Snobbery

Snobbery in academia can involve academics, general staff, students and members of the public, and can be based on degrees, disciplines, cliques and other categories. Though snobbery is seldom treated as a significant issue, it can have damaging effects on morale, research and public image. Strategies against snobbery include avoidance, private feedback, formal complaints and public challenges.

Authenticity is not simply a subject of philosophy and of the identification of works of art; it also brings influences to the decision-making stage in art preservation and conservation. Definition and place of authenticity in a work of art is an ever-lasting controversial issue, particularly that in modern technology-based art furthers difficulties in the argument. In the middle of the last century, American aesthetic philosopher, Nelson Goodman, initially proposed an analytical explication on the distinction between “autographic” (works whose instances can be forged) and “allographic” (works whose instances cannot be forged), which forms a crucial theory for authenticity and technology-based art conservation. This paper analytically studies Nelson Goodman’s autographic and allographic distinction, followed by a rough outline of the general issues on authenticity in the historical sense. Finally, it forms arguments in the philosophical aspects on the authenticity in photographic works, basing on Goodman’s theory; the discuss will be carried out also in terms of comparative analysis with the analogous issue in other forms of art, on the relevant occasions.

Proust has shown little interest in the decorative arts of his time, but his work bears the mark of the "submarine style" distinctive of Art nouveau. The low bookshelves with glass panes in the Grand Hôtel room at Balbec ― the symbol of À la Recherche’s unity, according to Georges Poulet in Proustian Space ― prove to be authentic witnesses of “modern style”. But what does “modern style” actually mean? À la Recherche includes five occurrences of the expression that could lead to misunderstanding. Contrary to a preconceived idea, it is not the English name for Art nouveau. This French coined anglicism refers to the international revival of the decorative arts at the beginning of the twentieth century, a fascinating but disturbing blend of aesthetics and social ideas. Proust detected at once and discreetly highlighted the cosmopolitan and "rastaquouère" (so to speak "métèque") inspiration of an ephemeral artistic movement contemporary with the Dreyfus affair. Enriched with an abundant and entirely original iconography, full of new discoveries and identifications, Rastaquarium brings back to life an epoch of which the novelist caught the essence. For the first time the whole question of decorative arts in À la recherche is fully tackled in all its ramifications, in a fascinating instance of the network of connections at the heart of Proust’s system.

Proust n’a manifesté que bien peu d’intérêt pour les arts décoratifs de son temps, mais son œuvre ponctuée d’aquariums est marquée par le «style sous-marin» caractéristique de l’Art nouveau. Les «bibliothèques vitrées» de la chambre de Balbec ― dans lesquelles Georges Poulet voyait le symbole de l’unité de l’œuvre ― se révèlent d’authentiques témoins du «modern style». Mais qu’est-ce que le «modern style»? L’expression, qui revient cinq fois dans À la Recherche du temps perdu, n’avait jamais vraiment été élucidée. Contrairement à une idée reçue, ce n’est en rien le nom anglais de l’Art nouveau. Cet anglicisme bien français désigne un renouveau international des arts décoratifs qui, mêlant esthétique et idées sociales, fascine et inquiète… Proust a parfaitement perçu et discrètement mis en valeur l’inspiration cosmopolite et «rastaquouère» d’un courant artistique dont le bref épanouissement coïncide avec les années de l’affaire Dreyfus. Enrichi d’une vaste iconographie, entièrement originale, fourmillant de trouvailles et d’identifications nouvelles, Rastaquarium fait revivre une époque dont l’écrivain a su capter l’essentiel. Toujours abordée de façon fragmentaire, la question des arts décoratifs dans la Recherche n’avait jamais été traitée dans son ensemble, seule manière de saisir les réseaux de correspondances si chers à Proust.


Table of Contents

Note sur l’iconographie – Remerciements – Abréviations

Rastaquarium

Qu’est-ce que l’Art « nouveau » ?

Le « modern style » n’est pas un style

Naissance d’une expression

Le mobilier des Proust

Le monde de Liberty

Contre Ruskin

1905 : « Sur la lecture »

La Femme inconnue de Lille et le Printemps par « Brown »

Le moment Maple

Bing !

