(In)animate
In this story, three fabrics take the centre stage: satin, velvet and alpaca. We will explore them through the observations of the protagonist in Combray, written by Marcel Proust.
Proust (1871-1922) was a French writer. Combray, which is part of Swann’s Way, which is in turn part of the novel In Search of Lost Time, reflects on the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of the middle classes. In Combray, the narrator recalls the memories of his childhood; the time he spent with his family at his aunt’s house in the countryside. He is sensitive and melancholic, but also full of fears and primitive, magical thoughts that often blur the boundaries between the inner and outer worlds and between animate creatures and inanimate things.
One of the many moments in which the boundaries between animate and inanimate objects fades for the narrator, is when the narrator talks about the Duc and Duchesse de Guermantes, members of the decaying, local community:
I knew that they were real personages who did actually exist, but whenever I thought about them I pictured them to myself either in tapestry, as was the ‘Coronation of Esther’ which hung in our church, or else in changing, rainbow colours...which the magic lantern sent wandering over the curtains of my room or flung aloft upon the ceiling
It is thus not surprising that Proust also used fabrics to symbolize human feelings and qualities. Let us start with the fabric that screams at us.