Alright, alright. I know that Proust is a challenge. I know that it is difficult to make it through; I know that it is even more of a challenge to “do something” with Proust. His narrative style seems to deflect entry. But, I hope that I was able to tie together the beginning and ending of class today in such a way that we can see how Proust narrates and how his narration is the “thing itself.” That is, “the thing itself” and the “knowing the thing” are the same, that the form becomes the content, that the narration is the story. I use Proust in this class because he makes us think about narration so differently (particularly in contrast to the mode of narration we’ve grown accustomed to through Hollywood’s transparent style).

I have fixed the link for The Odyssey on the webpage. There are, however, numerous different translations you can read (online and in print). The version I have linked to is written in prose form (rather than the lined poetic verse). Either type would be fine, as we are not really discussing the poem as poetry, per se. We are looking for evidence of some of the earliest contributions to western formations of narrative (how words are used to construct story). Particularly, we are going to discuss how The Odyssey foregrounds a specific narration of masculinity, a trait that runs throughout western narratives, all the way to Godard’s Contempt. Jack Palance (as the film producer in Contempt) is perfect here.