Indeed, the comparison between the writer's task of researching sources and that of the archeologist who excavates the traces of history and civilizations did not escape Flaubert's attention.
Flaubert’s Dig: From Fragments to Modernity's Emerging Form
In his letter of 4 June , written from Egypt to his friend and confidant Louis Bouilhet, Flaubert laments the misery of travel as he equates their shared situation to that of a scientist, an historian, and an archeologist: It immerses the writer in the collection of the particular while dilating the gap between discovery and the transformative work through which the author develops particulate traces into a coherent whole.
In the same letter, Flaubert recognizes in the praxis of cultivating the particular the imprint of a malady. It plagues him, and more broadly still, it plagues his generation. In essence, it is a malady that has resulted from a surfeit of sources: In its stead, a sense of discontinuity obfuscates identification of a guiding and perhaps comforting unity 3.
Flaubert's allusions to the wealth of sources available to the poetic imagination of his era suggest a Benjaminian fantasmagoria 4 of ideas, trends, texts, and sights whose very abundance seems to offer the promise of progress, but which in fact engenders a sense not of freedom of movement, but of paralysis. To arrive at a coherent whole, the modern writer is obliged to sift through a cornucopia of disparate elements, culled from a bewildering array of artifacts, whether they belong to the marketplace of popular culture or to history and the competing and ever-diversifying corpus of erudite texts and domains of expertise that compose the intellectual framework of modernity.
To the contrary, he had already begun to experiment with the poetic potential of the fragmentary and what might be termed the fantasmagoric in the first version of his novel La Tentation de saint Antoine In that text, Flaubert gathers discontinuous elements, culled from numerous sources, to create a hybrid of vivid visual elements and contrasting voices that animate dynamic tableaux.
From this praxis of collection, he embarks upon an exploration of the aesthetic dimensions of discontinuity. This line of exploration will have formal implications in subsequent versions of La Tentation. Ever the astute reader of modernity, Baudelaire recognized the poetic force not only of the images that animated the text, but most particularly the evocative, demonic power of its heteroclite form, as is suggested by his characterization of the text: It seems, therefore, reasonable to consider Flaubert's pursuit of fragmentary form more closely in view of understanding an aesthetic interest that remained an abiding interest for the author over the course of his lifetime.
Follow the Author
In addition, the metaphor of an archeological dig is particularly apropos. For, analysis of this work's formal qualities and content reveals the traces of numerous antecedents. It also allows us to perceive the dynamic and forward-looking aspects of this text These works also owe a debt to Flaubert's abiding fascination with the open-air theatrical productions at the Saint-Romain fair, where as a child he saw the puppet master, Legrain, mount a version of La Tentation de saint Antoine with marionettes In addition to religious themes, a fascination with the forms of medieval theatre is also manifest, in particular the forms of the mystery and morality plays in which, for example, protagonists encounter the devil or undergo various ordeals leading to revelation.
In Flaubert's sketches, the dead step forward to present their perspectives on life and death to Man, who is escorted by the Devil. Such an example occurs in chapter VIII of Flaubert's La Danse des morts in which we find interspersed between longer passages of prose, shorter soliloquies, formatted in the manner of a play. Similarly, in chapter IV of the same work, a subtitle acts as a stage direction: Similarly, he continues to refine his use of vivid scenery, conveyed through fragmentary elements that appear in succession.
Flaubert will also integrate descriptive elements into the text that suggest aspects of the popular theatre of the July Monarchy. Olds' argument is a compelling one, and it reveals an area of vital interest in Flaubert studies. However, the hagiographic context of La Tentation , which is absent from the fairy plays of the s through the mid-century, plays a central role in this curious text.
Erwan Larher
Nevertheless, as Olds' analysis amply demonstrates, the impact of popular theatre on Flaubert's thinking and on aspects of his narrative technique must not be dismissed. To that end, the parallel between the Flaubert's cultivation of tableaux in La Tentation and such forms as they were developed in the Diorama and Panorama, with their cultivation of lighting effects and changing tableaux, and their growing popularity in France and across Europe during the s and s, seems particularly appropriate.
To be sure, biblical scenes, depicting for example the Deluge, were not alien to the dioramas and panoramas of Flaubert's era Moreover, as Patrick Berthier has so justly observed, the visual effects cultivated in the panoramas and dioramas, like the vivid tableaux of the romantic theatre, corresponded to a desire for emotional contact with historical events, carried through a feeling of immersion engendered by a kind of totality, conferred by the grandiose nature of these kinds of spectacles It also provides an example of the way in which the movement of elements in this text recalls the visual shifts of tableaux in a panoramic or dioramic spectacle:.
Il a dit cela d'une voix monotone. Des rats, par terre, s'enfuient. Il abaisse lentement ses yeux vers les flammes qui montent puis ajoute: Furthermore, this remark lends to the stage direction a particular voice. In this sense, this expostulation at beginning of the stage direction brings forward a decidedly populist voice that serves to verify the lamentation of the hermit. As such, in tone, it effectively leavens the high seriousness of the Gymnosophist's mystical lesson by casting it in the light of an attraction at a fair.
This, of course, tends to undermine both the pathos of the lamentation and the seriousness of the scene.
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Organized in three short paragraphs, the first of these didascalic references appears to be traditional in its function, indicating only the tone of voice of the Gymnosophist in the paragraph that immediately precedes the stage direction: If read aloud, it is also remarkable poetic in its rhythmicity.
It insists on an evolving, dynamic scene of shriveling leaves, fleeing rats, and mounting flames that threaten to engulf the speaker, in the manner of the pre-cinematic, moving tableaux of the diorama. Even within the framework of the didascalia, the contrast could not be more striking. Against this highly visual and evolving scene of impending destruction, which functions as a visual reminder of divine punishment for the fierce pride of the ascetic Gymnosophist and by extension of Antoine , the first stage direction emphasizes the blandness of the hermit's demeanor. If the monotone voice of the Gynmosophist provides the narration for an unfolding scene that is calculated to inspire awe, the first didascalic reference draws our attention to the hermit's detachment from the pathos of his own scene: But his voice is monotone.
The effect of detachment is further amplified by the very style of Flaubert's phrasing: This terse narrative style effectively isolates these sentences from each other: A staccato rhythmicity of the phrasing adds to this impression. These effects are carried out on the visual plane as well, in didascalia.
That is to say, the Gymnosophist's voice is indicated on the first direction; the second direction is purely visual, showing us a dynamic tableau of shriveling leaves and fleeing rats; finally, the third direction returns to the Gymnosophist, suggesting not his voice, but only his gestures as he lowers his eyes in preparation for his next statement. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. Set up a giveaway. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Learn more about Amazon Prime. Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime. Get to Know Us.
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