“On his study table, at which he worked, he had placed, as it were a photograph of Odette, a reproduction of Jethro’s Daughter. He would gaze in admiration at the large eyes, the delicate features in which the imperfection of her skin might be surmised, the marvellous locks of hair that fell along her tired cheeks; and, adapting what he had already felt to be beautiful, on aesthetic grounds, to the idea of a living woman, he converted it into a series of physical merits which he congratulated himself on finding assembled in the person of one whom he might, ultimately, possess. The vague feeling of sympathy which attracts a spectator to a work of art, now that he knew the type, in warm flesh and blood, of Jethro’s Daughter, became a desire which more than compensated, thenceforward, for that with which Odette’s physical charms had at first failed to inspire him. When he had sat for a long time gazing at the Botticelli, he would think of his own living Botticelli, who seemed all the lovelier in contrast, and as he drew towards him the photograph of Zipporah he would imagine that he was holding Odette against his heart.”
— Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Technique
In Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust uses the superimposition technique to create character depth and interiority through layered imagery.
The above passage shows how Swann created attraction and love for Odette by studying Zipporah in Trial of Moses, a painting by Sandro Boticelli. Zipporah is a representation in the painting, and Odette is a real person in the novel who becomes a representation of Swann’s ideal image.
The first sentence foreshadows this representation, this superimposition technique, when Swann places the reproduction of Zipporah on the table “as it were a photograph of Odette.”
In the latter half of the second sentence, Swann openly thinks about ideal beauty and how it can be represented on living beauty. He’s not attracted to Odette for what she looks like (confirmed in third sentence); instead he’s attracted to how her qualities transform when the image of ideal beauty is superimposed on her.
When she transforms from unattractive to ideal attraction, Swann views it as possessing her because he’s created a new person through superimposition. By the passage’s end, Swann completes the superimposition and looks at the representation of Zipporah while imagining himself holding Odette.
The superimposition technique was also notably used by Yasunari Kawabata in Snow Country.
Use
- Identify two key symbols with overlapping qualities in your story. Draw (or visualize) one atop the other on a piece of paper and see if the symbols create a new image or amplify a quality of a symbol. Focus on the strongest qualities of the image and check if they convey what you’re trying to express in words. The key is for the reader to see those qualities through your words.
The Periplous 