Le « modern style » dans la Recherche

Les bibliothèques vitrées de Balbec

De la référence anglaise à la référence bavaroise : le Salon d’Automne de 1910

Style « sous-marin »

Le Royaume de Neptune ou la civilisation de l’aquarium

Le « modern style », agent de l’étranger

L’esthétique dreyfusarde

Siegfried n’est pas Samuel

Le règne de l’impur

Le style franco-sémitique

Une nouvelle croisade

Dreyfusards avant Dreyfus

Style rastaquouère

Bibliographie - Index nominum - Table des illustrations

Snobbery in academia can involve academics, students and members of the public, and can be based on degrees, disciplines, cliques and other categories. Though snobbery is seldom treated as a significant issue, it can have damaging effects on morale, research and public image. Strategies against snobbery include avoidance, private feedback, formal complaints and public challenges.

We've all met some intellectual snobs. They are the people who know-and who want you to know that they know-all the right books and authors, the people who load their writing with convoluted jargon to demonstrate their superior intelligence, the people who judge intellectual contributions on the prestige and background of those who present them, rather than the merit of the contribution itself. The aim of this paper is to identify the shared vice that these various characters have in common.

The article outlines the relationships between food and culinary customs of the various aspects of culture. It is shown that even modern cookbook reflects the history, population movements, religion, customs, social stratification and areas of povetry and wealth.

ESSAY I
An Analysis of Managerial Decisions in Fostering Bandwagon and Snob Effects in Marketing Products

Takes the point of view that management may have a choice about the type of demand curve to foster for the product of a firm. Indicates that the higher the firm's marginal costs of production the more likely is the firm's profit to be maximized by fostering snob effects rather than bandwagon effects in marketing. On the other hand, the lower marginal costs the more likely that a bandwagon approach to marketing is favoured. Furthermore, decreasing marginal costs of production may favour a bandwagon approach whereas increasing marginal costs favour a snob approach. Depending upon differences in the marginal costs of supplying different markets, a company may find it worthwhile to foster a bandwagon effect in one market and a snob effect in another.

ESSAY II
Rational Excess in the Optimal Value of a Controlled Variable Under Risk Neutrality and Otherwise

Argues that it can be rational from the point of view of maximising the expected value of an objective function to adopt a value for a controlled variable in excess of the value that would maximize the objective function should the most favourable state of nature prevail. Such a strategy may well be rational even under conditions of risk neutrality.

Las postales autografiadas generan un circuito de intercambio entre autor y lectores, donde lo que se valora es la firma emancipada de los textos que le otorgaron renombre. Comúnmente atesoradas en álbumes, las postales firmadas acercan la experiencia del autor-productor a la del lector-consumidor y hacen propio un capital (simbólico) ajeno. Desde sus cualidades letradas (de práctica de la escritura, identidad y propiedad) el yo que firma puede otorgar el don de la dedicatoria. Revisamos la ocurrencia de esta práctica en el caso de Mansilla y Darío y las concepciones que ambos enuncian sobre el tema para reflexionar sobre moda, esnobismo y escritura en el pasaje entre el siglo XIX y el siglo XX. A partir de un detalle como el de las postales autografiadas, pensamos al esnobismo en contextos de masificación o ampliación de públicos como el trayecto inesperado que va de la distinción elitista de los escritores en París a la lectura de la prensa periódica en los bares o las esquinas de la ciudad americana moderna. Aunque incómodos frente al fenómeno, Mansilla y Darío intuyeron la creciente disolución entre culturas alta y baja. Cuestionaron con su práctica (aunque no siempre en su discursividad explícita) la separación entre formas aristocratizantes y populares. Como fervorosos renovadores del español americano, adoptaron cómodamente la posición de quien distribuye legitimidades y diseña nuevos gustos. Pero junto a esa distinción, crearon nuevos públicos y expandieron el consumo de objetos culturales. Proponemos pensar la relación contradictoria entre distinción y popularidad, y a ambos autores como figuras oscilantes: refractarias, pero también tentadas hacia formas de lo esnob, como derivación multiplicada de lo dandi.