Authors’ names:
- Svetlana N. Averkina, Anton Yu. Kurmelev, Ilia A. Bekin – Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia
Abstract:
The article explores the reception of G. Flaubert’s fiction and the dialogue with “the Flaubertian tradition” in the work of the Swiss writer Lucas Linder. Brought up on world classics such as F. Dostoevsky, Fr. Kafka, M. Frisch, and Fr. Durrenmatt, Linder considered the author of Salammbô to be his teacher in stylistics and saw himself as a successor of Flauber’s tradition. The purpose of the present study is to examine typological similarities between Flauber and Linder’s work, especially focusing on the two authors’ motifs and motivation and looking at their exploration of such topics as the harmfulness of the petty bourgeois view of the world; the passion of the modern man for vulgarity; the tendency to primitivize one’s perception of reality reflected in modern conflicts and expectations; man’s inability to achieve perfection in his professional life; and seeing the work of a writer as a religious duty. Using the methods of comparative and cultural-historical analysis and close reading, the authors examine the dramas and novels by L. Linder (with an emphasis on the tragicomedy Der Mann in der Badewanne and the novels Der Letzte meiner Art and Der Unvollendete) and five novels by Flaubert as well as his essays and journal notes, and conclude that both writers see the origins of their spiritual crises in the lack of lofty ideals accompanied by immersion in a system of false values, the main of which are comfort and prosperity. Both writers agree that possessions and material wealth, banal thoughts and actions gradually dehumanize people, turning them into puppets who obediently repeat truths invented for them, and thus seek a way out of this trap. Flaubert, a classic of Naturalism, sees writing as an act of self-denial, which can distract him from temptations of reality, while Linder seeks to desensationalize what is happening, using irony to turn events into a farce, showing the absurdity of his characters’ actions, and addressing the uselessness of their automated communication. Both Flaubert and Linder strive to overcome the alienation of modern man from reality through their own work of writing.
| Section | CROSS-CULTURAL ASPECTS OF LITERARY DISCOURSE |
| DOI: | 10.47388/2072-3490/lunn2023-64-4-254-269 |
| Downloads | 75 |
| Key words | Лукас Линдер; Гюстав Флобер; рецепция; классическая литература; типологические связи; мотивная система текста |