Problem description:

French writer

Analysis:

Sorry, my friend, I can't find the so-called "Flaubert's Three Principles" article. But I found an article about Flaubert's creation. I hope the information I found can help you understand Flaubert's creation.

Flaubert (182 1- 1880) was born in a doctor's family. His childhood was spent when romanticism was prevalent in France. Hugo was once his idol. However, it was the empirical science that became popular in France in the mid-19th century that set the tone for his creation. He regards novels as a "scientific life form" and asks writers to describe and dissect everything with a calm and objective attitude, just like natural scientists treat nature. In Flaubert's view, "Beauty is truth, although all true things are not necessarily beautiful, the most beautiful things are always true", "If you lose authenticity, you lose artistry." Therefore, he endowed observation, analysis and understanding with great significance. It is considered that "thoroughly understanding the reality and faithfully reflecting the reality through typical means" is a basic principle that novelists should follow. This view decided that he parted ways with Hugo whom he respected and became the successor of Balzac and Standahr. Flaubert did not completely follow the footsteps of others in art. He found another way and was determined to innovate, and finally formed his own unique artistic style, which enriched and developed the realism of19th century.

Flaubert's greatest achievement is to delete himself from his works and create the so-called "purely objective" art. Flaubert, like Balzac and Standahr, also called literary works "mirrors reflecting real life" and tried to reflect his own times synchronously. However, the early two writers stood out in the romantic literary movement, and their "mirrors" were bound to be romanticized. Balzac and Standahr are full of * * *, and they are afraid that they will not be fully expressed in their works. They are involved in the protagonist's life, share the same breath and destiny with the characters they create, analyze their psychology and judge their words and deeds all the time, and Balzac even talks directly with readers as an author. Flaubert asked the Mirror to exclude all subjective lyrical elements and make a completely objective and scientific reflection of things. He believes that "the author's imagination, even if it is vaguely guessed by the reader, is not allowed." There should be no traces of the author's opinions and intentions in literary works. (2) Although Flaubert is affectionate by nature, attaches great importance to personality, justice and friendship, and is often outraged by despicable and fraudulent behavior, he forbids himself to express his feelings in his works, let alone insert comments in his works. "He hides himself deeply, carefully covering the line in his hand like a puppet actor, trying not to let the audience notice his voice." I have never seen the author's intention hidden as deep as Flaubert in literary works. It can't be said that Flaubert's artistic method is inferior to or superior to his predecessors, but it is a breakthrough in realistic art after all. Therefore, as soon as Madame Bovary was published, it immediately aroused strong repercussions in the literary world. Saint Beaufort saw "the symbol of new literature", ② Zola declared that "a new art code has been written", ③ Marx's daughter Elena thought that this "perfect novel" had a similar revolutionary effect in the literary world after its publication. Whether these statements are exaggerated or not, it proves the success of Flaubert's new attempt. Plekhanov once affirmed that "objectivity is the most powerful aspect of Flaubert's creative method", and it is precisely because of this objective attitude that the characters described in his works "have the value of literature".

Flaubert's "objective art" was later developed into "pure science" by naturalist writers such as Zola and Gungour brothers, so Flaubert is generally regarded as a link between romanticism and naturalism in the history of French literature. Some contemporary French critics even call him a pioneer of modern novel art because his artistic style is indifferent and objective.

Although Flaubert, like many great writers, does not admit that he belongs to any genre, and he is also troubled by the title of "realism" or "naturalism", according to our understanding of realism, the sense of the times, realism and hidden critical spirit of social reality in Flaubert's works, we still have enough reasons to list him as the third outstanding representative of French critical realism literature in the 19th century after Balzac and Stendhal.

Just as Standahr named his Red and Black The Year of 1830, Balzac named most of the works of human comedies The Study of Customs, and Flaubert's Madame Bovary also had a striking subtitle: "The Customs of Other Provinces".

