Myths of our Time: Marcel Proust. Barthesian Variations on Imaginary Bio-graphy

Abstract

The article follows the thread of Roland Barthes' readings of Proust, starting with the publication of a volume that brings together the main documents (Roland Barthes - Proust. Mélanges, edited by Bernard Comment, 2020). It is mainly a question of the relationship between Life and Work, one of the topos of Proust's mythology and a theme that deeply intrigued Barthes himself. Much of Proust's reception, even today, is very much marked by a crushing between the two, and by a series of clichés. Barthes does not simply reject them, but on the one hand questions the public reasons for their success, and on the other hand is in turn, but in a much more sophisticated and theoretical way, captured by them.