A Study of Works Themed on the Spiritual Journey

2024/10/31

From my student days to the present, I have consistently researched the 20th-century French novelist Marcel Proust. He is an author who left behind the great achievement of perfecting the modern novel, which began with Stendhal and Balzac, with his lengthy work "In Search of Lost Time," while also foreshadowing the experimental novels of the 20th century that followed. However, this work, which begins with a middle-aged man suffering from insomnia in an unidentifiable bedroom and recalling his past in a state of vague consciousness, does not have a clear plot or a specific theme. The theme itself can be said to be the trajectory of the protagonist's spirit, from his admiration for and disillusionment with Parisian high society, through a love affair with a charming girl he met at a seaside resort, to his eventual decision to break away from such an idle life and sublimate his own life into a work of art.

My recent interest lies in examining Proust in relation to his contemporary writers, with whom he has not often been compared, and to the foreign literature that interested the French literary world at the time, in order to fully understand the literary-historical significance of his work within the literary context of the so-called Belle Époque. For example, Proust's critique of realism has traditionally been considered an innovation in novelistic aesthetics. On the other hand, the development in "In Search of Lost Time"—overcoming a life of idleness and passion to become a creator—can be said to carry an ethical significance that encourages readers to purify their lives. I believe this should be evaluated as one of the new possibilities and directions for the novel that French writers of the time were trying to pioneer.

Proust, who was also an excellent critic, stated that to enjoy not only literature but art in general is a journey of re-examining the world with new eyes. In essence, to accept a work of art is to internalize the worldview of the artist who created it, but what is more important is the work that follows. The true significance of enjoying art, it can be said, lies in re-examining life and the world with this newly acquired vision and discovering for oneself new truths that had previously gone unnoticed. I believe that the Faculty of Letters is a place for acquiring an unwavering yet flexible critical spirit while engaging in such intellectual endeavors in a more scientific and empirical manner.

Note: Affiliations, job titles, etc., are as of the time of the interview.