Proust's Family at Home
The argument
Whose work keeps a home going, and who gets to be private in it? The essay reads Proustian domestic life as a structure of belonging shaped by place, memory, family, and social position. Combray, Balbec, Paris, and the Guermantes salons give different, unstable ways of being at home. Domestic happiness rests on women's emotional labor, servants' physical labor, family routines, and unequal access to privacy. The remembered home is truly shared. The affection of memory can also cover over the labor and the asymmetries that make it possible.
Publication details
- Author
- Katherine Elkins
- Publication
- H-France Salon 13, issue 13, contribution 5 (2021), pp. 1–9.
Proust's Family at Home at H-France Salon →
Key concepts
Proust; home; family; domesticity; belonging; memory; care; emotional labor; women's work; class; social relations; privacy.
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Philosophy, Literature, and Information →
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