Pour une écopoétique de l'eau dans les oeuvres de Gustave Flaubert et de Guy de Maupassant Public

Abstract

Situated within an ecocritical framework that draws on the poetic philosophies of Gaston Bachelard, this dissertation first examines textual representations of water in the early, romantic works of Gustave Flaubert: Les Mémoires d'un fou (1838), Novembre: Fragments de style quelconque (1842),and L'Education sentimentale (1845). It then explores two texts by Guy de Maupassant - Sur l'eau (1881)and Mont-Oriol (1887) - wherein one observes a shifting human-nature dynamic and a new focus on nature as a defining agent in human formation rather than the reverse. Via detailed textual analysis, it thematically examines figures of water through scenes of drowning (dreamed, hallucinatory, symbolic); water as a site of loss, ecstasy and rebirth; the aquatic milieu as depicted through a fantastic lens; and human manipulation of water for medical and financial profit. It concentrates on the ways in which traditional interpretations of Flaubert and Maupassant's works can be enriched through a focus on spatial, phenomenological, and aesthetic intersections between literature and the environment. Ultimately, this dissertation contributes to the field of Ecocriticism in that it broadens the corpus of present scholarship to include 19^th-century French texts whose depictions of the aquatic demand critical attention. Furthermore, it adds to Flaubert-Maupassant studies by analyzing texts whose particular combination and examination through an ecocentric lens has not yet been studied by 19^th-century critics.

Table of Contents

TABLE DES MATIERES

Introduction 1

I. Cauchemar, cauche-mère: Les noyades oubliées dans

Les Mémoires d'un fou et Pyrénées-Corse de Gustave Flaubert 13

II. L'écrasement et la métamorphose:

Novembre: Fragments de style quelconque 54

III. Nympholepsie: La quête d'un amour vaporeux dans

L'Education sentimentale (1845) 128

IV. "Sur l'eau" avec Guy de Maupassant 170

V. L'eau dans Mont-Oriol de Maupassant:

Vers une lecture naturelle 210

Conclusion 247

Index Bibliographique 253

About this Dissertation

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Laney Graduate School
Department	French
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	French
Research Field	Literature, General Literature, Romance
Mot-clé	literature and the environment drowning ecocriticism metamorphosis 19th-century French literature water
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Bonnefis, Philippe, Emory University
Committee Members	Marder, Elissa, Emory University Nouvet, Claire, Emory University Johnson, Sharon, Virginia Tech

Dernière modification

Primary PDF

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions
	Pour une écopoétique de l'eau dans les oeuvres de Gustave Flaubert et de Guy de Maupassant ()	2018-08-28 13:54:04 -0400	Press to Select an action Download

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions