Proust’s Structural Control of Perception: Memory and the Madeleine

One of the fundamental rules of biology can be expressed as follows: structure equals function. This is the case from tiny protein molecules all the way to the muscles in an elephant’s trunk, and the relationship holds true for language as well. In literature, elements of structure include the placement of words, the conjugation and voice of verbs, the transition of ideas, and so on. These elements have the functional power to alter the experience of a reader at both the conscious and subconscious levels. In the episode of the madeleine from his novel In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust arranges structural elements to illustrate the experience of his narrator struggling to recall an unexpected memory. Proust’s deft navigation of verb tense shifts, his rendering of subjective qualia, and his inclusion of linguistic priming all function as controlling elements in his depiction of the elusive and intricate processes of recollection.

Through his unconventional use of verb tense, Proust carefully structures the episode to follow a specific trajectory, allowing it to best evoke its core sensations and emotions.

Proust also reaches out through his depiction of qualia, rendering with great specificity an experience that can yet be considered universal.

In the scene with the madeleine, Proust appears concerned with conscious and subconscious mental activity, and in his prose, he sews important linguistic cues that attract subconscious attention.

The role of priming and manipulation of structure to induce a conscious or unconscious response has important implications that may be extended beyond the aesthetic or the emotional, to the behavioral.

In his depiction of memory and the madeleine, Proust not only touches on an intensely real element of human existence, but through his exploitation of language and structure, also controls the way in which the phenomenon is experienced. His use of tense shifts constructs a temporal framework that parallels the narrator’s conscious movements, and his linguistic priming encodes inherent expectations into the prose that, when fulfilled, invite a sense of recollection. Proust focuses his prose on a vivid qualium, which embodies both subjectivity and universality. Due to the confluence of these carefully placed literary tools, Proust achieves a powerful result. His fiction summons a moment that cannot be experienced with mere language, but only through the fusion of distinctly human responses set into motion by the letters he has arranged on the page.