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söndag 4 december 2011

La Princesse de Clèves, une femme libre

La Princesse de Clèves; un exemple d’intégralité et d’intégrité elle peut fonctionner comme inspiration, bien rare aujourd’hui, pour les jeunes femmes de la génération Facebook
La Princesse de Cléves raconte un récit des trois personnes qui se rencontrent à la cour du Roi Henri II, mais les avaient pu se rencontrer aussi à l’époque de Mme de Lafayette et la cour de Louis XIV. Le cadre historique fait l’histoire plus intéressante et plus vraisemblable, et à la fois, plus facile d’écrire pour Mme de Lafayette en critiquant les mœurs de la cour ; sa politesse vide, son moral sexuel corrompu plein de commères et commers2 méchants.

Tout le monde à la cour, et dans le roman, vit les vies totalement inutiles dans un luxe honteux. Leurs existences sont seulement symboliques comme la vie des célébrités de nos jours. Cette fonction symbolique est marquée en particulière dans la scène du mariage à la fin de la troisième partie du roman où Mme de Lafayette se transforme d’un rapporteur de la passerelle : « Les reines et les princesses avaient toutes leurs filles magnifiquement habillées des mêmes couleurs qu’elles étaient vêtues : en sorte que l’on connaissait à qui étaient les filles par la couleur de leurs habits. » p.193 f. Ensuite, la cour mange : « Le roi, les reines les princes et princesses mangèrent sur la table de marbre dans la grande salle du palais […]. » p.194 Dans cette partie du roman Mme de Lafayette, aussi discrète que prudente, critique la vie luxueuse de la cour, une chose lamentable selon des jansénistes.

Pendant que la cour en totale symbolise la corruption des mœurs, la Princesse de Clèves symbolise la pureté, parmi des couleurs éclatantes elle est blonde, presque blanche « La magnificence et la galanterie n’ont jamais paru en France avec tant d’éclat que dans les derniers années du règne de Henri second. »p.37  « […] il fut surpris de la grande beauté de Mlle de Chartres, et il en fut surpris avec raison. La blancheur de son teint et ses cheveux blonds lui donnaient un éclat que l’on n’a jamais vu qu’à elle; tous ses traits étaient réguliers, et son visage et sa personne étaient pleins de grâce et de charmes. » p. 48

Madame de Lafayette écrivait ce roman dans une Europe où la reforme chrétienne avait répandu à l’église catholique. Un groupe autour l’évêque d’Ypres, Cornelius Jansen, les jansénistes avait son essor à l’époque quand Mme de Lafayette écrivait ce roman. Elle était janséniste, mais lesquels qu’on nomme ”jansénistes” ne veulent pas se protester comme rien que des membres de l’église Catholique. Ce mouvement s’intéresse d'abord à « une réflexion théologique centrée sur le problème de la grâce divine, avant de devenir une force politique qui se manifeste sous des formes variées, touchant à la fois à la théologie morale, à l'organisation de l'Église catholique, aux relations entre foi et vie chrétienne, à la place du clergé dans la société et aux problèmes politiques de son temps. »3

En outre Mme de Lafayette, pendant sa jeunesse, fait partie des salons dont lesquels les femmes de l’aristocratie se rencontrent pour discuter la situation de la femme, lire des romans nouveaux et écouter des lectures des romans précieux. Ces femmes et leurs romans, en étants les premiers féministes en France, étaient dénigrées et le roman précieux fut un nom péjoratif. Aujourd’hui les salons et les romans précieux sont réévalués; leurs œuvres sont appréciés pour sa langue pionnière et les discussions sur l’amour contre la liberté inspirent toujours des féministes. Selon les précieuses une femme libre pouvait nier ses émotions sexuelles, comme Mme de Clèves; « Elle ne sentait que le plaisir de voir M. de Nemours, elle en avait une joie pure et sans mélange qu’elle n’avait jamais sentie : cette joie lui donnait une liberté et un enjoument dans l’esprit que M. de Nemours ne lui avait jamais vus et qui redoublaient son amour. » p.158

