Eating Bodies: Examining Bodily Consumption in Swann’s Way

Leslie M. Lewis

Suddenly my anxiety subsided a happiness invaded me as when a powerful medicine begins to take effect and our pain vanishes: I had just formed the resolution not to continue trying to fall asleep without seeing Mama again, to kiss her at all costs even though it was with the certainty of being on bad terms with her for a long time after, when she came up to bed.  The calm that came with the end of my distress filled me with an extraordinary joy, quite as much as did my expectation, my thirst for and my fear of danger (Proust 32).

            And so it was done—a driving desire finally realized, enacted, set free. Although on the surface such sentiments appear to simply convey youthful longing for maternal comfort, I can’t help but question the nature of this longing, this burning desire to be near the beloved. What if Marcel’s “resolution” was not simply to kiss, but rather to wholly consume his mother? The looming question is not if such a desire exists, but rather why such a desire would exist. What would motivate such behavior?

…I ought to have been happy: I was not. It seemed to me that my mother had just made me a first concession which must have been painful to her, that this was a first abdication on her part from the ideal she had conceived for me, and that for the first time she, who was so courageous, had to confess herself beaten. …If I had just gained a victory it was over her…it seemed to me that with an impious and secret hand I had just traced in her soul a first winkle and caused a first white hair to appear (38-39).

            I believe that this desire to consume women demonstrated within the context of Swann’s Way, serves as a “cultural work” component in that it challenges traditional notions concerning the nature of “appropriate” nourishment and consumption. Although there are numerous perspectives from which this issue is capable of being approached, I am predominantly interested in the consumptive behavior demonstrated by young Marcel and the infamous M. Swann. In examining these incidents, I wonder what is gained in exercising such behavior, superficial satisfaction or nourishment of a more substantial nature? Is it the actual consumption itself or rather the desire to consume which feeds its subjects?

…that I had succeeded, as illness, affliction, or age might have done, in relaxing her will, in weakening her judgment, and that this evening was the beginning of a new era, would remain as a sad date (39).

            Although such bodily consumption is capable of being read as simply a means of re-affirming masculine sexuality or dominance, I propose that such behavior is capable of propagating more. I wonder if such consumption is a necessary component for re-enforcing traditional gender roles and social statuses? Does such behavior satisfy an important psychological need, such as nourishing damaged self-confidence or esteem?

… culture/nature, male/female, cooked/raw, spirit/flesh, internal/outside…such couples represent experience as a concordia dicors where extremes meet, although not in an equal relation but in an identity achieved through the subordination, even annihilation, of one of the terms (Kilgour 3).

            In order to answer these questions I knew I would need to consider consumption beyond the realm of economic or comestible goods. I would need to view consumption in its most basic, unadulterated form—as the “conceptualization of all antithesis, that of inside and outside” (4).    As author Maggie Kilgour points out in her text From Communion to Cannibalism, this opposition is “the most basic…and perhaps also the most infantile” of all conflicts. Freud traces the identification of theses two entities back to the “primary oral phase” and credits the realization of this opposition as being the root for all future decisions (4). Does this mean that Marcel’s desire to consume his mother is simply an innate aspect of human nature, an ingrained component of psychological development?

Expressed in the language of the oldest, that is, of the oral, instinctual impulses, the alternative runs thus: ‘I should like to eat that, or I should like to spit it out’; or, carried a stage further: ‘I should like to take this into me and keep that out of me.’ That is to say: it is to be either inside or outside me…The original pleasure-ego tries to interject into itself everything that is good and to reject everything that is bad. From its point of view what is bad, what is alien to the ego and what is external are, to begin with, identical

 –Freud(4).

            In some ways, yes: a need to include or assimilate the external is ingrained into Marcel’s nature. In his essay “On the Cannibals,” renaissance scholar Michel de Montaigne remarks, “each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice.” Such ethnocentric sentiments are often credited by contemporary sociologists as being an unfortunate bi-product of socialization, in which a lack of cultural familiarity manifests itself into a distrust or dislike of all things foreign (McIntyre 50). Thus on an individual level, all which exists beyond the realm of the self is viewed as “secondary,” sinful, and threatening, while all that is “internal” becomes superior (Kilgour 4).  In order to insure the survival of the self, “…what is outside must be subsumed and drawn into the center until there is no category of alien outsideness left to threaten the inner stability” (5).

