THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL COLOUR SYMBOLISM IN THE WORKS OF GUSTAVE FLAUBERT being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Hull by PAUL ANDREW TIPPER, B.A. (hons). October 1989 Summary of Thesis submitted for PhD Degree by Paul Andrew Tipper on Colour Symbolism in the Works of Gustave Flaubert The thesis adopts a structural and systematic approach to the study and analysis of colour terms in Flaubert's fiction. The Introduction highlights how Flaubert has come to be regarded as a problematic writer and how much existing work on his colour terms is in some way lacking in clarity. I proceed to fill this gap in Flaubert studies by elaborating a method of analysis of colour terms which clarifies how meaning is produced by the text. The method of analysis comprises eight stages which are systematically worked through as one considers eleven variables, one or several of the latter coming into play at any stage in the method and which may influence the ultimate type and degree of value—charge carried by a colour term. The method and the variables should be thought of as one ensemble or a methodology for the analysis of colour terms in prose fiction. The methodology is highly refined and is without precedent in that I examine the dual exchange of figurative charging which is always operational between a colour term and its associated referent. The thesis is divided into five chapters where each text is studied separately. The Oeuvres de Jeunesse are experimental writings and Flaubert is testing the figurative potential of colour terms. The chromatic codification is mainly traditional, though a nascent private elaboration may be discerned. Madame Bovary represents the peak of literary perfection. All the novel's colours contribute to the overall illusion/reality dichotomy which lies at the heart of the text. SalanHa exploits colour within a relatively limited symbolic arena. Blanc and rouge underscore the moon/sun opposition with the associated male/female opposition. L'A'ducation sentimentale illustrates, once more, the central illusion/reality dichotomy and rouge/rose are exploited with subtle figurative dimensions in order to bring out differences between the profane and pure woman. Trois con tes display a reduced colour palette but each tale uses colour to a specific symbolic end. Un Coeur simple uses bleu in connection with saintliness; Saint Julien exploits blanclnoir in connection with female/male space and human/ animal space; Herodias uses rouge/bleu to underscore essential differences between flesh and spirit. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .I should very much like to thank the following individuals and institutions for the significant contributions they have made to my research and to the completion of this thesis: the British Academy for a Major State Studentship; my supervisor, Tony Williams, for his help and advice and without whose expert guidance the writing of this thesis would not have been possible; to the French Department of the University of Hull; to the staff of the Brynmor Jones Library (University of Hull); finally to family and friends for encouragement and unstinting moral support. CONTENTS page INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter 1 The Oeuvres de Jeunesse: The Quest for Structural and Thematic Unity .... .. .. .. 20 Chapter 2 Madame Bovary: The Perfection of a Symbolics .. 104 Chapter 3 Sala= 8: A Polychromatic Extravaganza .. .. 188 Chapter 4 L'Education sentimentale: Diametrical Oppositions and Semantic Encoding „ 224 Chapter 5 Trois Contes: Literality, Ambivalence and Deflation„ .. .. .. .. .. .. 252 CONCLUSION .. .. .. APPENDIX .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 322 BIBLIOGRAPHY.. .. .• .. .. .. .. .. INTRODUCTION The mainstay of much recent Flaubert criticism focuses upon the writer's notoriety as a disturber of fictional peace. In his writings there is an evident shift from the 'comfortable' and readily available signification yielded by the classic nineteenth—century texts to Flaubert's own brand of textual meaning which is, by general admission, problematic. Indeed, his novels have come to be accepted as forerunners of the twentieth—century TerAer/y texts associated with modernists like Barthes and Sarraute. As we read, we not only enjoy the spectacle of the text writing itself, as it were, but as readers are indispensable to the very process of literary production. It is for this reason that Flaubert is regarded as a difficult writer. The reputation he continues to enjoy has given rise to a flourishing critical output, both imaginative and authoritative, and which seeks to exhaust his richly allusive fiction. Some of the more detailed studies on him concentrate on various aspects of his style, namely imagery, symbolism and patterns of allusion, all of which form an integral part of the substructure of his narratives. This substructure, or le dessous as Flaubert termed it, is a meticulous organization of symphonically orchestrated detail, seething with symbolic potential (frequently mythical or religious) and which is ultimately assimilated into that mystical and