Proust in Black: Los Angeles, a Proustian Fiction

Abstract

Much has been said about Los Angeles, but little has been said about the forgotten connections between French writer Marcel Proust and the city Los Angeles. The relationship between the two starts with an anagram. Proust was born in 1871 and the city of Los Angeles was founded in 1781. Like Rembrandt who never went to India but drew inspiration from it in his drawings, Marcel Proust never visited Los Angeles but his work (In Search of Lost Time, Gallimard, 1919-1922) echoes in the treatment of its themes the architectural, cultural and visual complexities of the American megalopolis.

Presenter Biography

Fanny Daubigny graduated in Law and Literature. She is the author of numerous articles on Marcel Proust ((French Forum, Bulletin de la Société des Amis de Marcel Proust, Marcel Proust Aujourd’hui, Los Angeles Review of Books). She is a professor at Cal State Fullerton. Her literary essay, Proust in Black (L.A. city Noir), has been published by Hyperbole/SDSU Press in 2019 and by Editions Passages in France in 2018. She currently lives in Los Angeles.