Madame Bovary began writing in 185 1 and came out in 1857. The story is set in the July Dynasty, but it mainly shows the picture of the Second Empire. If "Red and Black" in "Standard" truly depicts the political atmosphere of France on the eve of the July Revolution, and Balzac's "Human Comedy" profoundly reflects the great changes in social life brought about by the great historical turning point of France's transition from feudal society to capitalist society, then Flaubert describes the social outlook of France after the 1848 bourgeois victory. Perhaps it can't be said that Flaubert grasped the whole era from a macro perspective, but he undoubtedly grasped the main characteristics of contemporary society: the heroic era that the French bourgeoisie was proud of passed, and the 1848 revolutionary storm subsided, which was followed by a relatively stable and mediocre era. A thoughtful thinker, an omnipotent leader and a fighter struggling in life all seem to disappear together. Now, there are only groups of bourgeois mediocrity left on the stage of life, romanticism is a thing of the past, and there is only a despicable and disgusting real life. "After Louis Philippe left, some things never came back. Now it's time to sing another song. " (1) A mediocre writer may think that it is very difficult to extract themes from the daily life of the bourgeoisie, and their works have to resort to fabricated stories and bizarre plots, but Flaubert thinks that the power of literature lies not in the story itself, but in how the author narrates, describes and handles it. He regards the bourgeois mediocrity as the object of artistic description, and takes denying the bourgeois way of thinking and lifestyle as the basic theme of his creation. The contradiction revealed in Madame Bovary is the contradiction between pursuing romanticism and vulgar real life.

Flaubert's own thoughts also have profound contradictions between ideal and reality. He criticized the influence of romanticism all his life, which just reflected his disgust and despair of reality. He disdains to associate with the vulgar bourgeoisie and is out of step with society. He thinks that all upward struggles are futile, so he holds a negative attitude towards all desires or pursuits. He once told his girlfriend: "The concept I appreciate is absolute nothingness." This concept sets the tone for all his works. Indeed, except for the pursuit of beauty, he almost gave up all the pursuits of this world (including the pursuit of love). Flaubert combined his feelings and analysis of life in the image of Madame Bovary, and he wanted readers to see the real image of life from Madame Bovary. No wonder he said meaningfully to his friends, "Madame Bovary, it's me!" " " ①

The storm caused by Madame Bovary is enough to prove that an artist with profound skills can achieve the purpose of criticism and exposure through the combination of characteristic details and events he chooses, without directly expressing his feelings. Flaubert believes that "criticism, criticism and lessons are not what writers in the literary category can do, but" faithfully observe the essence of life and try their best to describe it. "②" If any enlightening conclusion is revealed from the work, it should be expressed naturally through the most appropriate factual description without the author's intention. "On the surface, the author of the novel said nothing about everything he described, but in fact, every detail is permeated with his analysis and judgment of objective things, but he doesn't want to make it clear. He let the facts speak for themselves and let the readers draw their own conclusions. Take Chapter 8 of Book II as an example. The author has never commented on this description of the "agricultural evaluation meeting", but he has painted a wonderful cartoon: people are bustling, decorated with lanterns, beating gongs and drums and firing guns, which is a solemn and grand holiday scene; Shops are busy soliciting business; The church office boy took the opportunity to earn extra money; Mr. pharmacist jumped up and down, bossing around; Rudolph used all his energy to seduce the doctor's wife; The state administrative Committee member is making a serious speech, talking in a high-profile way, which happens to form a crosstalk duet with Rudolph's artificial love story; There was all kinds of noise in the crowd, and the cattle and sheep were in a mess. Few words can reach the audience. Although the official praised the farmers to the skies in his speech, the workers who were commended at the appraisal meeting were not necessarily happy, nor were they more moved than the winning livestock. An old peasant woman has served in the grange for 54 years and won a silver medal and 25 francs. She is old and thin, with more wrinkles on her face than air-dried apples. In rags, two long hands stretched out from the sleeves. The dust in the barn, the alkaline water for washing clothes and the oil stains on the wool made her hands rough and hard. She was covered with a thick layer of skin, but she was still dirty even though she had just been washed with clean water. These wrinkled and unsmooth hands are the testimony of her half-century efforts, and the medal and twenty-five francs are her rewards. This is the first time she saw herself among such a large group of people, with flags, drums and crosses of masters and consultants in black tuxedos. She was scared and stood motionless, not knowing whether to go forward or escape ... Finally, she took the medal blankly, looked at it carefully, suddenly smiled happily and muttered that she would give it to the dean of the church. ..... The meeting ended and the crowd dispersed; Everyone went back to their original positions and continued to act according to their old habits: the master continued to abuse the employees, and the employees continued to whip the animals ... only adults and gentlemen sat down to eat and drink. Two days later, Emei published an eloquent article in the newspaper, reporting the grand exhibition and mentioning his name. ..... Such a description, how simple and true, but also contains how many wordless bitterness, how many wordless satire and criticism! The seemingly calm and straightforward description is so vivid and dynamic. Countless characters and noisy and chaotic scenes, like a symphony, are intertwined with Drunk Xiji, which makes people have to admire the writer's artistic skill.

