Marcel Proust (1871–1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist. He became famous for his novel À la recherche du temps perdu , in English In Search of Lost Time or also Remembrance of Things Past. It was published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927. He is considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century.
Have you heard about Proust's Madeleine? It is often used to explain the term “affective consciousness”. The madeleine becomes a symbol of the past that arises unintentionally triggered by a smell, a flavour,...
READ THE EXCERPT:
"Many years had elapsed during which nothing of Combray, save what was comprised in the theatre and the drama of my going to bed there, had any existence for me, when one day in winter, as I came home, my mother, seeing that I was cold, offered me some tea, a thing I did not ordinarily take. I declined at first, and then, for no particular reason, changed my mind. She sent out for one of those short, plump little cakes called 'petites madeleines,' which look as though they had been moulded in the fluted scallop of a pilgrim's shell. And soon, mechanically, weary after a dull day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate, a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, but individual, detached, with no suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory--this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me, it was myself. I had ceased now to feel mediocre, accidental, mortal. Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I was conscious that it was connected with the taste of tea and cake, but that it infinitely transcended those savours, could not, indeed, be of the same nature as theirs. Whence did it come? What did it signify? How could I seize upon and define it?"
HERE YOU HAVE THE WHOLE EXCERPT from "Remembrance of Things Past" by Marcel Proust
I have already asked you to transform a poem into prose. Today, I'll ask you to do the other way round. I'd like you to transform this piece of prose into a poem. A short poem that condenses the whole experience.
I have highlighted some key words in bold. Take some of these words and make a poem, no rhyme needed, free verse.
Take your time, you can hand it out next week. But please do it, this is the best practice ever if you want to improve your writing. And remember, in EVAU, the writing is a 30% of the final mark.
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