PROUST AND THE DISCOURSE ON HABIT Amy Ross Loeserman, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004 ...

255 Pages·2004·2.18 MB·English

ABSTRACT
Title of dissertation: PROUST AND THE DISCOURSE ON HABIT
Amy Ross Loeserman, Doctor of Philosophy, 2004
Dissertation directed by: Professor Pierre Verdaguer
Department of French and Italian
A la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust is replete with a discourse by the
principal character, the narrator Marcel, on the subject of habit (“habitude” in French).
This discourse meticulously explores the ubiquitous but concealed role that habit plays
with respect to the most significant aspects of life, such as emotions, cognitive processes,
and aesthetic experiences, and it explicitly relates not only to the novel’s characters, but
to humanity in general. The critical commentary on the novel has largely ignored this
subject. This dissertation provides the only comprehensive collection and analysis of the
Proustian commentary on habit in A la recherche du temps perdu.
It is not by chance that habit was deeply explored in Proust’s novel or that it has
been largely overlooked by the critical commentary. Historically, philosophers have paid
substantial attention to habit. Habit was a focus of controversial
philosophical/psychological theories in 19th century France regarding memory and
consciousness, spirit and matter. Proust’s commentary was directly related to the
prominent philosophical issues of his time.
This dissertation discusses the broad meanings of habit, first as developed by
Aristotle and St. Thomas; then by French essayists, through Montaigne, Pascal, and the
philosophes; and finally culminating in the great 19th century works on habit by Maine de
Biran and Félix Ravaisson. It also reviews substantial contributions on habit made by
other French writers and philosophers, notably Stendhal and Alfred Fouillée. Proust’s
reflections on habit may thus be appreciated in context.
This dissertation then analyzes the contributions which Proust’s novel made to
contemporary theories on habit and argues that they were substantial. It also argues that
presentations of the major themes in the novel should include, prominently, habit. For
example, on the philosophical plane, Proust’s theories relating to involuntary memory
and time are inextricably interwoven with his theories on habit. Finally, this dissertation
considers why habit fell out of the philosophical/psychological discourse after about
1930, and the extent to which Proust’s novel may inform the
philosophical/psychological/biological discourse in the 21st century, which is reflecting a
renewed interest in habit.
PROUST AND THE DISCOURSE ON HABIT
By
Amy Ross Loeserman
Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
2004
Advisory Committee:
Professor Pierre Verdaguer, Chair
Professor Joseph Brami
Professor Caroline Eades
Professor Madeleine Hage
Professor Jerrold Levinson
Copyright © by
AMY ROSS LOESERMAN
2004
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
I: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………... 1
II: PROUST ON HABITUDE IN A LA
RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU……………………………….. 13
A. Introduction……………………………………………............... 13
B. Passions or Emotions…………………………………………… 19
1. Love……………………………………………………... 19
2. Identity…………………………………………………... 26
3. Pleasure………………………………………………...... 29
C. The Cognitive Processes………………………………………... 33
1. Language and literature………………………………….. 34
2. Reason and creativity……………………………………. 36
3. Sleep or subconscious thought…………………………... 37
4. Memory………………………………………………….. 38
D. The Aesthetic Experience: Creating and Appreciating Art…….. 41
E. Additional Generalizations Regarding Habitude………………. 44
1. Derivation……………………………………………….. 44
2. Operation………………………………………………… 46
3. The “Other”……………………………………………. . 49
F. Ultimate Value Judgment on Habitude…………………………. 50
G. Immutability of the “Laws” of Habitude………………………. 52
III. THE CRITICAL DISCOURSE ON HABITUDE IN PROUST’S