Soon, I heard her coming upstairs to close her window. I went without a sound into the hallway; my heart was beating so hard I had trouble walking, but at least it was no longer pounding from anxiety, but from terror and joy. I saw the light cast in the stairwell by Mama’s candle. Then I saw Mama herself; I threw myself forward (Proust 35).

            Although his mother is technically an external entity, I hardly think a boy who experiences extreme anxiety over being separated from his mother would view her as a threatening, sinful force. Rather, I believe that Marcel desires to consume the external, his mother, in an effort to protect their good-night kiss ritual and thus her presence, from being destroyed by his father. In this particular instance, consumption is not of the threat itself, but rather that which is threatened.

“Run, run, so at least your father won’t see you waiting like this as if you were out of your mind!” But I repeated to her: “Come say goodnight to me…” (35).

            As the colloquial phrase “you are what you eat” suggests, consumption, particularly within the context of consuming “bodies,” is capable of being viewed as a method for preserving and controlling individual identity (Kilgour 6). Since his mother’s presence is such a predominant component of his life, by having her spend the night with him Marcel is preserving a crucial aspect of his identity from what he perceives to be an “arbitrary and undeserved” threat (Proust 37). Thus, Marcel’s complete assimilation of his mother on both a psychological and physical level, could be viewed as a protective measure, a self-preservation technique enacted out of an innate desire to preserve his identity from the threatening realm of the external. 

But Swann was so fond of women that once he had come to know more or less all the women in aristocratic circles and they had nothing more to teach him, he had ceased to regard those naturalization papers, almost a patent of nobility…except as a sort of negotiable bond, a letter of credit with no value in itself but which allowed him to improvise a status for himself in some little provincial hole or obscure circle of Paris where the daughter of a squire or clerk had struck him as pretty (198).

            What about the consumption of women enacted by M. Swann? surely his primary motivation is not also a need for self-preservation from the external. Where as Marcel’s consumption tends to be more psychological in nature, the language surrounding Swann’s female interactions alludes to the notion of women as ephemeral consumer goods. Take for example the description that, “…depths of expression, melancholy, would freeze his senses, which were, however, immediately aroused by flesh that was healthy, plump, and pink” (199). Is this a description of Swann’s taste in women or his taste in meat? “…Flesh that was healthy, plump, and pink” arouses a sense of raw carnality, suggesting that in Swann’s perspective women are not independent entities in and of themselves, but rather simply comestible goods laid out like so many hams in a butcher’s window for his pleasurable consumption (199).

The commodification of Otherness has been so successful because it is offered as a new delight, more intense, more satisfying than normal ways of doing and feeling. …When race and ethnicity become commodified as a resource for pleasure, the culture of specific groups, as well as the bodies of individuals, can be seen as constituting an alternative playground where members of dominating races, genders,[and] sexual practices affirm their power-over in intimate relations with the Other (Scapp & Seitz 181, 183).

            In Swann’s case, I think his consumption is perhaps primarily motivated by a desire to possess, restrain, or assimilate the exciting, exotic “Other.” The term “Other” is frequently used in reference to race or ethnicity, but I propose that in this particular circumstance gender and social class are also capable of functioning as “Other” figures. What is it that elevates a figure to “Other” status after all? I believe that Otherness is largely defined as the exotic of what exists beyond the realm of the one’s familiar understanding of life in regards to such aspects as social practices, sexuality, and culture. Thus, this in turn means that for Swann all figures outside the realm of his own upper-class masculinity, especially “unknown women …in humble circumstances,” are capable of being defined as “Others” (Proust 199). So Swann consumes women in an effort to assimilate the “Other,” but for what purpose? Beyond the excitement of the exotic, what would drive Swann to consume women in such an impersonal, commodified way?

Displacing the notion of Otherness from race, ethnicity, skin-color, the body emerges as a site of contestation where sexuality is the metaphoric Other that threatens to take over, consume, transform via the experience of pleasure. Desired and sought after, sexual pleasure alters the consenting subject, deconstructing notions of will, control,[and] coercive domination (Scapp & Seitz 182).

            In her essay “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance,” author Bell Hooks remarks that one possible motivation for consumption of the Other is the desire to “...claim the body instrumentally, as unexplored terrain.” She remarks that such exoticness serves as a “symbolic frontier” which is capable of being viewed as “fertile ground for [the] reconstruction of the masculine norm” (Scapp & Seitz 184). Does this mean that Swann’s treatment of women as ephemeral, consumable objects is in essence a means of reinforcing masculine dominance and reiterating traditional social roles concerning masculine vs. feminine power? Partially, but Hooks argues that subjects seeking to consume the Other desire to assert “themselves as transgressive subjects [and]…call upon the Other to be both a witness and a participant in this transformation” (185).