It should be admitted that Flaubert's observation is as keen as Balzac and Standahr's, and his analysis of the characters' inner world is as detailed as theirs. Like them, Flaubert is not satisfied with describing the rough appearance of things, but tries to go deep into the "spirit and soul" of the object, understand its "deep desire", explore its "complex motivation of behavior" and reveal its "unexposed essence". But in Flaubert's view, all of the above are of great significance to literary creation, but they only occupy a secondary position compared with "style" and "structure". Flaubert's pursuit of beauty is fully reflected in this sentence. Some people think Flaubert has a tendency to pursue formal beauty unilaterally. In fact, the beauty of style he said is not divorced from the formal beauty of content. Flaubert can't imagine that the content of a work can be divorced from form, or that form can exist independently of content. He believes that the artist's duty is to seek the best artistic shell for what he wants to express. He once taught Mo Bosang: "A phenomenon can only be expressed in one way, can only be summarized by a noun, can only be described by an adjective, and can only be expressed by a verb. The writer's responsibility is to seek this unique noun, adjective and verb with superhuman efforts. " ①

Flaubert hates exaggeration and adjectives, especially posturing and affectation. The beauty he pursues is characterized by accuracy, conciseness and simplicity. On the surface, his works are unpretentious, and only by careful understanding can we know the infinite charm. Mo Bosang's evaluation of his art is "gorgeous and extremely plain" (2), which can be said to be just right.

Flaubert not only requires the structure of the article to be tight and the words to be accurate, but also requires the prose to be catchy, with poetic rhythm and beauty: "If a sentence can be read out to meet the breathing requirements, it can be said to be alive, and if it can be read out loud, it is good."

Flaubert is the most famous stylist in the history of French literature. His writing is clear and fluent, concise but not dry, concise and vivid, and is recognized as a model of French. Flaubert is not the kind of genius with quick thinking. His artistic achievement depends on hard work. He warned Mo Bosang many times: "Genius is perseverance." He believed in boileau's famous saying: "A fluent poem is difficult to write." Sometimes he sits at his desk all day and gets only a few hundred words. Sometimes he sweats to find an ideal word. Therefore, Flaubert once said with emotion: "Writing is a distressing profession, full of anxiety and exhausting efforts." ②

Flaubert has been engaged in writing all his life, but the number of finished products is small. There are only two novels with the theme of contemporary life ―― Madame Bovary and Emotional Education, two novels with the theme of historical legends ―― The Temptation of Sarampo and San Antonio, three stories composed of three short stories, and one unfinished novel ―― Bouffarde and Perucher. Generally speaking, Flaubert's novels reflect a much narrower life than Balzac and Standard, first of all, because his experience is far less rich and bumpy than those two writers. Flaubert is a property owner who lived a comfortable life in the manor left by his father for most of his life. He doesn't have to run for food and clothing, so he doesn't feel the hard struggle of those who run for food and clothing. He wants nothing from others materially, so he doesn't have to deal with the world by himself, so he lives in seclusion and only associates with a few confidants. In this way, his vision is greatly limited. He can't have Balzac's profound historical vision and grasp the trend of the whole era; It is impossible to predict the coming of the 1830 revolution with political sensitivity like Standahr. Flaubert himself admits that he "lacks a clear and holistic concept of life". He regards the ordinary daily life of the bourgeoisie as his whole life, but he can't see the budding new social contradictions and the development trend of the times. His lack of correct understanding of 1848 workers' uprising and the subsequent Paris commune revolution prevented him from correctly reflecting history and the spirit of the times in his works. Although his emotional education is broader than Madame Bovary, and even touches on such an important historical event as the 1848 Revolution, this is only the impression gained by an outsider. Although it is true, it has no three-dimensional effect. On the contrary, the real achievement of this novel is to create a bloodless "middle character" model like Moro. However, Flaubert's seclusion limited the verve and depth of his works, but ensured that he had enough energy to pursue artistic perfection. Flaubert does not need food and clothing, does not need to expect writing to provide a source of livelihood, and will not be forced or urged by publishers. He can carve it deliberately until he is satisfied. Therefore, compared with Balzac and Standahr, Flaubert is not so much a historian or thinker as an artist. From a macro point of view, his novels obviously can't reach Balzac's level and level in the depth and breadth of reflecting reality; But from the microscopic point of view, it has its own advantages over its predecessors. Mr. Li Jianwu, the predecessor of French literature in China, put it well: "Stanford is profound, Balzac is great, and Flaubert is perfect."