This course examines how the idea of "the modern" develops at the end of the 18th century in European philosophy and literature, and how being modern (or progressive, or hip) became one of the crucial criteria for understanding and evaluating cultural change. Are we still in modernity, or have we moved beyond the modern to the postmodern?
Modernism and Art for Art's Sake III
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From the course by Wesleyan University
The Modern and the Postmodern (Part 1)
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From the lesson
Modernism and Art for Art's Sake
We read Flaubert’s Madame Bovary as a reflection on convention, stupidity and art in the wake of the failures of mid-19th century revolution.
Meet the Instructors
Michael S. Roth
So the, the, the luxury of the ball, the, the, the gratified rich people she sees
around us, they even look healthier she thinks, make such an impression on Emma.
And then, as she leaves she, she has these shoes, remember you remember this
passage I hope it's on page 48 in, in my addition, it's, it's at the, it's at the
very end of, of chapter eight in part one.
Reverently, she put away in the chest of drawers her, her beautiful dress, and
even her satin shoes whose soles had been yellowed by the slippery wax of the dance
floor. Her heart was like them.
Contact with wealth had laid something over it that would not be wiped away.
Contact with wealth, wealth had laid something over it which would not be
wiped away, and this is really the story, the, the beginning of Emma's corruption
if you will because her desires cannot be satisfied.
And so, she continues to pursue desires that cannot be satisfied which lead her
further and further away from any possibility of satisfaction or happiness.
What is, what do they want these two characters, Charles and Emma?
Let's look at page 52 for what Charles wants.
Charles, what does he want? Charles at the bottom of 52,
this is chapter 9 in part one but Charles had no ambition.
A doctor from Yvetot with whom he had recently found himself in consultation
had humiliated him. Charles didn't care. Charles had, he didn't want anything
[LAUGH] he had what he needed to be happy.
A beautiful wife, that are going to have a little girl, he had a medical practice,
he, he was satiated, right? Charles had what he wanted.
He, he didn't which was at this point nothing.
Emma by contrast, deep in her soul, page 53, the next page, deep in her soul,
however, she was waiting for something to happen.
Like a sailor in distress, she would gaze out over the solitude of her life with
desperate eyes, seeking some white sail in the mists of the far off horizon.
She did not know what this chance event would be, what wind would drive it to
her, what shore it would carry her to, whether it was a long boat or, or a
three-deck vessel. Each morning though, when she awoke, she
hoped it would arrive that day. She was waiting for something to tell
her, turn her life upside down. She was, she wanted change, she wanted
tumult, and eventually, she gets Charles to move
to a new town, hoping to find it there. But instead, she finds his strange
characters and we'll spend a little bit of time on, on them now the most, the in
some ways, fascinating and boring, and boring I have to admit, it's Homais,
right? Remember Homais is the pharmacist and Homais represents the enlightenment
figure in the book. He is the enlightenment figure in the
book. He represents enlightenment.
He he's always talking about reason and Voltaire and progress and he is a bore.
[LAUGH] He is always well, let's see, the first time we meet him I think is, is on
page 64 when they first arrive he makes this long he makes a long speech about
it's it's temperature, centigrade, Fahrenheit.
he, he is he is a case of misplaced intelligence and joined with
overconfidence and an incredible capacity to, to abhor, abhor other people.
so, here we are, they're arriving, the Bovarys arriving in Yonville and he's a
man in green leather slippers, his skin slightly pitted by small-pox, wearing a
velvet cap with a gold tassel, was warming his back at the fireplace.
His face expressed nothing but self-satisfaction,
[LAUGH] that's Homais, and he seemed as much at peace with life as the goldfinch
suspended above his head in a wicker cage,
this was the pharmacist. And the pharmacist, throughout the book
is, is given to these long speeches that say nothing, but in more and more
intellectual quote unquote terms. so his chief characteristics are a
commitment to rationality that makes him completely unreasonable and silly.
Leon, on the other hand, she meets right, right as a young clerk, remember? And
Leon is, in some ways, Homais; opposite, because well, the, Homais is talking to
Charles about chemistry and the latest pseudoscientific things.
Leon and, and, Emma start talking about sunsets and he's, Leon's a young man with
fair hair and big eyes. and that the here is how their first
conversation goes let let's, let's take it up on page 70 which is in chapter two
of part two. one is are you tired, he asked her,
because she had the stagecoach ride. I always find disruption interesting,
[LAUGH] Emma says, I like a change of scene.
And, it's such a dismal thing sighed the clerk, always to be stuck in the same
place. and then Madame Bovary skipping a bit.
But there's nothing more charming, it seems to me Leon went on, addressing
Madam Bovary, when one can do it that is to go into ride around on, on a horse,
and then they go on and, and Madame Bovary says to Leon, do you have any nice
walks in the area? oh, very few, he answered.
There is a place they call The Pasture, at the top of the hill, by the edge of
the forest. I go there sometimes on Sundays, and stay
there with a book, watching the sunset. I like nothing as much as a wonderful
sunset says Emma especially at the seaside.
Now, about Flaubert, he is gagging while he writes this, he is puking in his,
under the desk. He sees this as two limping romantics,
bored out of their skulls, exchanging cliches that should be on greeting cards,
but is the tool of seduction. There's nothing as wonderful as a sunset,
especially the seaside, oh, I love the sea.
