Estudam-se aqui as escritas de Gustave Flaubert e de Machado de Assis, considerando a ironia a estratégia narrativa comum a ambos os autores. Evidenciado na figura da comparação, o procedimento irônico de suas escritas joga com a verossimilhança e com a expectativa do leitor para sucessivamente frustrá-las. Desfazendo as semelhanças discursivas que ativariam a causalidade da verossimilhança, conforme Aristóteles, a ironia efetivada por meio dessa figura de linguagem revela o jogo do pastiche de suas escritas e desloca, assim, a representação semântica da narrativa. A corrupção da mímesis como fundamento do discurso literário faz de suas escritas uma proposta de outro tipo de verossimilhança, não mais motivada pela coincidência das semelhanças discursivas, o que ressalta, deste modo, seu gesto político. Pois, a política da escrita não está no que o autor quis dizer, mas na reverberação do texto no leitor, reverberação que impõe o silenciamento das unidades de sentido já estabelecidas pela repetição das ideias feitas. Entenda-se também com isso que o estudo aqui empreendido propõe a alternativa crítica de se abordar escritas de estilos e práticas diferentes, sem que se tenham necessariamente em vista citações explícitas ou implícitas, influência e fonte literária. Porque a força da escrita literária não está exclusivamente em sua representabilidade semântica, mas na libertação do simbólico, que evidencia a historicidade dos discursos. / Gustave Flaubert and Machado de Assis´s writings are studied here taking into consideration the irony as a narrative strategy common to both authors. The ironical procedure of their writings plays with verisimilitude, and this is made evident in the figure of speech of comparison and a continuous frustration of the reader´s expectation. By undoing the discursive similitude which activates the verisimilitude´s causality, according to Aristotle, the irony made effective by that figure of speech reveals a pastiche play and dislocates, in that sense, the semantic representation of the narrative. The mimesis´s corruption as substance of literary discourse makes their writings a proposal of another kind of verisimilitude, no longer motivated by the coincidence of the discursive similitude, which highlights its political act. The politics of writing is not in what the author meant, but in the text´s reverberation in the reader, which imposes a silence in the units of meaning already established by the repetition of the received ideas. It is also to be understood that the study here undertaken proposes an alternative criticism in order to tackle writings of different styles and practices, without necessarily having explicit or implicit quotations, influence and literary source. This is because the force of the literary writing is not exclusively in its semantic representation, but in the liberation of the symbolic, making the historicity of discourses evident.

Partindo do efeito de leitura percebido nas escrituras autorrreflexivas de Machado de Assis e Gustave Flaubert que, por meio de uma intensa solicitação a discursos já-escritos, pareciam escrever verdadeiros livros feitos de livros , o presente trabalho se propôs estudar a interdiscursividade dos autores, compreendida dentro de suas práticas de escrita e de leitura, a partir do que chamamos de biblioteca fantástica, num diálogo explícito com a teoria de Michel Foucault. Seguindo dois eixos principais, nos quais pretendíamos observar a obra dentro da biblioteca (o espaço das bibliotecas reais dos autores enquanto o lugar privilegiado da enunciabilidade das obras) e a biblioteca dentro da obra (a ficcionalização do livro e dos elementos concernentes ao sistema literário presente nas escrituras), fomos levados a entrever a relação tensional com o já-escrito operada pelas escrituras dos dois autores, aspecto reforçado pelo recurso a ardis ficcionais distintos, a saber, o autor ficcional machadiano e o discurso indireto livre flaubertiano. Ao longo de nosso percurso crítico, percebemos que a biblioteca fantástica dos autores estudados, construída no intervalo entre os dois citados eixos, mostrou-se reveladora da problemática concernente à enunciabilidade e à legibilidade das obras, já que a interdiscursividade de suas escrituras autorreflexivas questionava as formas naturalizadas ou impostas de escrever e de ler, recolocando a literatura enquanto questão. / Having as a starting point the reading effect of Machado de Asiss and Gustave Flauberts self reflecting narratives which, due to the intense recourse to other discourses, seem to be books made of other books , the aim of this work is to study these writers interdiscursivity practices, as observed in their writing and reading practices through the concept of the fantastic library, in an explicit dialogue with Michel Foucaults theory. Following two main paths from which we would like to observe the literary work inside the library (the space of the writers real libraries as a privileged viewpoint of their enunciability) and the library in the work (that is, the image of the book and of elements of the literary system represented in the books), we noticed a tense relationship with these other discourses in these two writers practices, which is reinforced by the recourse to different narratological devices such as the fictional author in Machado and free indirect style in Flaubert. As our analysis progressed, we perceive that the fantastic library of those authors, construed between those paths already mentioned, revealed some of the problems related to their enunciability and legibility, as the interdiscursivity of these self reflecting narratives questions not only naturalized or imposed manners of reading and writing but literature itself.

