ABSTRACT
Stephen's way of situating himself, and even Stephen's original list is a verbalization of the self, a quotation from boyhood. The two pieces in A Portrait are in italics because, in the first, Stephen rereads himself, and in the second, Stephen rereads Fleming reading Stephen. In LaRecherche, Marcel shows how Mine de Cambremer's mother has a problem with her lists and how they also tend towards ending in nothing. The practice of genealogy is not unrelated to that of etymology. Genealogies are, more often than not, drawn upon to emphasize the importance of a present person by tracing them back to an illustrious predecessor. In Proust, the importance of this two-way movement is crystallized in the stained-glass window: in the right light, the one shines through the other. High society and its conversation are nourished by little of intellectual substance or artistic value.
