Through Romanticism darkly : German Romanticism in the early work of Flaubert

Abstract

Although critics often note the esteem in which Flaubert holds German authors, such as Goethe, few consider the wider impacts of German Romanticism in shaping Flaubert's literary output. With a focus on his early works (1835-42), this thesis contends that Flaubert adopts and adapts important aspects of German Romanticism in the development of his own aesthetic. Focusing on the 'dark' elements of Romanticism within this corpus promotes an understanding of Flaubert's creative imitation of major German Romantic authors, with whom he engaged through translations, reviews and contemporary treatises such as De I'Allemagne. Since this early section of his oeuvre frequently falls outside the critical gaze, its significance to our understanding of the 'hermit of Croisset' is reasserted. Using a methodology of close reading, rather than the genetic, correspondence-based or psychological approaches of existing studies, this thesis offers a fresh perspective not only on the early works, but also their relation to his later masterpieces and to wider debates in Flaubert Studies. Chapter 1 focuses on the Romantic context by which Flaubert's early work will be judged. While the German influence on the evolution of the Romantic movement in France is well known, the roles of the exotic, historical and aesthetic within this context are re-examined together with the characteristic qualities of the Romantic 'hero'. Flaubert's protagonists will appear to be characterised by mindsets manifesting a dark form of 'genie'. Chapter 2 then investigates the obsessions, excesses and, ultimately, the tendency towards suicide of such characters. Chapter 3 draws closer still to Flaubert's concept of the Romantic 'inner world', considering the role of' Unheimlichkeif and the (im)possibility of an afterlife within an ostensibly Manichean world view. Chapter 4 then appraises Flaubert's adoption and adaptation of German Romantic genres, to conclude the analysis in this thesis of his passage 'through Romanticism darkly' and towards authorial maturity. The contention overall is that Germanic tendencies are essential to the prose of Flaubert the Romantic, in his early works as the important 'tremplin' to his later ceuvre.

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