The Silken Tent

She is as in a field a silken tent

At midday when a sunny summer breeze

Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,

So that in guys it gently sways at ease.

And its supporting central cedar pole,

That is its pinnacle to heavenward

And signifies the sureness of the soul,

Seems to own naught to any single cord,

But strictly held by none, is loosely bound

By countless silken ties of love and thought

To everything on earth the compass round,

And only by one’s going slightly tart

In the capriciousness of summer air

Is of the slightest bondage made aware

— Robert Frost (Norton 222)

            With this theory in mind, I wonder what type of “transformation” Swann is seeking in his superficial relationships with women. After all, his fleeting relations are described as being as lasting as a collapsible camping tent, “…he did not enclose himself in the edifice of his relationships, but had transformed that edifice, in order to be able to raise it again effortlessly on site wherever he found a women who pleased him, into one of those collapsible tents of the kind explorers carry with them” (Proust 200). Not quite the enduring devotion of Frost’s “silken tent” is it?

Just as it is not by another man of intelligence that an intelligent man will be afraid of being thought stupid, so it is not by a great lord but by a country bumpkin that a man of fashion will be afraid of seeing his elegance go unappreciated. …And though Swann was unaffected and casual with a duchess, he trembled at being scorned by a chambermaid, and posed in front of her (199).

            Perhaps the transformation Swann seeks is in his ability to express or reveal his “true” nature. The narrator points out that Swann desired to “…shine in the eyes of any unknown woman with whom he was infatuated, with an elegance which the name Swann in itself did not imply,” suggesting that such transitory relations thus served as a means for spreading a false, inflated self image (199). I believe Swann is seeking a realm beyond social pretenses in which his true nature is allowed to flourish free from criticism or destructive forces. Since such a realm is unattainable given his standing as a societal man of “elegance and culture,” Swann turns to his abbreviated, commodity-like relationships with women as a means of procuring a steady source of flattery and encouragement. Thus, in securing appreciation, Swann is able to continue searching for an individual or realm where he can express his true nature, without risk of damaging or deflating his existing fragile sense of self. Although able to be “himself” among individuals of his own social standing, Swann often remarks that even in such company he still feels trapped by social “games” and stereotypes. This in turn suggests that although he is safe from criticism, even among his peers Swann does not feel as though he can comfortably express his true self.

Strip clubs provide an environment where men, singularly or in groups, can engage in traditionally “masculine” activities and forms of consumption often frowned upon in other spheres, such as drinking, smoking cigars, and even being “rowdy,” vulgar, or aggressive….Time in the club was described as a “personal” time that was pleasurable because it allowed [men] to engage in activities that were inappropriate in the other spheres of life (Frank 98).

            Swann’s desire for a safe haven within which the “true” or natural self could freely be expressed would not be out of context with contemporary sentiments concerning the “unrestricted” expression of the masculine self. In her article “Just Trying to Relax: Masculinity, Masculinizing Practices, and Strip Club Regulars,” sociologist Katherine Frank examines the desire of men to escape the insecurity produced by “confusing, changing gender roles” by retreating to the predictable environment of the strip club.  Similar to the Swann’s fleeting relationships with women, Frank points out that strip club regulars seek a safe “intermediate space” in which they can express themselves free of stipulated social roles or damaging judgment.  She argues,

…Rather than fulfilling a universal masculine need for domination or a biological male need for sexual release, strip clubs provide a kind of intermediate space (not work and not home, although related to both) in which men can experience their bodies and identities in particular pleasurable ways, free of obligations, commitments, or criticism (Frank 95).

Thus similar to Swann, regular patrons of strip clubs are in essence seeking a transformation in their ability to openly express their “natural” self, the chance to exist beyond the realm of stipulated gender or social roles.

...the image of Odette de Crécy came to absorb all his daydreams, if these daydreams were no longer separable from the memory of her, then the imperfection of her body would no longer have any importance, nor would the fact that it might be, more or less than some other body, to Swann’s taste, since, now that it had become the body of the women he loved, it would be the only one capable of filling him with joy and torment (Proust 206).