[LAUGH] And doesn't it seem to you that one's spirit roams more freely over that
limitless expanse and that contemplating it elevates the soul and gives one a
glimpse of the infinite ideal? Huh, have you taken modern Christian Theology? No,
wait that's not it. [LAUGH] It's the same with mountain
scenery. And so, and then so, it goes on and on
and on, that the, the, the exchange of romantic seduction. and and it takes a
long time for this to be consummated, right? And Flaubert gets a lot of
trouble, he actually [UNKNOWN] goes on trial as you probably know, because how,
mostly, I think because of the scene where she says in the church, the church
seemed like one big boudoir, and they, she and, and Leon later in the
novel will go into a carriage and, and have sex for, for an awfully long time.
[LAUGH] The guy driving the thing goes crazy what, what
But at this point, he's still, he still greeting cards.
It's still, it's still, training and training.
So you see these two kindred souls that kind of super, superficial romanticism
was really the picture that Flaubert is pointing of, painting of them.
they, they, they, and they have this infatuation throughout this part of the
novel where Leon's too timid to really put the moves on her and she keeps
waiting for him. But in a way, she's like,
well, he really must love me because he doesn't touch me. I must love him,
because we can't consummate our relationship. And, they have this, this
wonderfully wonderful fantasy about being in love.
But into the picture comes Rodolphe, a man of action, and as well as fantasy,
and a cruel character, an aristocrat who's has no function as a
aristocrat He is pretty wealthy, spends his money on parties and women, and he
comes for the first time to the Bovary's household for so, for one of his, one of
his men, one of his peasants who works for him needs to be bled.
And so, the first time they see him, he's, hes' iuh, he's having his man bled,
and that bleed is kind of a foreshadowing that he's going to leave a bloody mess
when he leaves, because he's such a cruel person.
Rodolphe will seduce, Emma Bovary and famously at the agricultural fair.
And as you recall in that section of the, of the novel, there's a fair that comes
to town the kind of, what we would say in the United States as a county fair, where
people from all around the countryside bring their animals, bring their, their
the, the, the things they make that might win a prizes.
And, and up on stage they're giving medals to, just to servants, you know,
there's 50 years of service for being a good, a good peasant, a good servant in a
household. And they're making these pompous
speeches, on and on about this, while in the background Rodolphe is seducing
seducing Emma. And so, we go alternate back and fourth
from the, the, the, officials talking nonsense really talk baloney, we would
say or worse to about the virtues of service while Rodolphe is getting baloney
nonsense seductive prose to Emma about how they should actually belong in each
others' arms. And Rodolphe [INAUDIBLE] What he wants to
do is screw Emma and all the Bourgeois want, the Bourgeois wants to do is screw
the peasantry. The bourgeoisie does it economically
speaking, sorry for the vernacular, but this is
literature, it needs to use a full range of expression sometimes or at least a
part of it. But the, the woman who comes up for 50
years of service, she has been abused, if you prefer, for 50 years.
She has been, she has been, and now she's getting a little medal now, but she's
going to give it to the priest. [SOUND] And Rodolphe is saying sweet
nothings to Emma because all he wants is to, is to have sex with her.
And so they're, they're just like, they're just two levels of, of seduction
if you will, but it's a crap, a verbal crap being slung by people who know how
to manipulate others. She resists him.
She says she loves to be the attention. He is quite handsome she is he delighted
at the attraction, and then, he, but he, but he is not going to live only in his
head. Rodolphe wants to sleep with her.
He, he wants to seduce her and she is beautiful and he is a man who gets bored
so he seduces women. And, remember, though, why she eventually
decides, okay, I'll go off with him. And it's very comical in, in, in, in, as
Flaubert sets it up, because Rodolphe says, wouldn't it be good for for Madame
Bovary to go for horseback riding, and she says, oh, no, no I shouldn't, I
shouldn't. And Charles says, oh, yes, that will be
good for you, that will be good for you, and I'll get you a horse, honey. And
Rodolphe is, you know, you, you can imagine, yeah [LAUGH] waiting for the
moment to take her into the woods on horseback.
And she says, no, no, and then finally what, what,w hat changes her mind is,
won't I need more clothes to go horseback riding? Won't I have to get a riding
outfit? Oh, yes, you need a riding outfit.
Oh, she says, okay, well sign me up, [LAUGH] sign me up.
And so, she, I bet she looks good in her leather breeches, its or boots and
breeches and whip and hat. this is Emma off to ride into the woods with Rodolphe.
And, and I won't read you the scene, the steamy scene where he finds them a little
spot and they become lovers. but I will read you from page 142 Emma's
response, because she comes back, she comes back from her tryst in the woods.
And she she looks at herself in the mirror and she says again and again, I
have a lover. I have a lover.
Now there is, there are no notations for music here.
So, I guess I should just say, I have a lover.
I have a lover. Reveling in the thought as though she had
come into a second puberty, [INAUDIBLE] At last she would possess
those joys of love, that fever of happiness, of which she had despaired.
She was entering something marvelous in which all was passion, and ecstasy, and
delirium. Now, notice the, the way Flaubert writes
that she was entering something marvelous in which all was passion, ecstasy, and
delirium. It's the third person, she, but it's
really how Emma sees herself, and this is typical of Flaubert's style sometimes
called the free indirect style where he has a, a point of view that is internal
to Emma, but expressed in this third person.
She was entering something marvelous in which all was passion, ecstacy, and
delerium.
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