Afinităţi proustiene în proza narativă a lui Anton Holban – imaginea femeii
Proustian Affinities in Andrei Holban 's Narrative Prose-the Image of the Woman

Summary/Abstract: Both Anton Holban’s literature and Marcel Proust’s novel, focusing, in a great measure, on the theme of love, offer the reader an image of woman, created, inevitably, by the narrator-protagonist. There are numerous similarities between the feminine portraits depicted by Sandu and Marcel. Both narrators treat women with superiority, which results from their juvenile mentality. Thus, the two men emphasise constantly their partners’ inferiority and the beneficial effect they have on their spiritual and intellectual development. In Holbanian and Proustian work there predominates the idea of the impossibility of unravelling the feminine mystery. The female protagonists are elusive. The problem of acquiring the knowledge of the beloved woman becomes vital, because only by the assimilation of her individuality can man possess her. Sandu and Marcel are lucid, not sentimental. Their aim is to discover the truth, to get a clear image of every aspect of life, including the woman. The narrators’ investigatory attitude, manifesting itself through a meticulous observation of the surrounding world, does not guarantee, however, any certitude. Marcel and Sandu, asking interminable questions, get lost in the multitude of answers they imagine. This system of multiple possible explanations makes reality even more intangible. Both protagonists are aware of their partners’ elusiveness and understand that it results exactly from the multiplication of perspectives. The imperativeness of knowing, inseparably connected with jealousy, paralyses their ability to see clearly. Paradoxally, Sandu and Marcel, being extremely attentive, are, at the same time, extremely credulous. The woman’s elusiveness results, also, from the limited possibilities of communicating with her, either because she is lying, or because she remains silent. The ultimate obstacle to understand the partner is her death. It is worth mentioning that Proust’s narrator liberates himself from the obsession to unravel the feminine mystery, while the Holbanian protagonist remains unconsolable.

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