Proustian autonomy

Abstract

This paper tries to establish a connection between the notions of moral experience, nega-tivity, autonomy and literary selfpossession. The logic of moral experience is a negativeone: we learn of our moral errors and through the moral pain. The linguistic elaborationof this experience is essential for the conquest of our moral autonomy. Proust’s Rechercheexemplifies, perhaps in a unique form, this conquest of autonomy through a literary ela-boration of the experience.