SKC Project Seminar: Rick Anthony Furtak

(Colorado College, USA)

"Beauty, Possibility, and Truth: Kierkegaardian Themes in Proust"

The outlook of Proust’s narrator often resembles that of Johannes the seducer, at other times that of “A” in the “Diapsalmata” and the “Crop Rotation” essay.  He speaks of “that yearning to exist which is reborn in us whenever we become conscious anew of beauty,” along with the “promise of happiness” that it seems to hold.  All the while, he reflects on the Kierkegaardian topics of subjectivity and truth.  In this talk I draw upon Either/Or, along with other works in Kierkegaard’s corpus, as I explore these themes that are also important for In Search of Lost Time.  

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