proustian means of, pertaining to, or reminiscent of Marcel Proust (1871–1922), French novelist, or his works.
proustian is pronounced /ˈpɹuːstɪ.ən/.
Why “proustian” is a great word
Pertaining to the literary world of Marcel Proust, specifically the involuntary, vivid recall of personal memory triggered by a sensory stimulus. From the proper name Proust (Marcel Proust) + the English suffix -ian (forming adjectives meaning 'pertaining to'), it is a twentieth-century coinage born of his monumental work. Unlike 'nostalgic' (which suggests a sentimental longing for the past in general) or 'autobiographical' (which denotes a factual recounting of one's own life), Proustian describes the sudden, unbidden rush of the past conjured by a catalyst of taste, smell, or touch. It is the world resurrected in the taste of a madeleine dipped in tea, the sudden flood of a childhood room upon smelling a particular soap, or the way a cracked song on the radio collapses decades into a single vertiginous instant—memory not as a record, but as a ghost made flesh by sensation, the self rediscovered not through will but through accident.
Etymology
From French Proust + -ian.
adj
- Of, pertaining to, or reminiscent of Marcel Proust (1871–1922), French novelist, or his works.e.g.“The character played by French female lead Lea Seydoux is even called Madeleine Swann, a name whose Proustian double resonance can only be deliberate.”
- Derived from personal memory, as it often happens in the works of Proust (for example, in the experience of the madeleine).e.g.“D'Costa's poems so far published also reverberate with an awareness of the past, and a gently Proustian pleasure, as in the elegiac “In Memorandum”.”