La Normandie : les lieux de rencontre entre Proust et Monet.

Marcel Proust, Claude Monet and Normandy are the vertexes of a triangle serving as the weight-bearing structure of this thesis. In Search of Lost Time and the other texts by Proust are full of direct and indirect references to Monet’s works. It is well known that Proust was a painting enthusiast and a supporter of the impressionist movement. Therefore, in this paper Normandy will be presented as the privileged meeting point of the two authors. The various ways in which they consider the locations will be investigated through the analysis of the main examples of Proustian ekphrasis, of some of Monet’s “Norman” paintings as well as of the descriptions of the same natural and anthropic landscapes of the region where the two authors lived. This examination is conducted using the concepts of the Génie du Lieu, which is a system of analysis of literary geography by Michel Butor and revised by Michel Collot. The category of polysensoriality has been borrowed from the Geocritics by Bertrand Westphal, a feature which is often found both in Proust and in the artistic critique concerning Monet. The system of the Génie du Lieu consists of three parts: site, landscape and place of memory. The first one is the physical and geographical description of a given place, the second one is its representation starting from a pictorial concept of space and the third one indicates a place or a region becoming part of the sentimental and cultural background of a person or of a community. This last stage stands out for its strong metaphorical value. It is exactly the abundance of figures of speech, such as metaphors, synesthesia and personifications, which allows the transition from the landscape to the place of memory. It is important to specify that the focus of the analysis has always been set on words. As regards Monet’s canvases, it has been decided to work mainly on the artistic critique of the time so that it has been possible to deal with texts that most likely Proust read too. Moreover, it has been essential to compare the selected passages with the other main references of French literature regarding the Norman landscape. The aim of this research is to investigate the role of Normandy in both Proust’s and Monet’s artistic production and to better understand to what extent this region belongs to the French cultural heritage and probably also to that of the Western World.