On The Social Frameworks Of Memories In Remembrance Of Things Past

"Memory"is one of the most important themes in the novel Remembrance of Things Past. The famous French writer Marcel Proust makes a great framework of memory with his particular life experience and the way of delicate narration. With the studies of sociology and history, mainly from the perspective of"the social frameworks of memory"from the French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs, besides with the theory of"incorporating practices"from another sociologist Paul Connerton and the theory of"sites of memory"from the French historian Pierre Nora, this paper will discuss the characteristics of memory presenting in the novel Remembrance of Things Past, especially focus on the issue of social frameworks of memories in this text.This dissertation firstly analyzes and expounds the issues of"unconscious dream"and"involuntary memory"in this novel. According to the studies of sociology, it can be identified that"memory"in this novel Remembrance of Things Past is not that which the writer Marcel Proust and other critics deem as a kind of aesthetic"memory", but depends on the social frameworks at the beginning."Dreaming"is a special field of human being's experience that one's consciousness has been temporarily off the social environment and structure. It is until the narrator Marcel has awakened and been aware of the social relationship among those groups that we can find his real individual memories in this novel. While the"involuntary memory"that is coincidence between a kind of sensation and a period of memory is kept in one's body through a kind of sensational impression. This kind of memory with the medium of body also depends on the social frameworks.This paper mainly analyzes the social frameworks in the narrator's individual memories in this novel. It is worth concerning that the thread of this novel Remembrance of Things Past consists of autobiographical and fictitious memories of a narrator named Marcel. It is related to those French history and historic events in the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. The social framework depended by those memories of the leading character Marcel in the periods of his childhood and early youth is the small town he had lived in, while the social frameworks depended by those memories of Marcel in the periods of his youth and adulthood is the French social background at that time. Therefore, it is not difficult to see that the narrator Marcel's individual memories proceed in these social frameworks. Meanwhile, by means of the social framework in this version, readers could reconstruct those images about French history and historic events in the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. So even though the version demonstrates the narrator's individual memories, it guides to the collective memories of French people. It has to say that such a kind of literary memory is entrusted an effect of reflection by the writer Marcel Proust, and has a definite intention.