Collector Or Creator

The narrator’s searching for how to be an artist is one of the most important themes of Proust’s novel A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu. To answer this question, Proust described two different ways of approaching art, one is seeking for the semblance of the works of great artists and the real life, Proust called it the way of Collector. Swann chooses this way, in which Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt write. The other way is making the real life art works by creating, Proust called it the way of Creator, and from the three artists in the novel, Bergotte, Elstir and Vinteuil, we can see the approaching of art by this way. In the narrator’s life of searching for the way of being an artist, we can see both the two ways, and the three artists, Bergotte, Elstir and Vinteuil enlighten him. What’s more, the three artists enlighten the narrator in different aspects. Bergotte shows him the fascination of language; Elstir improves him of his unique viewing and depicting of the world; while Vinteuil inspires him by the spirit of creating. These different aspects decide their positions in the novel, which Vinteuil has the highest position, then Elstir, while Bergotte is after them. This paper focus on how Bergotte, Elstir and Vinteuil enlighten the narrator. By discussing the sections of watching the performance of la Berma and the travel to Balbec, it analyzes how the narrator’s view of art changes under the enlightenment of the three artists, and how him becomes a Creator instead of a Collector.