Étroitement liée à l’expérience des voyages, où elle trouve tout à la fois ses intensités et sa diversité, la culture perceptive de Flaubert doit être comprise comme une véritable éducation sentimentale. Si le jeune écrivain se donne pour but l’apprentissage du «bien écrire », c’est en concevant l’esthétique d’abord en son sens premier comme un art de la sensation qui nécessite l’apprentissage d’un « bien voir ». Dans le travail de conversion du regard que Flaubert accomplit sur lui-même entre 1845 et 1851, on peut donc parler d’un véritable « primat de la perception ». La présente recherche doctorale, fondée sur une approche phénoménologique, examine la façon dont l’ « homme-plume » a résolument investi dans son art une leçon du sensible en intégrant toutes les découvertes liées à l’approfondissement de son expérience perceptive. Loin de s’achever dans un formalisme désincarné, le nouveau système esthétique qui permet à Flaubert de passer de l’écriture de jeunesse aux œuvres de la maturité est un dispositif qui totalise un itinéraire sensoriel : la connaissance, les idées et les facultés d’abstraction y ont été corrigées, réévaluées et redéfinies à la mesure d’un « bien sentir » qui devient capable de réformer l’art d’écrire et la délimitation de son véritable objet. / Intimately associated to the travelling experience, during which it meets at the same time its intensities and diversities, Flaubert’s perceptive culture should be understood as a truly sentimental education. If the young writer imposes himself the “well writing” learning as a goal, it’s done before anything else, by interpreting the aesthetics, in its primary meaning, as a sensation art that requires a “well seeing” learning. In relation to the conversion work of the look that Flaubert gives over himself between 1845 and 1851, it’s possible to talk, this way, of a true “primate of perception”. This doctorate research, based on a phenomenological approach, explores the decisively way in which the penman invested a lesson of the sensible in his art, integrating all the findings related to the deepening of his perceptual experience. Far from reducing itself to a disincarnate formalism, the new aesthetical system that allows Flaubert to go from the young writings to the maturity works is a device that completes a sensorial itinerary: along this itinerary, the knowledge, the ideas and the abstraction faculties were corrected, reevaluated and redefined for the purpose of a “well feeling” that is able to reshape the art of writing and the delimitation of its true object.

This thesis examines the Temptation of Saint Anthony in the last quarter of the 19th century in France and Belgium. By analysis of particular art works it shows the variability of iconography and complexity of the Temptation theme which reflects the contemporary relation to religion, history, science, exotism, eroticism and other areas, which man living in the era of greate changes was confronted with. The importance of "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" by Gustave Flaubert is emphasized as an inspirational source for fine arts and on the general level the relation of text and visual presentation is discussed. The final part of the thesis dealing with "fin de siècle" art references the metamorphosis of the Temptation of st. Anthony in literature and fine arts as well as historical, social and religious relations in the context of which the character of Saint Anthony gradually became a permanent part of French culture.

