Flaubert And Modern Thoughts

Since the 1850s, the studies of Flaubert came to be a prominent field in European and American academia. Nevertheless , the studies have been conducted with the methods such as social history, Flaubert moral criticism consciousness criticism, new criticism, structuralism, deconstruct ion etc. the common and key flaw is that they did not look at the relations between Flaubert and Modern Thoughts, modern culture and modern values and rationalist value system as valuable and meaningful subject. On the basis of the criticism perspectives above, my emphasis is to explore the relations between Flaubert and Modern thoughts, including Spinozaism, Sadism, scientism, historicism, modernism and postmodernism, as well as the far reaching impact and plural meanings of Flaubert upon modern society, modern knowledge system, modern culture and nature sex history and art.I think, Flaubert was influenced by Spinozaism and Sadism, which bestow him with immoral tendency. Flaubert was favorite of Spinozaism, taking it as his most thought resource and expressing it in one way or another. Meanwhile, Spinozaism helped him raise and use impersonalized artistic principle, which demanded authors to abandon personal bias and to integrate nature and figures in the works by pantheism. Sadism was an alien cultural phenomenon and antirational literary thought trend, and influenced him greatly. It bestowed him an abnormal personality to deconstruct western civilization, to flee away from western modern rational principles and cultural values. I think, Flaubert was in open contact with almost all European thought including scientism historicism in the 1800s. He actively accepted the positive impact of science, but meanwhile reflected on the development of science and its system, and strongly criticized the scientism characterized by positivism worshipping natural science and denying unscientific subjects. He opposed the following ideas: equating artistic observation and scientific observation, interpreting literature by atomic and mechanic methods, using languages principles and conclusions of science in literature, using biology positivism and scientific experiments in literary creation, Zola' s and Turner' s naturalisms. Flaubert had similar outlooks of history with German traditional historicism, Giambatista Vico and Jules Michelet. He attached importance to the particularity of different national histories, opposed to the historical outlooks of essentialism objectivism and positivism, looking at history as a regular and purposeful existence, and expressing personal views by observing history, believing the absolute truth of history. He emphasized the ontological relations between history and man, historical truth being the integrity of subject and object, getting to know history by object' s mercy and interpretation, and making irrational and emotional, etc.. From the end of 1800s on, he aroused sympathetic response with various literary criticisms and a series of modernist and postmodernist literary schools, taking on a complex literary look. Except the agreement with realism, my dissertation mainly explores the modernist and postmodernist nature in his works, as well as his contributions to modern aesthetics and arts. I also proved that he exerted great impact on modernist and postmodernist literatures of different languages represented by Marcel Proust Franz Kafka James Joyce Jorge Luis Borges and Alain Robbe-Grillet etc.My dissertation brings forth new things as followings: Firstly, it is the first time to use historicist methods to comprehensively illustrate Flaubert' s special thought system, providing a new image of Flaubert as a thinker. For 150 years, Flaubert was famous as an artist, with his thought buried. Many researches on him including those by Jean-Paul Sartre and Jonathan Culler are psychological and artistic ones. In the cultural turn, the studies by Bakhtin, Said and Mary Orr are not formal or systematic, from the perspectives of orientalism or sex. The common and key flaw is that they did not look at the relations between Flaubert and Modern Thoughts, modern culture and modern values and rationalist value system as valuable and meaningful subject. On the basis of the criticism perspectives above, my emphasis is to use historicist method to explore the relations between Flaubert and Modern Thoughts, forming a thinker's image as important as William Blake and Leo Tolstoy, adding a new page in the study on Flaubert and French literary history.Secondly, I put forward and illustrate quite a few new ideas and smooth away a series of difficulties in the relevant studies. My dissertation clears his complex relations with various thoughts since Spinozaism, such as scientism and historicism, as well as many misunderstandings and his basic attitude toward modern society. Thus, by analyzing his works, correspondence and travel writing, I draw many new conclusions as follows: Flaubert was the successor of Spinozaist philosophy, a pantheist, a gnostic in art, a moron, a artist withdraw from work, a misogynist. He advocated relativist historicism and pure art, opposed to scientism positivism and naturalism as well as modernization and socialism. He challenged historical determinism, rationalism and the advocate of historical purpose. He is a hybrid of realism modernism and postmodernism, and the enlightener and forefather of modernism and postmodernism. Most ideas above are put forward for the very first time, giving Flaubert a proper position in literary history and comprehensively illustrating his far-reaching impact on modernism and postmodernism worldwide. Meanwhile, I analyze the academia' s misunderstandings in Flaubert' s relationships with impersonalized principle, demoralization scientific methods, realism and naturalism.The dissertation' s significance to the reality lies in: it helps to see the writers' and literature' s moral commitment to human society and history, appeal people to keep sober mind and commitment, maintain the values of premodern literary tradition, pure art humanist spirit nature and plural history. For over one century, with the development and prosperity of modernization, scientism and materialism, the reflections on the values and weakness of western rationalist thought tradition, enlightenment, modernity and modern civilizations are getting deeper and deeper. The purpose of the dissertation is to explore the early state of the reflective tradition, to contend with the blind development of materials and techniques by increasing the percentage of humanist tradition.