Archäologie der Liebeswunde. Literarische und künstlerische Stratigraphie einer Passage aus Marcel Prousts <i>Recherche</i>

Abstract In a passage from Sodome et Gomorrhe by Marcel Proust, the narrator verbalizes his painful erotic passion for Albertine through the image of love’s wound. In order to understand the passage in its depth, the article develops a ‘stratigraphic’ analysis, showing that this passage from Proust presents many points of contact, on a thematic as well as lexical level, with a poem by Charles Baudelaire, Harmonie du soir . Some elements of the description of the sunrise, on the other hand, may echo a polyptych by Roger van der Weyden, which Marcel Proust saw in Beaune. Thus far, Proust expands important elements of a ‘modern’ and early modern cultural tradition. However, the Proustian passage presents a central element that is not found in the Baudelairean text: love’s wound. This element in fact refers to an ancient tradition, which finds its moment of greatest intensity in medieval romance literature. The article consequently elaborates an ‘archeology of love’s wound’, showing how Proust reuses and redefines this concept, especially in the sense of a strong psychosomatic dimension. Thus, Marcel Proust brings about an important innovation by a ré-écriture of important discursive and artistic traditions.