Unity through diversity and transformation in A la Recherche: A Study of Proust through the lens of Catherine Malabou

我的研究项目利用凯瑟琳·马拉布的著作作为重新参与普鲁斯特作品的一种手段。它主要是普鲁斯特研究背景下的一种干预。最近的评论家如鲍尔(2000)和普伦德加斯特(2013)认为，我们不能再将普鲁斯特的小说解读为试图推进一个统一的哲学立场。与此同时，受德里德启发的批评家，如拉什沃斯(2016)或埃尔斯纳(2017)已经表明，普鲁斯特的作品可以通过何种方式与其他文本和人对话。尽管这种对普鲁斯特多样性的庆祝确实是合理的，但最近的批评努力现在向我们提出了一个紧迫的问题：在我们理解了普鲁斯特小说的激进多样性之后，我们能以什么方式解释人们仍然感觉到在Recherche中存在的统一性？用马拉布的话说，她试图为《S》(2010)的《重建阅读的蜕变》奠定理论基础。她运用了她的关键概念“可塑性”，通过解构所揭示的多样性来解释作品的“起源统一性”(2011，第175页)。我把她的思想运用到普鲁斯特身上，可以回答上面概述的问题，但它也可能对批评家如何看待文学作品中的统一性和多样性之间的关系产生广泛的影响。它还将从事“基因”批评和翻译研究。在研究中，我打算重点研究普鲁斯特的早期作品，特别是让·桑德伊尔(Jean Santeuil，1896-1900)，以了解Recherche形式的起源。我还将与马拉布和当代法国哲学密切接触，以创造或发现新的、后德里德的“统一”、“多样性”和“形式”的概念。

My research project makes use of the writings of Catherine Malabou as a means for re-engaging with Proust's work. It is primarily an intervention within the context of Proustian studies. Recent critics such as Bower (2000) and Prendergast (2013) have argued that we can no longer read Proust's novel as attempting to advance a unified philosophical position. Meanwhile, Derridean-inspired critics, such as Rushworth (2016) or Elsner (2017) have shown in what ways Proust's work can speak to a diversity of other texts and persons. Although this celebration of Proust's diversity has indeed been warranted, recent critical endeavours now confront us with a pressing question: in what ways, after we have understood Proust's novel in its radical multiplicity, can we account for the unity that one still feels present in the Recherche? Malabou has, in her words, attempted to lay the theoretical groundwork for a 'metamorphosis of reconstructive reading[s]' (2010). She has employed her key concept of 'plasticity' in order to explain the 'originate unity' (2011, p. 175) of a work through the very diversity that deconstruction has uncovered. My application of her thought to Proust could answer the question outlined above, but it could also have wide ramifications for how critics think of the relation between 'unity' and 'diversity' in literary works in general. It would also engage with 'genetic' criticism and translation studies. In the research, I would intend to focus on Proust's early works, particularly Jean Santeuil (1896-1900) in order to understand the genesis of the form of the Recherche. I will also engage closely with Malabou and contemporary French philosophy to create or discover new, post-Derridean concepts of 'unity,' 'diversity', and 'form'.