ABSTRACT
This chapter examines an international symposium convened at Princeton University on 22 and 23 April 2006. This event was aimed at questioning Marcel Proust's work, as well as its reception. It thus seemed fitting that scholars should have gathered 'overseas' to discuss Proust's strangeness. Proust's strangeness also stems from 'foreign' materials used to create the work, explicit interweaving of cultural references or tacit borrowings from other artists. If people were to ask what could be so strange about M. Proust, the people would begin by pointing to the oddity of the initial assertion stating that there may be a 'strange M. Proust'. Yet strangeness can be seen as the governing principle of Proust's work, a work full of surprises, paradoxes, and contradictions. In the context, Proust scholars shared personal interpretations of what they considered surprising aspects of Proust's work in a free exercise of criticism, akin to the original form of the essay.
