Imagery and ideology : fiction and painting in nineteenth-century France

the Department of French and Italian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, surrounded by supportive colleagues: Laurey Martin-Berg read the entire manuscript; Richard Goodkin, Deborah Jenson, Nicholas Rand, and Steven Winspur read various chapters. I hope they will recognize and approve the traces of their suggestions, for which I thank them very much. I am also grateful for the advice of colleagues in other Departments: Thomas Gompars and Marsely Kehoe from Art History; Anne Lambert and Drew Stevens from The Chazen Art Museum; Kelley Conway, David Bordwell, and Jean-Pierre Golay from Communication Arts. At a time when publishing books in the Humanities is particularly difficult, I am especially thankful to Professor Donald Mell and the Board of Editors of the University of Delaware Press for their confidence and suggestions, which, along with those of the outside reader and inside reviewer, have been extremely helpful in shaping the final form of the book, a process efficiently expedited by Karen Druliner. Working with the staff at Associated University Presses, which handles editorial and production functions for the University of Delaware Press and several other university presses, has been a great pleasure: Julien Yoseloff has given swift and sound advice, Maryann Hostettler has produced a striking cover, Laura Rogers has provided a very thorough copy edit and a highly thoughtful index, and Christine Retz has become a true friend (both despite and because of our differing football allegiances). Tracking down and securing permissions for the book's thirty illustrations has been a particularly challenging process, greatly aided by the following scholars and museum personnel: Literature Is Ostensibly A Sequential And Thus Temporal Medium, And Painting A Static And Spatial One; Yet Writers Like George Sand And Emile Zola Have Attempted Repeatedly To Represent Visual And Spatial Phenomena In Literary Texts, Just As Painters Like Eugene Delacroix And Claude Monet Have Sought Consistently To Capture Effects Of Time And Movement On Canvas. The Incorporation Of Elements From One Medium Into Another Creates A Dynamic Interplay Of Image And Ideology, Both Between Art Forms And Within Individual Texts And Paintings, Which Constitutes The Crux Of This Book.^ Each Chapter Involves The Detailed Analysis Of A Text And A Painting, Related Through Topic, Theme, And Technique, In Order To Explore Various Modalities And Layers Of Meaning In Nineteenth-century French Art, Both Verbal And Visual. The Introduction Presents A Variety Of Views On The Relationship Between Literature And Painting, Ranging From Their Incompatibility, To Their Similarity, Even Interchangeability, To The Superiority Of Painting Versus That Of Literature. An Initial Chapter Looks Back Before The Revolution To Corneille's Horace And David's Rendition, Le Serment Des Horaces, To Examine The Architectural Solidity Of Neoclassical Art. Architecture Falls To Ruin In Romantic Works Like Chateaubriand's Atala, Where The Overt Message Of Christian Control Is Undermined By The Sensuous Natural Imagery And Self-indulgent Individualism, An Ambivalence Preserved In Girodet's Adaptation, La Mise Au Tombeau D'atala.^ Balzac's Le Chef D'oeuvre Inconnu And Daumier's Pygmalion Contain Portraits That Involve New Techniques Of Caricatural Realism. Stendhal's Le Rouge Et Le Noir And Hugo's Les Miserables, Like Delacroix's La Liberte Guidant Le Peuple, Use Light And Color Symbolism To Comment On The Revolution Of 1830 And Its Ideological Ramifications. Sand In La Mare Au Diable And Millet In Le Semeur Undercut Traditional Models To Create Portraits Of Rural Heroes. Flaubert In Herodias And Huysmans In A Rebours Parallel Moreau In Salome And L 'apparition In Using The Figure Of Salome To Posit Paradoxes Of Sensuality And Spirituality. Like Zola In Le Ventre De Paris, Manet In His Rue Mosnier Series Creates Conflicting Images To Produce First Irony, Then Ideology.^ In Une Partie De Campagne, Maupassant Uses Gazes From Renoir's La Balancoire To Uncover And Undermine Gender Roles, As Does Jean Renoir In His Film Adaptation Of Maupassant's Tale. The Last Chapter Looks To The Contemporary Algerian Woman Writer Assia Djebar, Who Juxtaposes Delacroix's Femmes D'alger Dans Leur Appartement And Picasso's Femmes D'alger To Create A Series Of Visual Oppositions That Enable The Reader To Construct An Ideological Framework From Which To Evaluate Her Elusive Story. The Conclusion Locates Common Strands Among All The Works To Formulate Several Principles Of Modernity And Propose Ways Of Reading In The Modern Mode.--jacket. Introduction : Imagery And Ideology : Literature And Painting -- Ideology Laid Bare : Corneille And David -- Imagery And Conflicting Ideologies : Chateaubriand And Girodet -- The Modern Pygmalion : Balzac And Daumier -- Les Trois Glorieuses : Stendhal, Delacroix, And Hugo -- Idealizing The Image Of The Peasant : Sand, Holbein, And Millet -- Salome's Dance : Flaubert, Moreau, And Huysmans -- From Imagery To Ideology : Maupassant, Monet, And Renoir Père Et Fils -- Kaleidoscopic Images Of Algerian Women : Delacroix, Picasso, And Djebar -- Conclusion : Reading In The Modern Mode. William J. Berg. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 244-258) And Index. Literature is ostensibly a sequential and thus temporal medium, and painting a static and spatial one; yet writers like George Sand and Emile Zola have attempted repeatedly to represent visual and spatial phenomena in literary texts, just as painters like Eugene Delacroix and Claude Monet have sought consistently to capture effects of time and movement on canvas. The incorporation of elements from one artistic medium into another creates a dynamic interplay of image and ideology, both between art forms and within individual texts and paintings, which constitutes the crux of this book. Each chapter involves the detailed analysis of a text and a painting, related through topic, theme, and technique. By juxtaposing the works of ten major writers and ten painters of comparable stature, the book explores the various modalities and layers of meaning in nineteenth-century French art, both verbal and visual, and proposes ways of reading the ambivalent artifacts of "modernity." Illustrated. By juxtaposing the works of ten major writers and ten painters of comparable stature, this book explores the various modalities and layers of meaning in nineteenth-century French art, both verbal and visual. It proposes ways of reading the ambivalent artifacts of ""modernity.