How Proust's Jewish background shaped his work

French author Marcel Proust is above all renowned for his record-breaking book: His 4,000-page novel "In Search of Lost Time" (1913-1927) belongs to the canon of world literature.

While not everyone may have read all seven volumes of the mammoth work, its author remains a global literature star, even 100 years after his death on November 18, 1922.

In a new essay, German literary critic Andreas Isenschmid points out that one aspect of Marcel Proust's life has long been overlooked: The author was of Jewish origin.

Born in 1871 as the son of a doctor and a Jewish Frenchwoman named Jeanne Weil, Proust was baptized as a Catholic but was also in close contact with his mother's Jewish faith and traditions. His mother never converted to Catholicism and married Proust's father only in a civil ceremony, remaining faithful to the Jewish religion throughout her life.

This left its mark on Marcel Proust. As Isenschmid points out in his new book "Der Elefant im Raum — Proust und das Jüdische" (The Elephant in the Room — Proust and Jewishness), being Jewish was not just a minor matter for Proust, but shaped his life and his writing — especially his most famous work.

Antisemitism in France: The Dreyfus Affair

Marcel Proust began exploring his Jewish identity during the Dreyfus affair, which he witnessed first-hand in Paris at the age of 23, when the French Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus was accused of treason in 1894. Although Dreyfus was innocent, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

It was a full-blown judicial scandal that quickly turned into a political and cultural crisis. The public and the press spread hateful, highly racist antisemitic views, Isenschmid writes in his book.

"Dreyfus, like Judas and all Jews, was a traitor who had betrayed France to the hereditary enemy Germany," Isenschmid summarizes the mood at the time. "In general, all Jews were strangers who did not fit into France. They were seen as exploiting the French; the feeling was that they should best be sent back to Jerusalem."

Proust stands up for Dreyfus

In this heated atmosphere, Marcel Proust campaigned for the rehabilitation of Alfred Dreyfus as a "Dreyfusard" alongside the Zionist Theodor Herzl and author and journalist Emile Zola.

Emile Zola wrote an open letter to French President Felix Faure in 1898, titled "J'accuse!" (English: "I accuse!"), in which he accused the French judiciary, press and military of blatant antisemitism. One of the some 3,000 signatories of the letter was Marcel Proust. To this day, the expression "J'accuse!" is common in German for an act of civil courage or political vigilance.

The letter deepened social divisions, setting a progressive camp against a right-wing nationalist one. Zola was sued for defamation and escaped a prison sentence only by fleeing to London. Marcel Proust attended his trial and repeatedly spoke up for his friend.

During this period, Proust also wrote a novel that dealt with the Dreyfus affair and with Jewish assimilation. The book was never finished or published, but Isenschmid is convinced that it served as preparatory work for "In Search of Lost Time."

The commitment of Zola, Proust and the many "Dreyfusards" led to Dreyfus' late rehabilitation in 1906 after leftist and liberal political parties came to power in 1902.

It is true that Proust preferred to refer to the judicial scandal in public statements, not to the fact that Alfred Dreyfus was Jewish. But he himself was suddenly targeted as a Jew, Andreas Isenschmid told public broadcasted Deutschlandfunk: 

Perhaps that is why "In Search of Lost Time" has two Jewish heroes. Isenschmid sees it as an entirely Jewish book that focuses not only on the importance of memory, a crucial part of Jewish culture, but also on Jewish heroes and antisemitism in France in the 19th century.

Would Marcel Proust have agreed?

One hundred years after his death, Isenschmid asks precisely this question in "The Elephant in the Room" — and concludes his essay with a reference to a letter that has unfortunately been lost to literary history. In it, Marcel Proust is said to have once written to his friend Emmanuel Berl: "Everyone has forgotten that I am Jewish. Not me."

 

This article was originally written in German.