Proust, Class, and Nation - Hughes, Edward J. (Professor of French, Queen Mary, University of London)

How might Proust's work be understood in relation to issues of class and nation? A la recherche du temps perdu was produced in momentous times - the Dreyfus Affair and the Separation of Church and State; the First World War and the consequent Germanophobia; and the continuing polarization in class politics - which all find echoes in the novel.