Proust and America / [electronic resource]
Murphy, Michael,1965-2009,author.
"It is strange," Proust wrote in 1909, "that, in the most widely different departments . . . there should be no other literature which exercises over me so powerful an influence as English and American." In the spirit of Proust's admission, this engaging and critical volume offers the first comparative reading of the French novelist in the context of American art, literature, and culture. In addition to examining Proust's key American influences-Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allen Poe, and James McNeill Whistler-Proust and America investigates the previously overlooked influence of the American neurologist George Beard, whose writings on neurasthenia and "American nervousness" contributed to the essential modernity of the author's work.
Introduction: The Spirit of Liberty -- 1. Le Côté de Nev'York, or Marcel in America -- 2. The Impossible Possible Philosophers' Man --  3. A Bout de Souffle --  4. Exquisite Corpses/Buried Texts --  5. Proust's Butterfly; Bibliography -- Index.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [242]-249) and index.
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 11 Aug 2017).
"It is strange," Proust wrote in 1909, "that, in the most widely different departments . . . there should be no other literature which exercises over me so powerful an influence as English and American." In the spirit of Proust's admission, this engaging and critical volume offers the first comparative reading of the French novelist in the context of American art, literature, and culture. In addition to examining Proust's key American influences-Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allen Poe, and James McNeill Whistler-Proust and America investigates the previously overlooked influence of the American neurologist George Beard, whose writings on neurasthenia and "American nervousness" contributed to the essential modernity of the author's work.
Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922.
Art and literature.
Art, American.

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