French Literature Reviews - 2026

V. Trovato, La Mémoire du temps chez Proust et Beckett
Comparative and World Literature

Vincent Trovato, La Mémoire du temps chez Proust et Beckett

Paris: L'Harmattan, coll. "Ouverture philosophique", 2013.

100 p.

EAN 9782343007731

12.00 EUR

Publisher's overview:

While humanity has no control over the elusive passage of time, it can at least attempt to tame it through art forms such as writing, which immortalizes whatever it expresses. Exploring this subjective space leads us to reclaim the past, either through the effort of voluntary memory or through involuntary memory—a scent, a sound, or a gesture that resurrects a multitude of memories we thought were lost. It is therefore no coincidence that Beckett took such a profound interest in Proust's work.

Vincent Trovato is an Associate Professor teaching philosophy at the University of Mons (Belgium).

The relationship between artistic creation and the relentless passage of time has long occupied writers and philosophers alike. As human beings grapple with their inability to control temporal progression, creative expression often emerges as a primary means of preservation and reflection. Within modernist literature, the mechanisms of recollection—distinguishing between deliberate intellectual effort and spontaneous sensory triggers—form a central axis for examining subjective human experience and consciousness.

Vincent Trovato examines these themes by looking at the specific literary connection between Samuel Beckett and Marcel Proust. The volume addresses how writing immortalizes the human experience and explores both voluntary and involuntary memory, while noting Beckett's profound interest in Proust's oeuvre. Readers interested in comparative approaches to twentieth-century literature and the philosophical underpinnings of memory in modern fiction may find this study relevant.