The Censorship Effect: Baudelaire, Flaubert, And The Formation Of French Modernism
by William Olmsted /
2016 / English / PDF
15.5 MB Download
In 1857 the trials of Flaubert and Baudelaire for offending against
religion and public morality drew attention to the features we now
associate with literary modernism; but instead of winning praise
for their innovations they were indicted for "ideological crimes."
With the passage of time the offenses have been forgotten and the
innovations inserted into a triumphal narrative about the rise of
modernism.
In 1857 the trials of Flaubert and Baudelaire for offending against
religion and public morality drew attention to the features we now
associate with literary modernism; but instead of winning praise
for their innovations they were indicted for "ideological crimes."
With the passage of time the offenses have been forgotten and the
innovations inserted into a triumphal narrative about the rise of
modernism.
Far from manifesting the autonomy proclaimed by modernism's
defenders, though, Flaubert's and Baudelaire's works remain
enmeshed in their socio-historical contexts. To that end,
Far from manifesting the autonomy proclaimed by modernism's
defenders, though, Flaubert's and Baudelaire's works remain
enmeshed in their socio-historical contexts. To that end,The
Censorship Effect
The
Censorship Effect argues that the stylistic features that
prompted the criminal indictment of
argues that the stylistic features that
prompted the criminal indictment ofMadame Bovary
Madame Bovary and
andLes
LesFleurs du Mal
Fleurs du Mal--Flaubert's free indirect style
and Baudelaire's multiple poetic personae--were much more the
products of an intense struggle with a culture of censorship than
they were hallmarks of autonomous or autoreferential works of art.
They exhibit signs of self-censorship and collaboration with a
regime of ethical and political censorship that not only shaped
their very composition but affected their reception and continues
to operate in the field of literary criticism. Indeed, as William
Olmsted compellingly demonstrates, French modernism begins and
remains deeply embedded in a culture of censorship whose
proprieties, both literary and social, Baudelaire and Flaubert
nevertheless challenged and transgressed.
--Flaubert's free indirect style
and Baudelaire's multiple poetic personae--were much more the
products of an intense struggle with a culture of censorship than
they were hallmarks of autonomous or autoreferential works of art.
They exhibit signs of self-censorship and collaboration with a
regime of ethical and political censorship that not only shaped
their very composition but affected their reception and continues
to operate in the field of literary criticism. Indeed, as William
Olmsted compellingly demonstrates, French modernism begins and
remains deeply embedded in a culture of censorship whose
proprieties, both literary and social, Baudelaire and Flaubert
nevertheless challenged and transgressed.
Exploring the censorship effect as it played out for Baudelaire and
Flaubert, from their trials to their monuments,
Exploring the censorship effect as it played out for Baudelaire and
Flaubert, from their trials to their monuments,The Censorship
Effect
The Censorship
Effect recaptures some sense of their original anger as well
as its ongoing suppression by new orthodoxies and reveals how the
effect of censorship has implications beyond Flaubert and
Baudelaire, beyond authors, but for us as readers too.
recaptures some sense of their original anger as well
as its ongoing suppression by new orthodoxies and reveals how the
effect of censorship has implications beyond Flaubert and
Baudelaire, beyond authors, but for us as readers too.
