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NARRATIVE VOICES AND PAST TENSES IN NOVEL AND FILM: PROUST'S "A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU" AND THE PINTER SCREENPLAY
Abstract
In order to lay a foundation for the comparative study of narrative voices and tenses in novel and film, I have chosen to single out what are considered exclusively novelistic structures--first-person narration, action recounted in retrospect, past tenses and especially the imperfect tense--and to investigate how they have been or could be constructed in filmic terms. I proceed by considering the project for transposing Proust's (')A la recherche du temps perdu to the screen, since these specifically literary structures are essential to the novel, and because Pinter's adaptation of it into film form offers concrete solutions for creating filmic equivalents of them. I first examine why these narrative structures are more easily formulated in novel than in film, and why they have long been considered outside the scope of filmic narration. I then explore the ways in which film, long thought to be "non-narrated" and in the "present tense," might construct its own equivalent of a first-person narrator recounting in the past tense. I find that although a filmic narrator will not say "I" the way the narrator of a novel does, it is possible to disrupt the illusion of continuity and presentness, and to create in film a "space of narration." Filmmakers like Bresson and Godard are important examples and the cinematic use of verbal language and of voice-over is explored. After a discussion of the specifically literary aspects of Proustian narration and the ways filmic equivalents of them can be constructed, an analysis of The Proust Screenplay reveals that Pinter develops a "first-person hero" and a scenario for a "narrated film," in a particularly Pinteresque way, with a sparing use of verbal language, and an important use of the non-verbal materials of film.
Subject Area
Comparative literature
Recommended Citation
PASQUALE-MAGUIRE, THERESE, "NARRATIVE VOICES AND PAST TENSES IN NOVEL AND FILM: PROUST'S "A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU" AND THE PINTER SCREENPLAY" (1982). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI8219837.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8219837