| Show 1 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + t + + + + + + + + + + + + + it + + + i 1 i jl u 1 ERLOS i < + j r J s + t < + i Hn Stu1 C1riThi l + + + + Copyright l by Seymour Eaton 4 t Dix ted by Prof Seyixioifr Eato t + + 4 + 44 + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7 + + + + + + + + + + + + 44 + + + 1 I I THEE cENTURIES OF FRENCH LIEATT Contributors to this course Brander Matthews LL D Benjamin W Wells Ph D Jean Charlemagne BracQ A D A1cee Forter D Lt H Morse Stephens M A and other specialists In romance literature XXII NATURALISTS I FRENCH i CIO TIn T-In the middle third or the nineteenth century the dominant feature of the imaginative literature of France was romanticism and certain aspects or phases ot romanticism have ever since remained pnmlnent character tics of that literature But the mode of thought the ideal or art hich above all oters has been the dominant feature fea-ture of French imaginative literature In the present or last third of the century cen-tury Is naturalism Naturalism Is sometimes confounded with realism But naturalism differs J I EDMON DE OliCURT I from realism in this way Realism re fer mainly to the methods emplQyed by the literary artist In the achievement I te lteran artst ment of his object naturalism Includes I hIs whole conception of art not only its methods but its alms In a gep I eral way it may be said that all nat rlst are realists but It cannot be said that all realists are naturalists Ralac for example was in the main a realist But he was not In the maIn realst a naturalist In the prosecution of his art he portray things as he saw them exact photographically But in his ideal of art he felt himself con cemed with the moral relation of ef fects to causes that is to say with the quality of human acton as exempH led under the Seat determIning influences influ-ences of heredity environment opportunity oppor-tunity and the like He was an artist ar-tist but he was a philosopher as well But the true naturalist Is not a philosopher phil-osopher and makes no pretension to be one He Is not concerned with the moral relation of effects and causes He i concerned only with phenomena and their sequences as such He hn no thesis to prove no precept to cn forc He neither commends nor condemns con-demns As to gIving my opinion about the personages In my novels said Flaubert no no a thousand times no I do not admIt my right to an opinion His purpose Is simply to par tray life Not objective life merely or C k t T I 1 I 1 I f JE5 E GONCOUT material life but psychic life moral life Fiction said Goncourt is the history of contemporary morals The true naturalist denies the necessity of any such motive He Is concerned only in producing an impresIon Art for arts sake IS his one guidIng principle This prInple or Ideal of art art for arts sake was indeed first put forward for-ward by one who was not a naturalist proper but an avowed romanticist Theophile Gauter But the phrase was soon adopted by the naturalists as an expression of their theory and it is iq i deed the best expression tr their theory that i is possible to give I contains In the germ ever element or their theory the-ory I is Flnubert 8211880 that the avowed school of naturalists In French fiction generally regard as their founder found-er Flauberts theory of art was indeed in-deed precIse and definite Ad for arts sake was his guiding prInciple and he acknowledged no end in fiction but the artistic one and no methods but those that were rigidly scientific But Elaubert by reason of inherited and other Infuences was quite as much i romantIcist as a naturalist Quite n much m idealist as n lealst HIs therefore is but the connecting link between be-tween the old order or thing and the new In hIs style however Flaubert belongs wholly to the latter sch091 t The GoncourtsElmond de Goncourt i U8221S95 and Jules de Goncourt 1830 1869are perhaps the real founders of the naturalistic school Their joint novel Gennlnie Lacertemc published In lS65 was yearn later pronounceq by Edond Goncourt the model or all that has since been constructed undc the name of realism or naturalism and so lt has generally been regarded The publication ot this noel was indeed in-deed an epochal event In the history or French literature It was thc first instance In-stance in fiction of the presentation of a slice of crude life as an achievement achieve-ment of literary art With It the novel became an instrument In the investigation investiga-tion or the psychic and moral phenomena phenom-ena of the lowest classes of society Humanity was seen to be a thing or mire and muck as well as of superIor strata The way was openEd the pace was set the word was given for the al1embracln Imumanistic portraiture or ZolaNaturalism Naturalism has had but few poets eeonte de Lisle 818189 the mOst conspicuous poet France has had during I dur-Ing the last half century was how eyer an avowed and militant natural I fgL Art for arts sake the denial of a final purpose In art the love of beauty art as a thing in itself divine the regard I 11 1 for style as a thing In itself admirable I the impersonality of the artist the identification of art with scIence were Identficatlon all so many points In his conscious and I acknowledged theory I The greater naturlstsDaudet Zola and Guy de fnupassanthave still to be mentioned but these will have sep prate treatment Yet even to mention I these great names recalls the fac that naturlsm like every other theory of art has had its infinitude of exemplification exemplifi-cation As was the case with romanticism roman-ticism naturalism had scarcely begun to exIst n a definite working theory i before it began to show sIgn of differentiation I differ-entiation I Naturl1m is devoid of objective purpose pur-pose But such a theory of art can i never long be held by the ardent spirits or any age De VIg 7991864 though one of the earliest romanticist IJn time ceased to be one But he never i became a naturalist 1 am an epic I moralist he said And these words express what many another great soul of the century despite thc Influence of naturalism has essayed to be i Art cannot long be dIssociated from morals The ethical spirit of an age j i twill In time make itself felt whether art wills I or not What Is art without with-out the hearts and intelgences to which It minIsters exclaimed George Sand and that is the underlying feeling feel-Ing that sustains the work or most great artists We are lost saId Dumas Du-mas the younger In reference to his art If we do not hasten to press I into theservice of the great social reforms re-forms and the great hopes of humanity human-ity Ali lit mrature he saId again the aim of which Is not perfectibility moralization the ideal in a word the useful Is a weakly unwholesome stillborn born literature But the last word shall be from Tame Tame who was hImself for many years the man upholder oC the nat uraUsUe reed although In the end he acknowledged the fruitlessness or that creed The value of a work of art Is he degree in which its character makes for good I |
