On Barthes on Proust

For many, Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu represents the nec plus ultra of aesthetic power and complexity, embodying a vast range of analytical, compositional and expressive techniques. This article explores the ways that Proust's work is seen (and used) in a selection of essays by Roland Barthes. As Malcolm Bowie has observed, in spite of – or indeed because of – his multiform admiration for A la recherche, Barthes refused to be labelled as a ‘proustien’. He produced very few sustained, stand-alone textual analyses of Proust's novel. Although it may be tempting for some to view such critical reticence as symptomatic of an anxiety of influence, this article suggests that it is less the sign of hindrance or compunction within Barthes's critical practice than an indication of the ways in which Barthes understands the nature of ‘critique’ itself.