Ekphrasis, Memory and Narrative after Proust

Leonid Bilmes is an independent researcher based in Spain. His writing on contemporary literature and philosophy has appeared in Textual Practice, Philosophy Now and Los Angeles Review of Books. He has recently contributed a chapter to Fictional Worlds and Philosophical Reflection, a collection edited by Garry L. Hagberg.

• List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: On seeing prose pictures 1 Proust’s way: Ekphrasis, memory, narrative 2 After Proust: By way of ironized nostalgia 3 Description and narration in Vladimir Nabokov’s Ada or Ardor 4 Narration’s looming of the archive in W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz 5 Retrospect, prospect and the fiction of the face in Ben Lerner’s 10:04 6 Commemoration via intermedial lamination in Ali Smith’sHow to be both 7 Writing forgetting in Lydia Davis’s The End of the Story ConclusionWorks Cited Index

Ekphrasis, Memory and Narrative After Proust explores the uses of ekphrasis, and develops the poetics of image/text in contemporary critical and literary work. The fair discussion of the main theories on the subject is developed in subtle close readings of works by Marcel Proust extended to contemporary novels. A highly readable book that will be a precious tool for future research.