I'd hardly call myself a Proust scholar, but I do know that Proust's famous "madeleine memory" was actually from *Swann's Way*. He refers to the memory-invoking smell and taste of those delightful little pastries on p. 47 of my copy, which was translated by Lydia Davis: "And suddenly the memory appeared. That taste was the taste of the little piece of madeleine which on Sunday mornings at Combray (because that day I did not go out before it was time for Mass), when I went to say good morning to her in her bedroom, my aunt Leonie would give me after dipping it in her infusion of tea or lime blossom. The slight of the little madeleine had not reminded me of anything before I tasted it; perhaps because I had often seen them since, without eating them, on the shelves of the pastry shops, and their image had therefore left those days of Combray and attached itself to others more recent; perhaps because of these recollections abandoned so long outside my memory, nothing survived, everything had come apart; the forms and the form, too, of the little shell made of cake, so fatly sensual within its severe and pious pleating - had been destroyed, or, still half asleep, had lost the force of expansion that would have allowed them to rejoin my consciousness. but, when nothing susbsists of an old past, after the death of people, after the destruction of things, alone, frailer but more enduring, more immaterial, more persistent, more faithful, [the following italics are mine. B.B.] *smell and taste still remain for a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping upon the ruins of all the rest, bearing without giving way, on their almost imnpalpable droplet, the immense edifice of memory.*"
Beth Benoit Granite State College Plymouth State University New Hampshire On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 8:55 AM, Mike Palij <m...@nyu.edu> wrote: > There is an article in the NY Times this week by a person with > "phantosma", a condition in which one has olfactory hallucinations. > In this particular case, a real olfactory experience gives rise to > the persistent re-experience of the odor. This raises the question > of whether this is actually an olfactory hallucination or an intrusive > memory comparable to the types of memories that people with PTSD > report about their traumatic experience. The article doesn't make > this connection but it does suggest how certain cognitive techniques > might be useful in dealing with the condition (e.g., focusing attention > on something else instead of the re-experienced odors). For more, > see: > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/health/11cases.html?_r=1&ref=science > > Didn't Proust in his "In Search of Lost Time" series (NOTE: the French > title "A la Recherche du Temps Perdu" was previously translated as > "Remembrance of Things Past") give odor memories a particular role > in his narrative? I have a newly obtained set of "Lost Time" but have > not had the time to read it yet. Any Proust scholars out there? Or > are they all watching "Little Miss Sunshine"? ;-) > > -Mike Palij > New York University > m...@nyu.edu > > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