harmonious whole which he conceived of as la forme. Flaubert's celebrated doctrine of impassibility favoured the elaboration of a style which would enable the reader to experience directly his text without authorial guidance. Flaubert desists from moralizing or from passing direct judgement on his characters, preferring to shape our inferences through patterns of poetic symbolism which in their own right afford him an effective means of metacommentary on human affairs. Any reader who has a genuine interest in Flaubert will not fail to notice his liberal and often remarkable use of colour terminology which, when deftly manipulated, can easily make us feel we are looking at an Impressionist canvas in all its sumptuous iridescence and liquefied luminosity. This is most apparent when intense and striking hues are made to foregather 1 around a particular tableau. Critics such as Pierre Monnier , Jacques de la 2 3 Varende and Jean Canu have long since drawn attention to this facet of Flaubert's work, demonstrating how pictorial effects achieved in his narratives are the results of his careful note-taking during trips to the East where infinitely resplendent tonalities almost overloaded his sensory 4 capacities. Don Demorest in his pioneering study makes much the same point, but goe3 astep further by pointing to vistas of figurative import discernible in Flaubert's colour terms. In addition to all this, the abundance of colour terms in the Correspondance reveal his predilection for sensory effects - recorded with unreflecting spontaneity - and bleu, in particular, is at once linked with a sentimentalism he discredited and with the beauty of poetry. Fortunately, for our purposes at least, we have today much more ambitious studies on Flaubert. The figurative possibilities of colour have been delineated in several articles which touch upon the notion of colour as representing a fundamental element in Flaubert's aesthetic vision. The fact that more attention has been paid to Flaubert's use of colour than to that of any other nineteenth-century writer suggests that his exploitation of it is a more salient and noteworthy feature of his writings. Studies range (1) 'Gustave Flaubert coloriste', Mercure de France (1.12.21), 401-417. (2) Grands Normands, etudes sentimentales, 1939. (3) 'La Couleur normande de Madame Bovary', Publications for the Modern Language Association of America (XLVIII), 167-208. (4) L'Expression figur ge et symbolique dans l'oeuvre de Flaubert, Les Presses Modernes, Conard, Paris, 1931. -3 from brief footnotes to more comprehensive examinations dealing with colour as an integral and atypical aspect in its own right. There are three American 5 theses and one German doctoral thesis to date which consider some of the uses Flaubert makes of colour terms in his fiction. There exists also a wealth of material in the form of articles focusing on particular colour terms, often 6 in Madame Bovary , and many others looking at colour usage in well-known 7 modern works of fiction . The area of concern is with bleu, predominantly, though some critics touch upon symbolic signification issuing from rouge, (5) Judith-Poole Knapp, 'Madame Bovary: The Dialectics of Color and Light', Dissertation Abstracts International, 41 (1980-81), 1629A, University of Arizona, 1980. Robert F. Allen, 'A Study of the Adjective in the Characterization of Style in Le Rouge et le noir, Le Pere Goriot, Madame Bovary', Dissertation Abstracts International, 28 (1967-68), 3629A-3630A, University of Colorado, 1967. Radmila Lapov, 'Le Vetement dans l'Oeuvre de Flaubert', DAI, 43 (1982-83), 178A, University of Maryland, 1981. An earlier version of this thesis was, indeed, 'Colour Symbolism in the Works of Flaubert'. Inge Zimmermann, 'Farbsymbolik und Handlungsstruktur im Romanwerk Flauberts' University of Bonn, 1968. (6) B.F. Bart, 'Flaubert's Documentation goes awry or what Colour were Emma Bovary's Eyes?', Romance Notes, 5 (1963-64), 138. William Bysshe Stein, 'Madame Bovary and Cupid Unmasked', Sewanee Review, 73 (1965), 197-209. Jutta Lietz, 'Zur Farbsymbolik in Madame Bovary', Romanistisches Jahrbuch, 18 (1967), 89-96. Stirling Haig, 'The Madame Bovary Blues', Romanic Review, 61 (1970), 27-34. Ole Wehner Rasmussen, 'La Signification de l'adjectif Ole dans Madame Bovary, Revue Romane, 7 (1972), 26-31. Rita S. Mall, 'The Dream-Merchants: Musicians in Madame Bovary', Hartford Studies in Literature, 2 (1979), 185-96. Phillip A. Duncan, 'Symbolic Green and Satanic Presence in Madame Bovary', Nineteenth Century French Studies, 13, nos. 2 & 3 (winter-spring 1985), 99-104. (7) See my Bibliography. — 4 -- dore, jaune and rose. With special reference to Flaubert, much of the critical material is diffuse, highly subjective and fails to accentuate the importance of the internal rigour of Flaubert's narrative structures. Close study of these surveys reveals that there is still much room for a systematic analysis of colour terms. What I propose to do is to draw upon the material already at hand, develop it methodically and analyse the figurative impact of colour terms in all of Flaubert's principal writings with the aid of a new methodology.