What Proust Heard: Novels and the Ethnography of Talk

Michael Lucey's book explores Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time through a linguistic anthropological lens, examining how language shapes society and culture. He discusses Proust's approach to language-in-use in relation to linguistic anthropology, speech act theory, and Pierre Bourdieu's sociology, and contextualizes his novel writing practice in relation to other novelists. The result offers a new way of understanding language and its consequences for literary and cultural criticism.

Format: Hardback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 21 March 2022
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Marcel Proust's monumental novel, In Search of Lost Time, delves into the intricate relationship between language and society. At the heart of this exploration lies the question: what happens when we talk? Both the narrator and the novel itself dedicate significant energy to examining not only the words people use but also the sociocultural implications of their language. Proust, in essence, delves into the realm of language-in-use, a concept explored by linguistic anthropologists.

Michael Lucey offers a comprehensive linguistic anthropological analysis of Proust's approach to language-in-use. He explores Proust's work in relation to linguistic anthropology, speech act theory, and Pierre Bourdieu's sociology, providing a rich framework for understanding his novel. The book also includes interludes after each chapter, contextualizing Proust's novel writing practice in relation to other novelists from various traditions, including Honoré de Balzac, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Nathalie Sarraute, and Rachel Cusk. Through these comparisons, Lucey demonstrates how different novelists employ various aspects of the novel form as instruments of linguistic anthropological analysis.

The result of Lucey's analysis is a groundbreaking perspective on language and literature. It challenges traditional literary and cultural critiques by introducing a new way of understanding language. It explores the consequences of this new understanding for the practice of literary criticism more broadly, offering insights into the ways in which language shapes our perception and interpretation of the world.

In conclusion, Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is a masterpiece that delves into the complex relationship between language and society. Michael Lucey's linguistic anthropological analysis provides a valuable lens through which to understand Proust's novel. By exploring language-in-use and comparing Proust's work to other novelists, Lucey offers a fresh perspective on language and literature, challenging traditional notions and opening up new avenues for critical inquiry.

Dimension: 229 x 152 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226816654