A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU…………………………. 56
A. An Overview: Habitude Ignored or Noted Superficially………. 56
B. The Few Important Commentators: Zéphir, Beckett, Blondel…. 62
IV. PRE-19TH CENTURY BENCHMARKS IN THE FRENCH
DISCOURSE ON HABITUDE……………………………………. 73
A. Introduction…………………………………………………….. 73
B. The Canonical Forebears: Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas…. 73
C. Montaigne………………………………………………………. 89
D. Pascal…………………………………………………………… 91
E. The Philosophes: Diderot, Rousseau, and
D’Aumont (L’Encyclopédie)………………………………….. 92
iii
Page
V. THE DISCOURSE ON HABITUDE EXPLODES:
19TH CENTURY FRANCE AND BELLE ÉPOQUE……………….. 97
A. Maine de Biran………………………………………………….. 97
B. Stendhal……………………………………………………….....115
C. Ravaisson………………………………………………………..127
D. Fouillée…………………………………………………………..139
E. Boutroux, Janet, Bergson, Parodi, Dumont, Lemoine, Rignano...147
G. The «Manuels de Philosophie » - Textbooks………………… 154
VI. A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU : PROUSTIAN
CONTRIBUTIONS AND INNOVATIONS TO THE
DISCOURSE ON HABITUDE…………………………………….. 165
A. Introduction…………………………………………………….. 165
B. Comparison of the Proust and Pre-Proust Discourses
on Habitude……………………………………………………166
C. Contributions and Innovations to the Discourse on
Habitudein A la recherche du temps perdu……………………180
VII. THE PLACE OF HABITUDE IN A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ON
A LARECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU ………………………193
A. Introduction……………………………………………………...193
B. Habitude in an Everyday Context……………………………….194
C. The Philosophical Themes: Time, Memory and Reality………...197
D. The Process of Habitude in the Fabric of Life…………………..204
VIII. PROUST ON HABITUDE IN THE 20TH CENTURY…………….. 210
A. Introduction…………………………………………………….. 210
B. Habitude as of 1929: Jacques Chevalier’s De L’habitude………211
C. Tracing the Disappearance of Habitude Post-
Chevalier……………………………………………………...215
D. Habitude in Subservient and Then Incognito Status…………….220
E. Irrelevance and Retreat of the “Death-knell” Forces………….. 227
IX. CONCLUSION: PROUST AND HABITUDE IN THE
21ST CENTURY………………………………………................... 233
.
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………. 237
1
PROUST AND THE DISCOURSE ON HABIT
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
In the first twelve pages of Du côté de chez Swann, the first volume of À la
recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust, there are three discussions about l’habitude,1
all involving the narrator’s, Marcel’s, experiences in his own bedroom. Thereafter, the
phenomenon of l’habitude is discussed and analyzed repeatedly in the novel, especially in
the first two volumes, Du côté de chez Swann and À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs,
and in the last two, La fugitive and Le temps retrouvé. Habitude is presented as a
ubiquitous and powerful, if not, indeed, determinative, influence on virtually every aspect
of human life and relationships, on intimate experiences, and on emotional and aesthetic
issues. It appears remarkable, then, that in the last century, so little interest has been paid
to Proust’s study of habitude in this novel. Critical studies of À la recherche du temps
perdufor the most part ignore the issue.
This 20th century lack of interest in Proust’s pervasive analysis of the role of
habitude in intellectual, social, and emotional life mirrors the general disinterest in the
subject of habitude after about 1930. Thus in a sociological study published in 2001,
Ego: Pour une sociologie de l’individu, the well known French sociologist, Jean-Claude
Kaufmann writes: “In the 19th century, the concept [of habitude] is radiating, without
doubt too much; it is utilized to treat the most diverse subjects…” (112), whereas by the
end of the twentieth century he concludes that: “By an unfortunate chain in the history of
1 English translation: habit. We retain the French word throughout this dissertation for the reasons
explained directly below.
