Flaubert Postsecular: Modernity Crossed Out

by Barbara Vinken

Overview

By his national affiliation and choice of genre, French novelist Gustave Flaubert can be considered emblematic of modernity. This book showcases his specific and highly refined imaginary as at once unique and symptomatic of an era. In particular, it contributes to the controversial discussion of modernity's relation to religion. At a time when new religious fundamentalisms throughout the world are on the rise, this has only become a more pressing issue.

Through this single acclaimed author, we realize that modernity can only be understood in terms of its critical rewriting of religious dogma. Strikingly, already in Flaubert, this rewriting emerges in conjunction with questions of the Orient and Orientalism. Flaubert's Orient is an Other that is always already within Western society. By highlighting the complexity of the relation between religion, modernity, and the Oriental, Barbara Vinken's discussion of these issues goes beyond simple binaries. Her Flaubert Postsecular is a model of scholarly research with far-reaching political implications.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804780650
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	07/15/2015
Series:	Cultural Memory in the Present
Edition description:	Translatio
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Barbara Vinken is Professor of Comparative Literature and Romance Philology at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich. Her books include Fashion Zeitgeist: Trends and Cycles in the Fashion System (2004).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Crossed Out 1

Scriptural Kenosis 4

The Cross of History 15

"Quidquid volueris": The Monstrosity of Civilization 23

Madame Bovary: Mæeurs de province-Provincial Manners 33

Eating, Loving, Reading 33

The Passion of Madame Bovary 48

The Scapegoat and Homo Sacer 52

Sex and Slaughter 56

The Roman Spectre of Proscription 66

Arachne, Deadly Eros 70

Phaedra; Foot by Foot 76

Gender Equality Before God 80

Salammbo 89

The Fruit of Passion: Carthage Lives 89

The Fulfillment and Inversion of Christ: Mercenaries and Carthaginians 103

The Perversion of Kenosis: The Carthaginians and Their Sacrifices 117

A Kenosis of Kenosis: The Mercenaries' Eucharist and Sacrifice of Love 125

Venus and Mars 130

Infelix Dido 137

Regarding Representability: The quid pro quo of Fabric and Skin 143

A Sentimental Education: The Story of a Young Man 157

Paris/Rome: Flaubert's Pharsalia 157

Paris/Babel: Love and Politics 182

Loveless: Equality, Fraternity 190

Negative Typology: Histories of Calamity 199

The Topos of Babel 201

Reading Illegibility 209

Bengal Lighting 213

Sentimental Idolatry 221

Madonnas and Whores 231

Ave Maria: Carnalizarion of the Spiritual 234

Republican Hope: Stabat Mater and Brothel 250

Three Tales 256

Common Speech: Realism and Christianity 256

Flaubert's Cathedral: Notre-Dame de Rouen 265

"A Simple Heart" 277

A Legend of Modernity 277

Fatal Fortune: The Ruined State of the "World 281

Mothers, Carnal and Spiritual 284

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary: Birds and Bees? 293

The Holy Ghost Upside Down: Parrot Stories 308

"Saint Julian the Hospitalier" 312

Nimrod, Mighty Hunter in Defiance of the Lord 312

Marked by God 323

Inverted Conversion 330

"Hérodias" 337

Iaokanann, or the Birth of the Roman Church out of the Demon Babel 337

Incest and Fratricide According to Flavius Josephus 358

Perverted Eucharist: Aulus Vitellius's Great Pig-Out 364

Resurrection and the Pentecost Turned Upside Down: The Dance of Salome 370

Notes 383

Select Bibliography 437

Editorial Reviews

"This book is not only one of a handful of the best works to have come out on Flaubert in a very long time; it is also, and in so many ways, paradigmatic for literary studies today."—Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Stanford University

"Flaubert Postsecular opens up an entirely new perspective not only onto Flaubert as an emblematic figure of literary modernity, but also onto modernity itself. After Vinken's book, we will have to renegotiate what it means to be 'absolutely modern.'"—Susanne Lüdemann, author of Politics of Deconstruction: A New Introduction to Jacques Derrida (2014)

"Flaubert Postsecular is a fine addition to Flaubert studies that will prove useful, in particular to readers interested in the Classics, myths, and religions; Vinken excels on these topics."—Éric Le Calvez, Nineteenth-Century French Studies

From the Publisher

"Flaubert Postsecular opens up an entirely new perspective not only onto Flaubert as an emblematic figure of literary modernity, but also onto modernity itself. After Vinken's book, we will have to renegotiate what it means to be 'absolutely modern.'"

Susanne Lüdemann

"This book is not only one of a handful of the best works to have come out on Flaubert in a very long time; it is also, and in so many ways, paradigmatic for literary studies today."

Stanford University - Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht

"Flaubert Postsecular opens up an entirely new perspective not only onto Flaubert as an emblematic figure of literary modernity, but also onto modernity itself. After Vinken's book, we will have to renegotiate what it means to be 'absolutely modern.'"

author of Politics of Deconstruction: A New Introduction to Jacques Derrida (2014) - Susanne Lüdemann

"Flaubert Postsecular is a fine addition to Flaubert studies that will prove useful, in particular to readers interested in the Classics, myths, and religions; Vinken excels on these topics."

Nineteenth-Century French Studies - Éric Le Calvez

"Flaubert Postsecular is a fine addition to Flaubert studies that will prove useful, in particular to readers interested in the Classics, myths, and religions; Vinken excels on these topics."

Éric Le Calvez