Abstract
In this paper I propose a close reading of selected passages of Proust’s masterpiece A la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past) in which the sacred grove image surfaces and creates metaphorical constructs of great thematic complexity, particularly with reference to the Platonic cave myth and the Ovidian landscapes blending innocence and desire. Proust’s networks of mythological associations are often hidden in the dense fabric of his metaphorical prose, as Marie Miguet-Ollagnier explained in her book La Mythologie de Marcel Proust:
As for the overt references to Ovid’s Metamorphoses,they were more numerous in previous versions (of Proust’s novel). Proust removed several of them almost as if he wished to conceal one of the deepest sources of his own imagination (Ollagnier, p. 152; my translation).
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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Watson, B.S. (1997). Proust’s Sacred Grove: A Study in Spatial Poetics. In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) Passion for Place Book II. Analecta Husserliana, vol 51. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2549-1_8
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