Selon la définition des précieuses Mme de Clèves est une femme libre, alors elle est un exemple d’une femme pleine d’intégralité et d’intégrité. Mme de Clèves s’ouvre seulement aux autres personnes, elle garde soi-même et conserve la serrure de son cœur soigneusement, la serrure dont laquelle elle-même a les seules clés. Comme un exemple d’intégralité et d’intégrité elle peut fonctionner comme inspiration, bien rare aujourd’hui, pour les jeunes femmes de la génération Facebook.



fredag 11 november 2011

Christian Science

Mark Noll has written a new book; Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind. . In an interview in Christianity Today he says:
Many of the problems that have taken place in the so-called conflict between religion and science come from hasty conclusions. Right back to the Middle Ages, we have a long series of purportedly new discoveries in nature. The response by church leaders has often been, ”This can’t be possible.” Only a little while later would Christian people say, ”Here’s how it is possible.”

Neither Martin Luther nor John Calvin was at all willing to believe that the earth might move around the sun. But two generations later, all Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics agreed that in fact the earth did move around the sun. It would have been ideal for people to respond to the ideas of Copernicus and Galileo by saying, ”Well, let’s take our time and evaluate this apparent contradiction with Scripture as carefully and as patiently as possible.” What took place instead was an unnecessarily dogmatic reaction.

I’m not qualified to speak in detail about current problems. As a historian, I am qualified to say that less denunciation and more effort at patient study is the best way forward.

It is hard to express how much I agree with him. I cannot understand  why Christians of all people in the world are so hasty in denunciations and so readily get scared of scientific theories and discoveries when we should be the most harmonious and confident people in the world. If we are the children of the creator, what can we possibly fear from science?


lördag 12 mars 2011

Emma the Reader

Emma Bovary has some pleasant sides to her as well. One of those is her taste for reading. She really gets absorbed by reading novels. When she recovers from nervous illnesses reading helps her through. Flaubert suggests that reading is the beginning of the disaster for Emma, I prefer to think that her novels keeps her alive and gives her some solace when the world turns  cruel on her.


At the end of the novel she reads in a feverish haze to forget about all her creditors and the approaching disaster. She gets all her impressions from novels, of a rather doubtful character according to Flaubert. He is ardently eager to libel the romanticisme and it's constant concern with "le je", "me, myself and I". And in this I agree with Flaubert and the other realist authors, the society consists of many human beings living together.

One of Emma's mistakes is that she doesn't realize that she isn't alone in this world. Her self centered world view doesn't change although she reads a lot. And we teachers who always claim that reading novels makes you more aware of other people's feelings and improves the reader in almost every aspect of human behaviour. Flaubert seems to be of the opinion that it depends on what you read whether the reading will be good for you or not. I claim that it depends on with whom you read. 


I think it is always good to read in the company of others, if you never discuss what you read with others you spoil one of the greatest pleasures with reading as well as risking to miss a lot in your reading. There are other examples in history when reading became dangerous because it was kept in a secluded company, e.g. the murders in Kautokeino when some newly awakened followers of Laestadius murdered some of the authorities in Kautokeino after reading and misinterpreting the Bible.


Emma, Emma if you only had discussed your novels with your chamber maid or your friend Léon...

The baroque poet John Donne (1572-1631) wrote according to his Christian belief:
"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Devotions upon emergent occasions and seuerall steps in my sicknes - Meditation XVII, 1624


fredag 11 mars 2011

Emma and the men

Emma surrounded by her husband and suitors
Emma Bovary is most well known for her love affairs. Her love affairs made the French authorities prosecute Flaubert for being a threat to common decency. In his defence he claimed that the story is about the dangers love affairs and lavishness lead to. Emma is punished in the novel, no one would follow her example, she is there to set a BAD example, not an example which people were supposed to follow. So why punish him? Flaubert was acquitted.  
Emma and Léon

Indeed,  Flaubert and the society punished Emma severely for being a woman with more than one man in her love life. I find many faults with Emma, one is her constant strive for being better positioned in society and her following contempt for her husband who isn't status striving. On the contrary he felt most at ease when he lived in Toste and visited farms and homes of simple people.
Emma and Rodolphe


Emma, doesn't long for being the under - occupied wife of a country doctor. She longs for adventures together with a knight in shining armour, with a castle and servants and unlimited credit. So when she meets her soul-mate Léon and he falls madly and deeply in love with her she doesn't feel the same. She feels attracted to him but she doesn't recognize her feelings for the beautiful young Léon as feelings of love, she wants to be his friend. 

