Du symbolisme architectural au symbolisme littéraire: Proust à l’école d’Emile Mâle

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) debuted as a writer when the doctrine of symbolism was prevalent in the French literature. But his relationship with this contemporary trend is difficult to define. The reconstruction of historical and logical facts connected with this issue seems to indicate that Proust distanced himself from the poets and writers of symbolism; the word “symbol” itself would often be used in negative contexts in "In Search of Lost Time" which Proust started to write in 1908. At that time Proust was also impressed by the work of Émile Mâle entitled "L’Art religieux du XIIIe siècle en France" (Religious Art of the 13th century in France, 1898). Thus, it is through the contact with architecture, more than with literature, that the author of "In Search of Lost Time" explores the notion of symbolism when, based on consciously adopted rules, he gives his work the exact structure of a cathedral.