In this course, we will read Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. We will focus on the text itself and attempt to recover the many conversations “Marcel” is having with other disciplines such as music, art criticism, theater, philosophy, and historiography. One question I will bring to the table is the following: How does Proust reinvent ekphrasis? Proust has inspired many readings. We will read some of the most provocative ones, including Julia Kristeva’s. We will also linger on the ways Proust’s work foreshadows the work of writers like Nathalie Sarraute and Samuel Beckett.