Hannah Arendt and Marcel Proust:from the novel-document to storytelling

Abstract

The paper focuses on Hannah Arendt’s essay “Between vice and crime”, in which Arendt explores the process of stigmatization of Jews in salons at the turn of the XXth century. For this purpose, Arendt uses the novel “In search of lost time” by Marcel Proust as a document of the era. This essay elucidates the methodological impact of the novel in re­solving the socio-political problems it describes. The author shows that the magnum opus of the famous French writer had a significant, foundational influence on H. Arendt’s thought. In particular, the article reconstructs her dialogue with M. Proust, the result of which was Arendt’s expansion of the potential of fiction. Since then, the novel has not been limited to its instrumental character. It acquires the ontological significance of story­telling. The paper shows the logic of Hannah Arendt’s disclosure of the novel’s capabili­ties through her interpretation of “In Search of Lost Time”. The author also identifies the factors that influenced this logic. The proposed perspective on fiction as the source of H. Arendt’s thought allows the author to reveal the origins of Arendt’s innovative philo­sophical ideas (storytelling, in particular) characterized by a literary component.