Who am I? It’s a psychological question, sure. But also a historical question. And a political, cultural one. Today in European and North American society, we answer that question based on the work of writers and thinkers who toiled in the looming wreckage of the nineteenth century, as the great ideals came apart and they struggled to make meaning in an increasingly fragmented world. In this literary seminar, we’ll read three “personal” narratives—or attempts to come at what a person is—by three of the formative thinkers of the beginnings of our part of the world: Gertrude Stein, Sigmund Freud, and Marcel Proust. Prepare for lively discussions, challenging readings, and mind-resetting narratives as we delve into the heart of the modernist question of who we are.

Fourth session: Marcel Proust, “Part 1: “Combray” from SWANN’S WAY (1913) Please use the most current translation by Lydia Davis.

Offered as an in-person and zoom hybrid class. You must sign up here.