Memory takes center stage in this novel, which departs from the traditional 19th century novel in that the narrative does not follow a single protagonist. In "Swann's Way" the protagonist is Marcel, but Proust, a modernist writer, uses "distancing" to create "an art of multiplication regarding the representation of the person... creating an aesthetic of deception for the novel autobiographical". (Nalbantian, 1997, p.63). Proust also referred to his narrator as the one who says “I” and who is not always me.”(ibid). Proust's highly subjective approach to fiction suits his theme of memory, and the author uses this excerpt to analyze voluntary or conscious memories and involuntary or subconscious ones. Marcel discovers through experience that intellectualization does not allow memories to resurface, but everyday domestic and familiar sensations do. It is the “omnipotent joy” and “exquisite pleasure” (p.58) of this subconscious memory that Proust celebrates. The tone of the text is dreamlike and almost ecstatic, underlining the spiritual aspect of memories. Proust uses lyrical words such as “fluted pilgrim's head scallop” (p.58) which echoes “the little pastry shell, so richly sensual beneath its severe and religious folds” (p.61). This imagery associates madeleines with sensuality and cakes evocatively recall sexual fantasies. The lyrical vocabulary attempts to persuade the reader that the subconscious and involuntary memory provides “the effect that love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather, this essence was not in me, I was myself." (page 58). Renza suggests that “memories [are] literally renewed through their introduction into the proleptic path of na... middle of paper ......1980, p.53) and of an “autobiographical consciousness [which] is that that thinks of itself” (Ibid,p.49). Swann's Way is partly autobiographical. However, it is also a literary novel that reflects on memory and "creates a metamorphic representation of universal truths" (Lee,2000,P.89), which the reader can share, as such it transcends Proust's life and can be emphasized with our days. , which can be seen from its current popularity. Proust's text is a text of "omnipotent joy" that equates memories with happiness. He "manipulated the very genre of the autobiographical novel to convey his aesthetic regarding life and art." (Nalbantian,1907,p.99). Deciding whether Swann's Way is true or not is not as important as reading its evocative and beautiful language and feeling at one with Proust that memories are somehow more fulfilling than reality.