Stylistic functioning of legal vocabulary in the second volume of Marcel Proust’s novel “In Search of Lost Time”

Abstract

The present article deals with the stylistic functioning of legal vocabulary in the second volume of Marcel Proust’s novel “In Search of Lost Time” (“À la recherche du temps perdu”) “In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower” (“À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs”). The current interest in the problem lies in the fact that, as far as we know, though Marcel Proust’s texts have been studied from different viewpoints, no research has been done on the author’s use of stylistic figures based on legal vocabulary. It would be reasonable to examine in detail how Marcel Proust resorts to the legal vocabulary from the point of view of stylistics at the end of the first and at the beginning of the second part of the second volume of his novel. What we are aiming at is revealing, classification, and stylistic analysis of such figures. We use the methods of semantic, linguistic and contextual analyses. We have verified the meaning of the legal terms under study in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, in the general vocabulary Thesaurus as well as in the dictionaries of legal terms; we have consulted the Internet to check their usage in contemporary French. We have also found out, wherever it was possible, what other stylistic figures those based on legal vocabulary correlate to. Our analysis shows that Marcel Proust employs general legal vocabulary (“article de loi”, “compétence et juridiction”, “coutumier”, “police particulière”) as well as legal vocabulary from different branches of Law, namely Constitutional Law (“Chambre”), Criminal Law (“geôlier”, “prison”, “voleur”), International Law (“chef d’État pendant les toasts officiels”, “exterritorialité”) and Financial Law (“livre de comptes”, “avance”, “solde créditeur”, “débit”) in order to describe different domains of life (such as relations in high society, those among the bourgeoisie as well as relations between friends and those of a teenager in love). “Legal” similes and metaphors can be combined with those from other domains of life, particularly with stylistic figures referring to art (namely, one of La Fontaine’s fables), medicine and war. This narrative technique makes the author’s text more expressive. More detailed analysis of such figures, as well as the fact of establishing their textual connections within all Marcel Proust’s texts, will contribute to revealing the specificity of the author’s language and style.

Keywords

similes, metaphors, legal terminology, legal terms, legal vocabulary, Marcel Proust’s language and style, stylistic figures