Le problème de la mémoire cinesthésique dans Augustin ou le Maître est là de Joseph Malègue

• Authors: Litwinowicz-Krutnik Zofia

Title variants

EN

THE PROBLEM OF SYNAESTHETIC MEMORY IN JOSEPH MALÈGUE’S NOVEL AUGUSTIN OU LE MAÎTRE EST LÀ

• Languages of publication: FR

Abstracts

EN

In Joseph Malègue’s novel Augustine or the Master is Here, published in 1933, synaesthesia has a crucial role in the functioning of memory and in the shaping of human being’s situation in time. The synaesthetic memory, built upon synaesthetic experiences, is understood as a global memory determined by unified senses of vision, smell, taste, hearing and touch, inextricably connected to involuntary memory. As Malègue’s treatment of memory bears a strong resemblance to that of Marcel Proust in his cycle In Search of Lost Time, the synaesthetic memory in the novel is constituted by three main elements: the eternity of the main protagonist’s childhood memories, unified by the memorable smell of hay; the search of the absolute by the characters; and finally, the mystical experiences called “ecstasies of memory”. The latter determine moments comparable to an illumination, when the involuntary memory turns up out of an unexpected event or a stimulation of a particular sense. The article offers a close reading of three main experiences constituting the “ecstasies of memory” in the novel Augustine or the Master is Here: the phenomena of roses and Liszt’s rhapsody, linked with the protagonist’s love to his almost-fiancée Anne de Préfailles; the Font-Sainte chapel, which marks his first religious experience ; and finally, the pilgrimage to a place called also Font-Sainte, which reappears in the novel, becoming its leitmotiv and the buckle of the protagonist’s identity.

Keywords

FR

mémoire cinesthésique; Augustin ou Le Maître est là; Joseph Malègue; extase de mémoire; mémoire involontaire

EN

synaesthetic memory; Augustine or the Master is Here¨ Joseph Malègue; ecstasy of memory; involuntary memory

• Publisher: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Czech Republic
• Journal: Svět literatury – Časopis pro novodobé literatury (World of Literature – Journal for Modern Literatures)
• Year: 2020
• Volume: XXX
• Issue: Zvláštní číslo – Le monde de la littérature
• Pages: 109-120

Contributors

author

Litwinowicz-Krutnik Zofia

• Université de Varsovie
• Sorbonne Université

Identifiers

DOI

10.14712/23366729.2020.3.9