Reading Dante and Proust by Analogy

Book excerpt: What can Dante tell us about Proust, and what can Proust tell us about Dante? In this book, Hartley follows a process of analogy, reading Dante's Divine Comedy and Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu in light of one another in order to offer new insights into both works. Navigating Dante and Proust's different literary and historical contexts, as well as the rich body of scholarship that their works have generated, Hartley explores in particular their treatments of subjectivity, authorship, and vocation. The book's comparative perspective brings a unique contribution to such debated issues as the universality of Dante's poem, Proust's elevation of art, and the relationship between gender and literary authority. Julia Hartley is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Warwick.