousts practice of pastichethe imitation of a writers styleand that considers it a simple exercise of mastering the predecessor. Instead, this work establishes pastiche as a powerful, ubiquitous practice central to Prousts entire oeuvre.Proust, Pastiche, and the Postmodern, or Why Style Matters argues against the traditional view that Marcel Proust wrote pastiches, that is, texts that imitate the style of another author, to master his literary predecessors while sharpening his writerly quill. On the contrary, James F. Austin demonstrates that Prousts oeuvre, and In Search of Lost Time in particular, deploy pastiche to other ends: Prousts pastiches,l#`