On reading Proust's manuscripts: transcription and analysis of Proust's exercises books 15 and 16

• Grant number: 12/12496-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: October 01, 2012
• End date: November 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Modern Foreign Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Philippe Leon Marie Ghislain Willemart
• Grantee: Samira Murad
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 11/08942-0 - Brépols French-Brazilian and other manuscripts, AP.TEM

Abstract

Part of the ongoing thematic project "Brépols franco-brasileiro e outros manuscritos, financially supported by Fapesp, the first aim of this project is the diplomatic transcription of Proust's exercise books 15 and 16 and the writing of the critical notes that should accompany their publication on the project entitled "Marcel PROUST, Cahiers 1 a 75 de Ia Bibliothèque nationale de France", coordinated by the Proustian team of ITEM - CNRS and the Belgian publishing house Brépols. At the same time, the more ambitious aim is to interpret this material. This will be done through the investigation of a particular aspect of the manuscripts: the development of what is called the "role of the reader", a virtual dimension of the literary text comprised of the potential interpretive operations designed by it. This interest in the reader is directly derived from my PhD thesis. Entitled "On reading A la recherche du temps perdu", its aim was to investigate aspects of the reading of Proust's novel through the analysis of its reception and its text, especially what we can call the "role of the reader" as suggested by the models of Umberto Eco e Wolfgang Iser. As a result, we could not only reflect on what Proust understood by reading but also on its role in the writer's aesthetics. As a natural consequence of this investigation we can ask the following question: how was this "role of the reader" developed during the writing of the text? In this project, we aim at attempting an answer to this question, contributing, in the process, not only to the criticism of Proust but also to the development of genetic criticism, the main method of manuscript analysis.