Vinteuil’s shadow in two french novels

Abstract

This article of comparative literature investigates the post-Vinteuil period by analyzing the reception of the fictitious composer of Marcel Proust's work In Search of Lost Time in literary writings from the second half of the 20^th century as well as from the 21^st century. These novels staging the composer fit into a relatively recent (late 18^th century) sub-category of fiction: stories about composers who only exist in the pages of books. The second half of the 20^th century ushered in a change in the way novelists described fictional composers: a burlesque vein emerged which did not escape some Proustian novels. The shadow of Vinteuil can explain the need, with various stakes, for this parodic turn: some authors, such as Richard Millet in L'Angélus, are aware that they must literally put to death the master, Proust, in order to free themselves from him –even if his legacy lives on. Others, like Jérôme Bastianelli in La Vraie Vie de Vinteuil, ambition to make Vinteuil real: although they actually create a new character who is all the more fictitious for that matter.