Marcel Proust

Leo Bersani is Professor Emeritus of French at the University of California, Berkeley. His publications include Intimacies ( with Adam Philips, 2008), Forms of Being: Cinema, Aesthetics, Subjectivity (with U. Dutoit, 2004), Forming Couples: Godard's Contempt (with U. Dutoit, 2003), Caravaggio's Secrets (with U. Dutoit, 1998), and Homos (1995).

• Preface ; Introduction ; Chapter One ; Fantasies of the Self and the World ; I. "Je n'etais plus qu'un coeur qui battait" ; II. Self-effacement and self-projection ; III. The vulnerable self and its many deaths ; Chapter Two ; The Anguish and Inspiration of Jealousy ; I. The mystery of other people's desires ; II. Jealousy and the tortured imagination ; III. Strategies to immobilize the "etres de fuite," and "les joies de la solitude" ; IV. From the lover's anguish to the novelist's possessions ; Chapter Three ; The Language of Love ; I. The loved one's absence from the lover's desires ; II. The self as an "appareil vide": a critique of psychological analysis ; III. The "notes fondamentales" from the perspective of memory: psychological analysis reinstated ; IV. The monologue of love as a dialogue ; V. The merging of fantasy and realism ; Chapter Four ; Social Contexts: Observation and Invention ; I. The aristocracy's glamor ; II. Society as a work of art: the poetry of the past ; III. Reflections of Marcel's psychology in the social world ; IV. "Le royaume du neant" ; V. Variety of characterization and the general laws ; VI. Marcel the character and Proust the author ; Chapter Five ; Marcel's Vocation ; I. The artist and the "residu reel" of personality ; II. Involuntary memory and the work of art ; III. The "accent" of individuality in literary style ; IV. Metaphor: "les surfaces sont devenues reflechissantes" ; Conclusion ; Notes ; Index

Wood's easy movements across the expanses of Proustian writing are thus grounded by his attentiveness to linguistic detail, and readers willing to embrace his suggestive style will find much to stimulate reflection in this brief yet far-reaching study.