DOI: 10.46726/H.2026.3.2.
Using a quote from Marcel Proust's novel “In Search of Lost Time”, found in A.M. Remizov's book “The Music Teacher”, this article examines the role of Proust’s
pretext in the Russian writer's work — a problem that has not yet been studied in literary criticism. Despite the differences between the two authors' works, they unexpectedly reveal commonalities. The frequently encountered French interjection “zut” serves as a kind of a connecting link, uniting their artistic worlds. Although it lacks a specific semantic meaning, it can spontaneously express various emotional reactions to external events, both positive and negative. In Remizov, as in Proust, this word is associated with the state of the main characters, arising in specific circumstances at a particular moment in their lives, but which, due to
its complexity, diversity, and uncertainty, remains unclear. Considering the autobiographical nature of Proust and Remizov' s prose, it's entirely logical to project the inner experience of “living” the lives of their main characters onto the authors themselves, who are united by a continuous search for new artistic principles and forms necessary for comprehending the deep layers of the individual's inner life. Proust's “zut” organically enters Remizov's text as an intermedial element, bringing with it the meaning intended by the author of “A Search”.
For citation: Taganov A.N. Proustian pretext in A.M. Remizov’s story “The Music Teacher”, Bulletin of Ivanovo State University. Series: Humanities, 2026, iss. 3, pp. 15—20.