Whereas the seductive villain, Rodolphe, gets her full attention right from the start, since he seems to be everything she ever wanted; he has a castle and horses and he even looks like the knight she has dreamt of, and above all; he offers her to go riding with him. By this act of chivalry  he also offers Emma to be like him; Emma becomes the knight in shining armour mounting her own fiery steed.

I find Emma contradictory. Rodolphe is a middle aged man that I find disgusting, while Léon seems to be a rather interesting and kind young man. This is how Emma reacts all through the novel, she trusts the untrustworthy and cheats on the faithful friends she has, apart from Charles and Léon she never understands how much the young boy Justin loves her, or how much she lost when she lost her father -in-law. When she finally becomes the mistress of Léon she soon feels disgusted in his presence. Poor Emma, she is truly disabled by her want of ability to feel contentment. How human isn't she in that respect.




onsdag 2 mars 2011

Emma and Berthe

One of the most heart breaking passages in any novel I've read so far, is the passage in Madame Bovary where Emma, despite all customs, health precautions and traditions, visits her infant daughter Berthe where she is kept for the first months of her life. The baby is not with Emma and Charles, she is entrusted to an impoverished wet-nurse. Emma can't stand being alone without her daughter and rushes to see her at the nurse's, mère Rollet, house.
The house is not very tidy but little Berthe seems to have a rather good time there, being breast fed by a semi-starving woman. She vomits when Emma picks her up from her cot, so she must have some milk inside her. This seems to have been common among the middle class in France at the time period, for Flaubert doesn't hint at Emma doing something peculiar in sending her infant away like that. 

Small wonder Emma becomes more and more alienated from herself when she is not even allowed to bond with her own baby daughter. The rebellious act of seeing her daughter before the six weeks of seclusion after the delivery was over, shows that Emma had some common sense after all. Sadly she didn't bring her baby girl home. Instead she promises to buy some extra soap and coffee for the wet-nurse who have troubles getting enough sleep at night with the new born by her side.

When the baby moves back to her parents Emma shoves her away and shows her precious little attention and no affection at all. The little girl tries to reach for her absent minded mother:

«la petite Berthe était là, qui chancelait sur ses bottines de tricot et essayait de se rapprocher de sa mère pour lui saisor, par le bout, les rubans de son tablier.
- Laisse-moi! dit celle-ci en l'écartant avec la main.
La petite fille bientôt revint plus près encore contre ses genoux; et, s'y appuyant des bras, elle levait vers elle son gros œil bleu, pendant qu'un filet de salive pure découlait de sa lèvre sur la soie du tablier.
- Laisse-moi! répéta la jeune femme tout irritée. Sa figure épovanta l'enfant, qui se mit à crier.
-Eh ! laisse-moi donc! fit-elle en la repoussant du coude.
Berthe alla tomber au pied de la commode, contre la patère de cuivre; elle s'y coupa la joue, le sang sortit. Madame Bovary se précipita pour la relever [...]appela la servante de toutes ses forces, et elle allait commencer à se maudire [...]Berthe, en effet, ne sanglotait plus. Sa respiration, maintenant, soulevait insensiblement la couverture de coton. De grosses larmes s'arrêtaient au coin de ses paupières à demi closes, qui laissaient voir entre les cils deux prunelles pâlés, enfoncées;le sparardap, collé sur sa joue, en tirait obliquement la peau tendue.
- C'est une chose étrange, pensait Emma, comme cette enfant est laide!» p.180-181

Poor Berthe and poor Emma. What will become of them?

torsdag 24 februari 2011

La langue de Flaubert

Madame Bovary is an adventure to read in French, but one of the most beautiful adventures I've experienced. Flaubert's language is exquisite, every word fits like a glove, nothing stands out, nothing interrupts the smooth ride you are experiencing. Listen to this-yes listen-it's music:


«L'hiver fut rude. La convalescence de Madame fut longue. Quand il faisait beau, on la poussait dans son fauteuil auprès de la fenêtre, celle qui regardait la Place, car elle avait maintenant le jardin en anthipathie, et la persienne de ce côté restait constamment fermée(...) Cependant, la neige sur le toit des halles jetait dans la chambre un reflet blanc, immobile; ensuite, ce fut la pluie qui tombait» Flaubert, Madame Bovary p.281