This thesis explores ways in which the mid-nineteenth-century current of positivist thought impacted upon the work of the French artist Gustave Courbet (1819-1877). Guided by certain methodological imperatives set out in the theories of Hayden White and Dominick LaCapra – in particular LaCapra’s identification of the need for historical practice to avoid reductive interpretation of data and to recognise the formulation of concepts through intersecting domains of knowledge and the specificity of their articulation in different primary sources – this thesis focuses upon interpretations of Courbet’s work formulated between 1848 and 1878, examines ideas developed within the intersecting domains of positivism and medical science, and highlights the deployment of these ideas for political leverage across the entire political spectrum. The thesis discovers ways in which positivist interpreters of Courbet’s work, including the artist himself, sought to criticise and resolve the social and political problems of the time by drawing upon theories designed to achieve social harmony through scientific understanding of human nature and its evolution. The thesis demonstrates that numerous social commentators referred to the images of people and social conditions in Courbet’s paintings to express positivist views about social decay, the enduring human potential to reform such decay, and an inevitable achievement of social harmony. I show that positivists interpreted the artist’s work with recourse to disciplines such as biology, physiology and physiognomy, as well as concepts such as ‘the physical and the moral,’ according to which the various physical, mental, emotional and moral dimensions of the human constitution were closely interconnected, evident in physical appearance, and crucially influenced by the changing environmental conditions impacting upon them, including society. I also show that, according to such prescriptions, the physical appearance of ordinary contemporary people represented in Courbet’s paintings indicated their physical and moral state and by extension the social conditions forming this state. Such physiognomical principles were often associated with caricature and portraiture to advance the critical and affective nature of Courbet’s paintings, which were seen as aesthetic stimulants in an evolutionary process of social reform. As the project shows, positivists thought that Courbet’s paintings expressed certain ideal notions of equality and materiality that served the political, ideological and often anti-religious interests of the writers concerned; in these views, all humans fostered the same inherent physiological desire for altruistic existence and shared equal status with animals and organisms as physiological beings conceived and sustained within biological nature.

O presente trabalho visa, em primeiro momento, a discutir brevemente certas perspectivas que concernem os textos de juventude do autor francês Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880). A abordagem contará primordialmente com o embasamento do conceito de desejo, advindo da teoria psicanalítica, e de escritura, formulado pelo crítico francês Roland Barthes. Assim, trataremos de alguns pontos de vista sobre a juvenília de Flaubert, em especial as leituras de dois flaubertianos, Jonathan Culler e Timothy Unwin, de modo a escrutinar as soluções estéticas adotadas por Flaubert em muitos de seus textos dos anos 1830. Em seguida, passaremos à análise de um conto de 1837, intitulado Passion et Vertu. O conto apresenta interesse não apenas devido a suas relações com Madame Bovary, como bem apontou sua fortuna crítica, mas também por ser, dentre os textos de 1830, aquele que mais tem sucesso em condensar a estética dos primeiros escritos do autor. Partindo da perspicaz visão de Jean Paul Sartre, tentaremos propor, ainda tendo a teoria psicanalítica como suporte, a maneira pela qual se dá a relação de uma série de elementos a fim de constituir um todo que, apesar de ser marcado por incongruência formal, goza de alta expressividade e força ideológic / The first goal of this work is to approach several perspectives on Gustave Flauberts (1821- 1880) juvenilia. We have based ourselves on the concept of desire, borrowed from Psychoanalysis, and writing, developed by Roland Barthes. Therefore, we intend to comment on some approaches to the juvenilia, especially those of two Flaubertian critics, Jonathan Culler and Timothy Unwin, so as to scrutinize the aesthetic solutions adopted by Flaubert in many of the texts he wrote in the 1830s. We subsequently move on to the analysis of a short story written in 1837, Passion et Vertu. Not only is the story interesting due to its connections to Madame Bovary, it is also the most successful text from the 1830s in condensing the aesthetics of the authors first writings. Basing ourselves on Jean-Paul Sartres insightful approach, we intend to propose, still having Psychoanalysis as our main support, how a series of elements intertwines so as to constitute a whole which, notwithstanding its structural incongruity, is acutely expressive and enjoys great ideological power.

Thèse : Litt. : Lyon : 1985.

Thesis--Universität Trier, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 266-279).

O presente trabalho visa, em primeiro momento, a discutir brevemente certas perspectivas que concernem os textos de juventude do autor francês Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880). A abordagem contará primordialmente com o embasamento do conceito de desejo, advindo da teoria psicanalítica, e de escritura, formulado pelo crítico francês Roland Barthes. Assim, trataremos de alguns pontos de vista sobre a juvenília de Flaubert, em especial as leituras de dois flaubertianos, Jonathan Culler e Timothy Unwin, de modo a escrutinar as soluções estéticas adotadas por Flaubert em muitos de seus textos dos anos 1830. Em seguida, passaremos à análise de um conto de 1837, intitulado Passion et Vertu. O conto apresenta interesse não apenas devido a suas relações com Madame Bovary, como bem apontou sua fortuna crítica, mas também por ser, dentre os textos de 1830, aquele que mais tem sucesso em condensar a estética dos primeiros escritos do autor. Partindo da perspicaz visão de Jean Paul Sartre, tentaremos propor, ainda tendo a teoria psicanalítica como suporte, a maneira pela qual se dá a relação de uma série de elementos a fim de constituir um todo que, apesar de ser marcado por incongruência formal, goza de alta expressividade e força ideológic / The first goal of this work is to approach several perspectives on Gustave Flauberts (1821- 1880) juvenilia. We have based ourselves on the concept of desire, borrowed from Psychoanalysis, and writing, developed by Roland Barthes. Therefore, we intend to comment on some approaches to the juvenilia, especially those of two Flaubertian critics, Jonathan Culler and Timothy Unwin, so as to scrutinize the aesthetic solutions adopted by Flaubert in many of the texts he wrote in the 1830s. We subsequently move on to the analysis of a short story written in 1837, Passion et Vertu. Not only is the story interesting due to its connections to Madame Bovary, it is also the most successful text from the 1830s in condensing the aesthetics of the authors first writings. Basing ourselves on Jean-Paul Sartres insightful approach, we intend to propose, still having Psychoanalysis as our main support, how a series of elements intertwines so as to constitute a whole which, notwithstanding its structural incongruity, is acutely expressive and enjoys great ideological power.

No description available.

Texte remanié de: Thèse de doctorat--Littérature française--Paris 4, 2005. Titre de soutenance : Par-delà l'Occident moderne : étude sur l'évolution spirituelle et littéraire de J.-M.-G. Le Clézio. / Bibliogr. p. 273-286.

Texte remanié de: Dissertation--Stuttgart, 2005. / Bibliogr. p. 327-350.

Reproduction de : Thèse de doctorat : Linguistique : Lyon 2 : 2005. / Titre provenant de l'écran-titre. Bibliogr. Index.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1989.