Thesis - the first steps

As I am currently commencing my thesis writing it seems natural to post a few remarks on this new exciting fase in my academic career.

Since I started my studies at the department of comparative literature @ Aarhus Universitet in 2004 I have had the urge to do some research on the work of Marcel Proust. His magnum opus 'A la recherche du temps perdu' is evidently an indisputable classic in literature studies but meanwhile it is quite an imposing oeuvre - especially for a young student. Nevertheless, after many years of postponing this endeavour, I have finally decided to immerse myself in the search of lost time.

With approx. 3000 pages in all it is clear that the study of Proust's work needs some focussing. My choice has been to center on the thematical aspect of 'sleep' that pervades the novel. Below is a short abstract of a paper I am working on. This should sum up some of the basic points in my thesis.

The aesthetics of sleep

By conducting a structural analysis of sleep related instances in Marcel Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu this paper argues that ‘sleep’ functions as a crucial transfer point that both stabilizes and develops Proust’s narrative.
Furthermore the paper shows how the intrinsic analysis of sleep in Proust’s work gains valuable momentum by engaging with sleep research as a more general, multidisciplinary field of study. By introducing medical sleep research, the cultural history of sleep practices (sociology of sleep) and the philosophy of mind as aspects contained within Proust’s œuvre, the paper thus seeks to position literary sleep research as a necessary perspective in current debates on sleep in the human sciences.

In Proust the paper will concentrate on La Prisonnière, the fifth volume of the novel concerned almost entirely with the captivity of Albertine. In this volume the significance of the sleeping individual as both (spiritually) abandoned and (bodily) available informs the narrator’s intermittent reflexions on themes of love, jalousy and art. As opposed to the ethereality of dreams and visions in the novel the description of sleep displays an extremely developed concern with the physicality of different sleep practices as well as an astute awareness of shifting mental states. Throughout the novel, and particularly in La Prisonnière, the moments of sleep intensify the development of themes and draws the narrative into a maelstrom that momentarily puts it to a standstill but also opens the overall thematic layers to further scrutiny.

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In the following months my goal is to post some comments on the theoretical debates I encounter in my writing proces.