Description
Book SynopsisThrough detailed in-depth exegeses of Proust's literary texts
(A la Recherche du temps perdu, Jean Santeuil, and
Contre Sainte-Beuve), Judaism in Marcel Proust: Anti-Semitism, Philo-Semitism, and Judaic Perspectives in Art explains anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism as present in actual French literary texts. Unlike other studies about Proust and Judaism, the narrative in this book is in English; the focus is on the actual French texts, not on Proust's biography. Primary Judaic sources such as the Hebrew Bible, the Babylonian Talmud, Moses Maimonides'
Mishneh Torah, and Rashi's commentaries illuminate Proust's texts and skillfully demonstrate their anti-Semitic and philo-Semitic subtexts.
The principal Proustian themes that are examined in depth include, first of all, the anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism of the characters as informed by Jean-Paul Sartre's
Réflexions sur la queston juive; second, Christian interpretations of Judaic biblical references and t