            My examination of Swann’s consumption based relationship with women would be horrifyingly incomplete without a discussion concerning his one attempt at a long-term love affair, the illusive Odette. Unlike Swann’s other lovers who quickly submitted to his illuminating charm and elegance, Odette refuses to be wholly committed or submitted in her relationship with Swann and thus resists being consumed. Since he is unable to completely consume Odette using charm alone, Swann becomes obsessed with developing an alternative means of consuming Odette by controlling her actions. Beyond stopping her promiscuity, in knowing her every move Swann would be able to substantially nourish his sense of self by reaffirming his masculine dominance over both Odette’s intellectual and physical actions. The problem is successfully consuming Odette in any form.

The problem for the subject is that he wants to develop himself by brushing up against the other, represented in both the external world and human beings. But the other in Proust’s work always flees, thus creating a conflict that possesses and defines the subject (Bal 6).

            Author Mieke Bal remarks that one of the most prevalent and intriguing themes throughout Proust’s works is the existence of a subject who “…[is] in danger of being absorbed into the other” (6). So Swann is actually in danger of being consumed by Odette?  Bal explains that yes, in many ways Swann’s obsessive desire to consume Odette leaves him vulnerable to being wholly consumed by her. But how can this be, for she appears to have no interest in controlling his actions or in possessing his time? The danger for Swann is that beyond the realm of Odette’s activities, the world he once knew ceases to exist. His desire to consume her becomes “an irresistible and painful need,” as is illustrated in his lamentation,

He had believed he could stop there, that he would not be obliged to learn their sorrows; how small a thing Odette’s charm was for him now compared with the astounding terror that extended out from it like a murky halo, the immense anguish of no knowing at every moment what she had been doing. Of not possessing her everywhere and always (Proust 359)!

  Thus, in putting such emphasis on his desire to consume or control his beloved, Swann is actually being consumed by his own obsession. In obsessing over Odette’s every move, Swann is really consuming himself.

            Although I believe that the pervasive and all encompassing nature of Swann’s obsession does in essence force him to consume himself, I cannot help but feel that such a desire also dually serves as a source of substantial nourishment. Since he cannot nourish his sense of self by consuming Odette, Swann must instead nourish it by feeding the obsessive desire which defines it, his desperate need to control Odette. Once “they had nothing more to teach him,” Swann often discarded his previous lovers, thus suggesting that the women themselves were not satisfying or nourishing in nature (Proust 198). So perhaps it is his desire to consume rather than the act of consumption itself which is truly nourishing to Swann.  Bal hints at this notion with his remark that although the Other serves as a “permanent temptation to the subject” who appears to desire total “possession,” the true conflict is in the subject desiring “knowledge,” or the idea of the Other (Bal 7). This “knowledge” or idea of the other van be read in this context as Swann’s obsessive need to consume, thus suggesting that he is satisfied by the desire to consume and not by the actual figure he consumes.

The question of ‘how to read visually’ complements the question ‘how to look discursively (Bal 4).

            I wonder if there is yet another way to view such consumption, one which extends beyond the realm of literature and contextual analysis. Is it possible to understand these consumptive acts from within the realm of art? According to Mieke Bal, yes.  In his book The Mottled Screen: Reading Proust Visually, Bal also examines the issue of bodily consumption by exploring the Proustian struggle between the Other and the self. Rather than simply relying on literary criticism or textual analysis, Bal maintains that this struggle can perhaps be communicated best through visual terms. He states that he is particularly interested in analyzing “…the use of casual images, artistic or banal, explicit or implicit, around which the writing forms itself or deforms itself into what we can think of as properly visual writing” (4). Bal refers to this “generating aspect of the novel that stems from the visual” as figuration and remarks that although it is a “visualizing aspect” of text, “…it remains an effect of language” (4). So how does one transpose the textual conflict between’s Proust’s Other and the “self” into an accurate visual image, one which not only fits the content’s activities, but also remains true to its aesthetic language?

How can an image be written? And once written, how can it be read?(1).

            Although they may seem worlds apart, Bal maintains that art and literature are “sister arts” capable of interaction and exchange. But in order to successfully translate the textual into the visual, one must first understand that “…each visual image is first of all a verbal image and refers only indirectly, at the level of its meaning, to the visual images of other categories” (4). Thus, Bal argues that it is possible to say that “…metaphors are verbal images of mental images, while descriptions are verbal images of perceptual images [and] both…are capable in turn of referring to graphic images” (4). Thus with the addition of “meditation” or reflection, one is capable of learning “how to read visually” (4).

Henry Matisse, Luxury I, 1907.

            I am interested to see if such a technique can be accurately applied beyond the realm of a single narrative event or interaction. Can I find a piece which appropriately summarizes the bodily consumption of women as it occurs in Proust? The challenge is to find a piece which not only demonstrates female consumption on a pictorial level, but also offers a “visual reading” of the motivations for and nourishment from such acts. I believe I may have found success in Matisse’s Luxury I. 

