Le sens du plaisir. Des synesthésies proustiennes

Le sens du plaisir. On Synaesthesia in Proust The aim of this book is to identify the aesthetic role of synaesthesia in the work of Marcel Proust. Often confused with metaphor, synaesthesia is a crucial element in Proust's writing, and is interpreted here as the reconstruction of meaning through the senses, namely spiritual and corporal access to knowledge. Synaesthesia is considered here in its linguistic and rhetorical definition, albeit the contribution of medical and anthropological sciences to this topic has not been ignored. The path chosen as a means of analysing the Proustian text is that of the hero's arduous journeying towards his artistic vocation, in which it is evident that the intertwining of the senses is both recurrent and necessary for the artistic success of the work. Contemporary philosophy, particularly the reflexions of Merleau-Ponty on the Recherche, provides a particularly useful way of fully understanding the ontological importance of the sensorial datum and its linguistic rendition in Proustian writing. The volume closes with two appendices listing the occurrences of synaesthesia.