Regards ambigus sur la couleur proustienne

In this paper I present some aspects of the multi-faced “chromatic” universe of Proust’s Recherche; I base my analysis on the assumption that colour, as all the phenomena concerning sight, is treated with ambiguity in Proust’s prose: consequently, this ambiguity influences also the way characters come to know each other, their relationship with reality and their comprehension of the world. Based on these assumptions, my research develops the following topics: colours as the setting of perception and memory; the hybrid perception of the colour of the other’s eyes as an example of Merleau-Ponty’s “chiasm” between visible and invisible; the pictorial and the literary superimpositions on Proust’s colors; finally, the fusion of colour in style.