            As discussed earlier, both Marcel and Swann seek to control or shape the actions of women so as to preserve and nourish personal aspects of the “self.” Thus, as a result of such consumption the women become subordinate to the desires of the consumer.  The collapsed blue women offers a perfect visual recreation of this component in that she is not only in a submissive pose, but also appears to be dissolving into the standing figure.  The way in which the women’s arm and foot appear to freely melt into an abstract blue puddle effectively communicates the idea of total assimilation which underscores the bodily consumption found in Swann’s Way. The fact that the figure is left largely in tack could be interpreted as representing the “un-nourishing” nature such complete assimilation yields for both Marcel and Swann. If such consumption was found to be truly satisfying for the characters, I believe the figure would have to be rendered as a complete puddle in order to accurately reflect such sentiments.

Rembrandt Van Rijn, The Slaughtered Ox, 1655.

            The standing female located on the left, arguably the central focus of the piece, is presented in such a way that her nudity gives off the suggestion of raw, fleshy, carnality. The pronounced, dark lines and distinct geometric symmetry of the figure’s breasts sharply contrast the irregular, fluid lines which make up her torso. This in turn captures the viewer’s attention, causing the women’s nudity to appear crudely sexual and carnal in nature. Presented in a body position which suggests no modesty or humility, she is displayed as a consumable good, a piece of raw flesh laid out for the viewer’s consumption.  I was struck by how strongly this image parallels the commodified way in which Swann views women, for the standing women presents the perfect visual incarnation of Swann’s many ingested lovers. Although clearly bearing all the genitals needed to classify the figure as female, the figure is presented within the context of the painting not as a woman, but as simply consumable flesh similar to that found in Rembrandt Van Rijn’s painting The Slaughtered Ox.

            Is there any doubt at all who the running nude in the background brings to mind? Behind but not hidden, the illusive Odette is seen sprinting behind the two foreground subjects of consumption. In contrast to the standing figure, the body of the running nude is abstractly portrayed with loose, supple lines, and there is no reference what so ever to genitals of any kind.  This brings to light my assumption, based upon the sexual nature of the other subjects and the presence of a ponytail, that the running nude is in fact a woman at all. The fact that the figure’s genitals are so obscure, reflects the notion that Odette defied consumption and thus, resisted the objectification which would have rendered her as simply another heap of submissive, carnal flesh. The fact that the figure is running away from the two subordinated and objectified figures provides a blunter illustration of this idea. 

            Even the very landscape upon which the three figures rest is capable of being read as accurately relaying a component of bodily consumption. The landscape is depicted using abbreviated brush strokes which are not uniform in length or direction. This in combination with the ever-changing color scheme of both the water and the sky reflects the idea of an unstable or non-permanent “self.” Just as Swann experienced great periods of fear, anger, and aguish over his inability to consume Odette, so is the landscape periodically interrupted by “turbulent” or harsh brush strokes. These same irregularities can also be read as reflecting the moments of anxiety and panic Marcel experiences over being separated from his mother.

            Thus, through the use of sociology, literary analysis, Freudian theory, and “visual reading,” one can clearly see that there is clearly no one-way to view the bodily consumption which occurs in Proust. Is it an innate psychological component or a self-defense mechanism? Do such acts serve as a means of reaffirming male dominance or as subtle pleas for change? Regardless of how one views it, bodily consumption within the context of Proust’s Swann’s Way serves as a socially transgressive element, challenging traditional notions of nourishment and consumption on a variety of different levels.

Works Cited

Bal, Mieke. The Mottled Screen: Reading Proust Visually. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.

Frank, Katherine. "Just Trying to Relax: Masculinity, Masculinizing Practices, and Strip Club Regulars." Sociology: Windows on Society. 7th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Publishing Company, 2005.

Hooks, Bell. "Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance." Eating Culture. Ed. Scapp, Ron Brian Seitz. New York: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Kilgour, Maggie. From Communion to Cannibalism: An Anatomy of Metaphors of Incorporation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990.

McIntyre, Lisa J. The Practical Skeptic: Core Concepts in Sociology. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2006.

Proust, Marcel. Swann's Way. Trans. Lydia Davis. New York: Penguin Group Inc., 2003.

"The Silken Tent." The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. Ed. Ramazani, Jahan Richard Ellmann, Robert O'Clair. 3rd ed. New York: Norton & Company Inc., 2003.