Lecture notes
Flaubert Lecture 3 - Religion, Science, Spirituality
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- University Of Oxford
Notes on a lecture regarding representations of religion, science and spirituality in Flaubert's literary œuvre.
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Flaubert Lecture 3- Society divided along Catholic majority / anticlerical more scientific side. Relates to
political divisions : Catholics more likely be legitimists, anticlericals associated re-
formists (republicans, bonapartists, orléaniste).
- Lots new scientific theories about age of the Earth, schism in socio, where does
Flaubert fit? = on side anticlericals. Family = anticlerical doctors who look to science
to provide answers. = Nouveau Penseur, questions old systems.
- But fascinated spirituality + human quest for transcendence, outside of religious in-
stitutions.
- Bêtises in religion and science > Flaubert shows both with repetition. Relig bêtises =
taking material for the spitirual, the signifier for the signified. Madame Bovary > im-
portance institutionalised religion : convent for bourgeois education (= source of
many woes). But said to not be spiritual, = attracted to material aspects Catholic
life, not actual meanings, just things that appeal to the senses. Reads from illus-
trated prayer book > vignettes = visual equivalent idées reçues > no originality, just
repeated facile pathos. Part Emma’s sensual response to world, ready-made version
spirituality. Sexuality titillated by comparisons God/lover. When kisses crucifix > in
death, still kissing naked man rather than spiritual depth. Intermittent passion
Catholicism, but always external manifestations of faith.
- Religion as shopping, replace romantic love with more lasting religion but only exte-
rior trappings, material objects + their beauty, focus spirituality on materialistic
urges.
- In Salammbô too > necessity to touch representation of God, material sensual mani-
festation spirituality.
- = linked bodily urges, that undermine the spiritual, especially present in Hérodias.
Sacrifice = part of story > but physical image of heaviness head = more present
than spiritual significance of sacrifice.
- Juxtaposition and plurality in religion too : Bournisien : figure church but not of spiri-
tuality (name suggests borné nature). Provides material solution to spiritual issues
(tea for Emma’s depression). = judged to be anticlerical because during veillée
Bournisien and Homais, juxtaposition : both debate standard clichés of anticlerical/
cleric > modern + old-fashioned : but neither can help Charles’ grief, both fall
asleep during wake > prey to human physical weakness. So undermines both
claims.
- Other religions undermined too, because rejection of all dogma but fascinated all re-
ligions.
- Hérodias has many different versions of faith present, Messiah welcomed in different
ways by them : repetition undermines all, leeches out all sense of distinction.
- Flaubert not telling us science = answer, not exempt levelling effect > no real truth
if just materialism and not real meaning. True for religion too.
- Homais’ scientific jargon = proof of this. Sounds impressive but not actually useful,
just repeats definitions rather than actual use. Molière mocks as well. Homais =
omits, + homo > all of us, we are all little men. Gets croix d’honneur at end, = vil-
lain without the allure, just useless and slimy > not aware of own evil, v self right-
eous, not conscious evil, = incarnation of bêtise.
- Flaubert stays within naturalistic explanation > supernatural always in bounds of re-
ality. But not offer scientific truth in any character : Charles = figure failed truth,
failed doctor. But even real doctors not very useful. Questions of whether medicine
should stay in traditions, but also experimental perceptions (Larivière, like Flaubert’s
father) > but both fail in Emma’s death, authorial impersonality doesn’t allow us to
know what to think, v objective clarity > becomes confusing at times, because
avoids definitive conclusions. Flaubert observes, not concludes in science.
- But Flaubert loves legendary > between religion and science > both claim truth but
legends don’t : can contain some version of it but not work in same way. Fascination
inner impulse towards the sacred, beneath organised religion + symbol into some-
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