| Summary: | This thesis examines the conception of style in Sentimental Education as a pure formal beauty. The first part of the study traces the evolution of this conception by analysing the thought of several critics : A. Thibaudet, R. Barthes, L. Cellier and J.-P. Duquette. This analysis leads us to claim that the conception of style as an ornament is conditioned by a certain interpretation of the novel : the fact that Frédéric and his friends have not brought their efforts to a close is considered as a failure and Flaubert is branded as a pessimist. Since the examined critics are annoyed by this in-achievement of the narrated tasks, they need to compensate it with something achieved : a perfect beauty. Thus, it's a desire of the absolute that shows through this conception of style. Postulating that style and sense are two inseparable phenomena, the second part of the study shows that this desire is exactly what the novel seeks to dissuade us from. Our analysis reveals in the text a systematic use of irony, which suggests the destruction of the missions imposed to the characters at the same time that these are narrated to us. Thus, the aspirations for the absolute (for the unity) are esposed through the expectations of the reader.
|
|---|
