E. V. Kirichuk, N. E. Erofeeva
Dostoevsky Omsk State University, Omsk, Russian Federation
Russian State Hydrometeorological University, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
J. Barnes’ considerations about G. Flaubert’s prose: philological novel as a means of “profound reading”
To the 200th anniversary of Gustave Flaubert (1821-2021)
Abstract: The purpose of the article is to consider the works of the French writer G. Flaubert from the series “Three Tales” (“The Legend of Saint-Julian the Hospitaller” (1873-1876), “A Simple Soul” (February-August 1876), “Herodias” (1876-1877) in the interpretation of the modern English writer J. Barnes. A comparative analysis of previous assessments and approaches to the work of G. Flaubert in literary criticism and linguistics of the twentieth century is carried out. The letters of G. Flaubert became also the material of the study and they made it possible to build a hermeneutic analysis of the novel “A Simple Soul” and establish the connection of its plan with the denouement of the plot about the search for Braithwaite, the hero of Barnes. J. Barnes’s novel “Flaubert’s Parrot” and the story “A Simple Soul” determine two reading vectors: superficial and “profound”. Following the profound reading vector, we can consider the Flaubert’s story as the source of the philological novel by J. Barnes. This allows us to overcome the dominant postmodern approach to the works of these two writers.
Keywords: philological novel, French literature, English literature, Flaubert, reader, author, reading.
Paper submitted: December 7, 2021.
For citation: Kirichuk E. V., Erofeeva N. E. (2022). J. Barnes’ considerations about G. Flaubert’s prose: philological novel as a means of “profound reading”. Russian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 67–74. DOI: 10.17238/ issn1998-5320.2022.16.8.