2
ideas, l’habitude became a given, without scientific interest, the very symbol of an
obvious and even contemptible example of common sense. An intellectual treasure,
conveyed since Aristotle, had suddenly been squandered” (114).2
A full understanding of the meanings of habitude is critical to a comprehension of
the subject matter of this thesis; such comprehension is rendered more difficult because
everyone thinks he or she knows what the word means, and that its meaning is
uncomplicated. A habit, or habitude, is simply what one does regularly, or without much
reflection, and there is not in modern-day dialogue any particular mystery that surrounds
the subject. But contrary to this ordinary or commonsense understanding, habitude is an
extraordinarily complicated, wide-ranging, penetrating, and contentious subject. So that
Proust’s ideas and his development of the concept may be understood in context, a
significant part of this dissertation is devoted to exploring the meanings of habitude as
they were utilized and evolved in France before and during the time that Proust was
writing À la recherche du temps perdu. A preliminary word is in order, however, as to
why throughout this dissertation we have chosen to use the French word, habitude,
whereas this text is otherwise in English. There are two reasons for this choice.
First, we have cited and analyzed Proust’s concepts of habitude only when he has
used that word (in the original French text) or a word with habitude as its root, e.g.
habituel, habituellement. We have not analyzed the characters or the plot with reference
to that concept when not cited specifically by the narrator. Thus, for example, we do not
discuss or analyze herein whether Proust relied upon habitual patterns of speech or
thought in creating or describing the characters in À la recherche du temps perdu unless
2See below, p. 12, for an explanation of the source of translations of texts in French cited herein.
3
the narrator remarked on such patterns. Nor do we consider whether the plot in À la
recherche du temps perdu is developed through repeated, habitual incidents or conduct.
Thus it is only when the narrator refers to habitude that we take note of the text, and, as
we have said, this happens throughout the novel. We have chosen to use the French
word, habitude, in this dissertation partly to emphasize this fact: it is the narrator, Marcel,
who is talking specifically about habitude; use of the English equivalent, habit, might
tend to obscure that fact.
Second, we have wanted to keep the focus on this concept in its fullest and most
complicated sense, and not to glide over it as is so easily done when familiarity is
assumed. Thus in common parlance, references to “habit” assume only the most banal,
simplistic meaning, whereas habitude is explored in this thesis in its several
manifestations: physical, psychological, philosophical, and metaphysical. It is hoped that
use of the original French term in an English text serves as a reminder of the complexity
of the concept under analysis.
To understand the sense in which habitude is utilized in this study, one must make
a very large mental leap; once made, one never returns to the reflex action of associating
only the simplest signification of the word with its signifier. In fact, once that leap
occurs, the meaning of habitude keeps expanding, and its application appears almost
infinite. A superb discussion and historical review of the concept of habitude is
contained in the recent treatise by Kaufmann (cited above); the following extracts from
that treatise serve well to establish the framework within which the concept of habitude in
Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu must be considered. (Further commentary on
4
Kaufmann’s analysis appears Chapter VIII which casts an eye upon habitude post-
Proust: its virtual disappearance and then its recent resurgence in intellectual thought.)
Is habitude really such a grand concept, asks Kaufmann (105). The answer
follows:
The number of authors who, like me, have rediscovered this forgotten
treasure have immediately been struck by the immensity of the gap which
separates past intellectual riches and the mediocre contemporary
representation of what can now no longer even be considered a
concept…because habitude has irremediably become a small thing, among
the most unimportant that exist. But for two thousand years it was one of
the central concepts which permitted the consideration of issues with as
little unimportance as the issues of action, will, consciousness, life, soul,
and even God. L’habitude disappeared truly from the scene of great
concepts only in the last several decades (105).
Citing Chevalier’s essay, L’habitude, Essai de métaphysique scientifique (discussed
below, Chapter VIII), Kaufmann describes l’habitude as the “…‘central problem around
which French thought is organized…it is on the problem of l’habitude, and through
which was begun the metaphysical rebirth of our age’ ” (Chevalier XIII; Kaufmann 106).
A review of dictionary definitions, from the most basic and concise ones to the
broader ones provided by philosophical dictionaries, serves to introduce the subject of
habitude in its full dimensions. We start with the definition in the standard dictionary, Le
Petit larousse, which gives no indication that habitude presents complicated and difficult