A impossibilidade de decidir é apresentada ao leitor em Bouvard e Pécuchet, de Gustave Flaubert, sob diversos aspectos, evidenciando a reiteração da ideia de impasse, entendido como situação que atinge pontos de solução difícil ou aparentemente impossível. Associados à narrativa, à leitura, enquanto ato, e à escrita, enquanto processo, os impasses sucessivos aproximam-se do conceito de labirinto, colocando em movimento permanências e rupturas de vertente literária fecunda, descrita por Hugh Kenner em The Stoic Comedians. Abrindo espaço para a presença de opiniões contraditórias e, mais que isso, para a dificuldade de sua reconciliação, é sugerida uma quebra da lógica causal, numa narrativa não mais fundada em eventos, mas no tratamento do material linguístico. Abordam-se aqui reflexões teóricas sobre o funcionamento e os efeitos do texto estudado, levando em conta os questionamentos recentes sobre os paradoxos da ficção e os limites da narrativa, tomando por base um enfoque múltiplo. A bêtise, o aspecto enciclopédico do texto, a cópia e a comicidade servem como pontos de partida, com base na ótica da mobilização de saberes. Finalmente, são traçados paralelos entre procedimentos do texto flaubertiano e alguns procedimentos adotados desde o final do século 19 e ao longo do século 20 por artistas de várias formas de expressão, buscando estabelecer possíveis diálogos. / The impossibility of deciding (undecidability) is presented to the reader in Bouvard and Pécuchet, by Gustave Flaubert, from different perspectives, evidencing the repetition of the idea of impasse, understood as a situation that has a difficult or seemingly impossible solution. Associated to the narrative, the reading act, and the writing process, the successive impasses relate to the concept of labyrinth, setting in motion continuities and ruptures of a rich literary lineage, described by Hugh Kenner in The Stoic Comedians. While allowing conflicting opinions to coexist and, more than that, allowing for the difficulty of their reconciliation, disruption of causal logic is suggested, resulting in a narrative no longer based on events, but in the treatment of linguistic material. Theoretical considerations on the functioning and the effects of the text studied are addressed, taking into account the recent reflections about the paradoxes of fiction and the limits of narrative, from a manifold perspective. The starting points are the bêtise, the encyclopedic character, Copy and the comic aspect of the novel, always having the use of knowledge as focal point. Finally, parallels between flaubertian procedures and some procedures adopted since the late 19th century and throughout the 20th century by artists of various forms of expression are drawn, seeking to establish possible dialogues.

My interdisciplinary dissertation, Écriture Artiste and the Idea of Painterly Writing in Nineteenth-Century France, studies the notion of écriture artiste as an ideologically charged aesthetic doctrine that provides a better understanding of the rapports between art and the socio-historical context of mid nineteenth-century France. Specifically, using a case study approach, I examined four encounters between writers and painters, including Gustave Flaubert, Gustave Moreau, the Goncourt brothers, Eugène Delacroix, Émile Zola, Édouard Manet, J.-K. Huysmans and Odilon Redon. I analyzed how these pairings, each illustrative of a different facet of écriture artiste, highlight extratextual realities of the time through aesthetic embellishments. Findings show that some of these artists refashion the existing hierarchy of academically legislated rules on style by purposefully obscuring legibility in order to valorize artistic productions as alternatives to, not copies of, nature. Moreover, they reshape cultural views by staging the coexistence of lyrical and positivist elements, thus encouraging an array of subjective interpretations. I conclude that écriture artiste provides a valid framework for analyzing a self-conscious type of art that uses symbolic power to shape public taste. In turn this provides alternatives to a monolithic model upheld by legitimate culture. The central contribution of my project is its analysis of écriture artiste as a concept that does not fit neatly specific categories of genre or literary movements. My work intervenes in extant debates on literature and the visual arts in the latter half of the nineteenth century by challenging the critical tradition that considers écriture artiste as a pedantic descriptive style. My dissertation broadens the scope of écriture artiste beyond the work of the Goncourt brothers. This expansion of the field also reveals that this type of art theory is developed with an acute consciousness about the power of art and the artist to reach a changing readership, prompted by the shifting ideological climate of the time.

In this paper. I attempt to prove that obscenity as a legal concept is actually a moral judgment made by patriarchal powers and a political tool used to police female sexuality. I analyze James Joyce’s Ulysses as a case study, using Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary as a precedent. While I believe that literature can transfer and inspire ideas, I don’t believe that transferring or inspiring perversity was the intent or effect of these novels. I argue not only that the trials’ prosecutions incorrectly claim that the novels sexually arouse the average or reasonable reader, but also that they do the opposite, or fail to meet expectations to do so. In the case of Madame Bovary, I further argue that the defense incorrectly claims that the novel has and enforces a set of morals, as the novel neither punishes nor lauds its protagonist, or any of its characters for the matter. These so-called obscene novels don’t convert the everyman into a pervert. However, Ulysses and Madame Bovary do reflect and thus reveal a reality that is inconsistent with the censors’ imagined utopia: the characters in the novels’ world as well as the readers in the real word are all sexual beings, women included. I argue that censors banned novels such as Ulysses and Madame Bovary because they wished to police female sexuality under the guise of protecting the public from obscenity. Specifically, they prevented the publishing and distribution of these and other Modernist texts in an attempt to erase realistic representations of female sexuality, thus illegitimating it. Nevertheless, the perseverance of these texts proves that moral values, particularly those regarding sexuality, cannot be enforced by the law (and neither should they be).

Thesis (master's)--Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn, 1998/99.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-69).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-69). Also available in print.