Assignment 8 (ENG-2206).

Experiments and Innovations in the Early 20th-Century West

I. Marcel Proust
1. Summarize the excerpt from Part I. Combray of Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
selected in the textbook (pp. 137-140) in a paragraph of about 70 words. The
summary needs to mention the character(s) and the main actions described in the
excerpt.
In the excerpt provided from Part I, Combray, of Marcel Proust's Swann's Way, the
story focuses primarily on the narrator's restless night and moments of awakening.
Characters mentioned include: tells the story, the central character and other people
appear in his dreams such as his uncle, his dream girl... Memories rush back when
he is half awake and half dreaming, mixing reality and dreams. The narrator
grapples with identifying his surroundings and recalling past locations such as
Combray's house and Mme de Saint-Loup. The story explores the blurred line
between the waking state and dreams, as well as like the impact of memory on a
person's perception of their surroundings. The essay delves into the interplay of
consciousness, time, and the familiarity of habit in shaping one's understanding of
the world.
2. Write down a sentence which you think is the longest one from the excerpt.
“But it was enough if, in my own bed, my sleep was deep and allowed mv mind to
relax entirely, then it would let go of the map of the place where I had fallen asleep
and, when I woke in the middle of the night since I did not know where I was, I did
not even understand in the first moment who I was; I had only, in its original
simplicity, the sense of existence as it may quiver in the depths of an animal: I was
more destitute than a cave dweller; but then the memory not vet of the place where
I was, but of several of those where I had lived and where I might have been -
would come to me like help from on high to pull me out of the void from which I
could not have got out on my own: I crossed centuries of civilization in one
second, and the image confusedly glimpsed of oil lamps, then of wingcollar shirts,
gradually recomposed my self's original features.”

II. Tristan Tzara and André Breton

1. Write down the objects the author of “Dada Manifesto 1918” wants to attack.
The author of “Dada Manifesto 1918” wants to attack 4 objects: Manifestos,
Imposition of Ideas, Rational Thought and Common Sense
2. What is the problem Breton wants to criticize and what is the one he wants to
promote in the process of artistic creation?
The problem Breton aimed to criticize was the suppression of free and uninhibited
creativity by societal norms and rational constraints. In its place, he sought to
promote a more liberated and subconscious approach to artistic creation,
emphasizing the importance of the irrational and the fantastical.
3. Whom does Breton admire and try to apply his theory to the artistic creation?
Breton greatly admired Sigmund Freud. He applied Freud's theories to creative
production, particularly those concerning dreams and the subconscious.
Summarize in a paragraph of about 30-50 words the main idea of his theory which
Breton mentions in the Manifesto.
Breton aspired to promote Surrealism, a movement that welcomed the illogical, the
dreamy, and the spontaneous, via his artistic production. Surrealism sought to tap
into the unconscious mind, allowing artists to express their thoughts, feelings, and
ideas in unconventional ways. Breton imagined a type of creative expression free
of rational limits and accessible to the unexpected and fantastical qualities of the
human mind.