The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York
Desire, Curiosity, and the Search for Truth in Proust, Moreno, and Bechdel
Abstract
dc:description.abstract<p>Marcel Proust’s influence on twentieth century literature is broad and has been well documented. This dissertation attempts a comparative reading of <em>À la recherche du temps perdu</em> that places it in contrast with Colombian writer Marvel Moreno’s 1987 novel, <em>En diciembre llegaban las brisas</em>, and Alison Bechdel’s 2006 comic memoir, <em>Fun Home</em>. Starting from a Deleuzian reading of the <em>Recherche</em>, this dissertation proposes the notion of the “proustian truth seeker”, a thematic and stylistic phenomenon which can be traced in all three writers. The characteristics of the truth seeker can be used to understand the ways in which the narrators of these novels are driven by a particular sort of desire that determines the novel’s structure, style, and thematic concerns. Ultimately, the concept of the proustian truth seekers offers a way to understand the complex connection between these three writers as well as a powerful tool to study novels that blur the line between fiction and autobiographical non-fiction.</p>
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Level thesis:degree_level
- Doctoral
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- Comparative Literature
- Grantor
- The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York
- Year dc:date.available
- 2017
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Parga Linares, Santiago
- Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
-
- Giancarlo Lombardi
- Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
-
- André Aciman
- Bettina Lerner
Subjects
dc:subject × 10Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Repository record dc:identifier
- https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2174
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-3201