'Each reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument, which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have perceived for himself'.

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Colleen, Week 5.

'Each reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument, which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have perceived for himself'. Discuss.

     

                ‘Combray’ serves to illustrate themes that are not individual to the narrator, rather they are adaptable universal themes that the reader can draw upon, however, without the book the reader may never have chosen to draw upon.  Combray not only does this, but it also encompasses themes particular to the book such as Proust’s representation of society.  The book is representative of an exploration through not only the narrators self, but simultaneously through the readers self.  We are propelled into an exploration of the nature of our own memory as the narrator explores his.  His transmutations of his psychological experiences serve as the platform from which the reader begins his own exploration.  Initially the narrator is in a state between sleep and awake and the reader discovers more about the narrator as he recounts and regains his memories.  The ‘waking up’ of the reader to the narrator’s self is also mirrored in an awakening to the readers own self by experiencing the narrators aesthetic adventure through it.  

               The principle concerns throughout ‘Combray’ are universal, such as memory and its relationship with imagination and the present self.  When the narrator is regaining his memories, his idea of self and identity becomes stronger until eventually the reader comes to recognise him as ‘Marcel’.  In this sense, one is defined by one’s memories and past therefore memories and experiences are essential in defining one’s present physical and emotional states.  The key sentence of the first section illustrates an essential notion;

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‘Un homme qui dort, tient en cercle autour de lui de fils des heures, l’ordre des années  et des mondes.  Il les consulte d’instinct en s’éveillant et y lit un seconde le point de la terre qu’il occupe…mais les rangs peuvent se mêler, romper.’  This is precisely what the reader witnesses within the first part, we are thrust through a string of associative memories of his earliest recollections of Combray.  Looking backwards Marcel sees a succession of different selves, each inhabiting his own world with its own atmosphere and sensations which is encompassed by the sentence above.  The reader is ...

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