| In this dissertation I use a narratological approach to analyze the role of memory and apprenticeship in Gustave Flaubert's L'Education sentimentale and Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, while putting the literary works in dialogue with memory research from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.;In the first chapter, I study the memory theories of three thinkers: the founder of experimental psychology in France, Theodule Ribot, the philosopher Henri Bergson, and the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. In describing their approaches, I highlight the concepts that will be particularly important for the interpretation of the novels by Flaubert and Proust: Ribot's and Bergson's analyses of the extremes of memory, amnesia and hypermnesia, as well as Freud's concept of Nachtraglichkeit (deferred action).;In the second chapter, I argue that in L 'Education sentimentale Flaubert portrays Frederic Moreau's relationship to Madame Arnoux as marked by amnesia and hypermnesia, which lead to inaction. The protagonist's apprenticeship in accessing memory in a useful manner and in learning from experience is limited. Moreover, the external analepsis that contains the memory of the Turque scene reverses the situations of the protagonist and the readers. The readers, who appeared to have had superior insight throughout the novel are in the disadvantaged situation at its end and need to reevaluate the novel based on the belatedly revealed information.;In the third chapter I argue that in A la recherche du temps perdu Proust describes involuntary memories as potentially overwhelming experiences that can sometimes have incapacitating effects, but that can also lead to a better understanding of the present. The mourning of the grandmother in the section "Les Intermittences du coeur" is an example in which memory is a problem and a cure at the same time. The character succeeds in continuously learning and reassessing the past, through the mechanism of Nachtraglichkeit . Mnemonic phenomena are reflected in the narrative structure and disorient and overwhelm the readers at times, but also allow them to follow the protagonist's apprenticeship. |
