Approaches to Teaching Proust's Fiction and Criticism (review)

The main problem with the MLA's generally admirable and useful Approaches to Teaching series is structural: the very scholar/teachers who would seem most apt to write illuminating essays about the teaching of various works are precisely those whose professional formation encourages them to practice pedagogy but not to write about it, "research" being for the most part institutionally opposed to, even while necessarily connected with, teaching. The essays that "count" (for promotion) convey innovative critical arguments and have little if anything to do with pedagogical technique. Such projects inevitably bear the traces of this inherent conflict of interest.

This particular volume has its own structural problem to contend with, as well: teaching Proust is not like teaching Melville, Cervantes, Dante, Toni Morrison, or even Joyce. Unlike any of these writers' works, Proust's magnum opus cannot easily be contained even within the relatively spacious confines of a one-semester graduate seminar, with the result that most of the essays in this volume, whatever their specific topic, deal at least tangentially with the crucial question, how can one possibly present Proust in the context of any course?

It turns out, though, that this problem becomes less arduous the farther one descends along the academic scale. Although most of the essays here at least pay lip service to the idea of going beyond "Combray" or even Du Côté de chez Swann in the context of a given course, it is clear that the main idea is to introduce a bit of Proust to undergraduates, with the hope that they might be incited to go farther some day. Indeed one of the ways in which this volume differs from others in the series is its strong evangelical flavor, as many of the contributors seem above all concerned with spreading the gospel of Proust among recalcitrant undergraduates.

Given this general thrust of the book, it fills its role quite well. Any non-specialist setting out to teach Proust in any one of a number of contexts will be well advised to consult it, as it furnishes a great deal of contextual information—although probably not much more than one may find in a general introduction such as Shattuck's Proust's Way or Bowie's Proust Among the Stars—as well as a certain amount of pedagogical advice. Fewer than half the essays truly deal with teaching concerns. Most are essentially small encyclopedia articles on subject such as Proust and Music, Proust and the Great War, etc., with a few gratuitous clauses thrown in along the lines of "the student should be made aware ..." or "when teaching Proust it is important to take into account ..." The volume contains many useful resources for teaching Proust, with some caveats: for instance it should be noted that, contrary to the otherwise excellent essay on Proust and film, it is not in fact necessary to familiarize students with film theory before introducing films into a literature course.

In the second half of the book, pedagogical concerns begin to dominate, and some of the essays illustrate a truly fruitful cross-pollination of research and teaching: the articles by Margaret Gray and Christie McDonald are exemplary in this regard. Since the missionary approach is so evident in this volume, with a recurring leitmotif describing students' reluctance to take on such a legendarily daunting author at all, and delineating the ultimate fantasy-goal of inciting them to pursue the reading of the Recherche in its entirety under their own steam, it is tempting to lend it the alternative title A la recherche de lecteurs de Proust and to read a sort of plot into the book as a whole. Read in this light it takes on a classic structure: the exposition comprising the opening sections, with their emphasis on background and historical givens of various sorts; the complication including a number of essays on teaching Proust in various academic contexts. The climax takes the form of Michèle Magill's remarkable account...