December 04, 2013
Remembering Marcel Proust
Professors Cynthia Hahn and Davis Schneiderman with May Affre ’14 and event organizer Irina Ruvinky at the Proust event....
Lake Forest College, in partnership with the Consulate General of France in Chicago, the Alliance Francaise de Chicago, the University of Chicago Graham School, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago hosted a celebration on October 16, 2013 of Marcel Proust and Swann’s Way (Du côté de chez Swann), first published in 1913.
Event highlights include a discussion panel titled “Proust and the Cultural Imagination,” featuring David Ellison, author of A Reader’s Guide to Proust’s ‘In Search of Lost Time’, Aleksandar Hemon, Chicago-based writer and MacArthur Fellow, and moderated by Davis Schneiderman, Associate Dean of Faculty at Lake Forest College; an adaptation of the Monty Python sketch: “The All-England Summarize Proust Competition,” performed by Lake Forest College Theater students. Finally, a display of original Proust letters and manuscript materials from the Kolb-Proust archive will be highlighted by Caroline Szylowicz, Kolb-Proust Librarian, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
This event included both beginners and experts in Proust, concluding with an epic toast of tea and madeleine cookies. It was part of a larger Chicago area celebration of Proust. Lake Forest faculty and students participated in another event at Alliance Francaise on November 14, 2013.
The Lake Forest College event was sponsored in part by the Center for Chicago Programs, the English Department, and the Mojekwu Fund.