Home >> The Modern Language Review, Volume 103, Number 3

The Epistemology of the Mantelpiece: Subversive Ornaments in the novels of Guy de Maupassant

Author: Counter, Andrew J.

Source: The Modern Language Review, Volume 103, Number 3, 1 July 2008 , pp. 682-696(15)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

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Abstract:

This article examines episodes from three novels by Guy de Maupassant, Notre Cœur (1890), Bel-Ami (1885), and Pierre et Jean (1888), and analyses how mantelpieces and ornaments become a privileged topos for the fictional investigation of epistemology and the phenomenon of disavowal. Through a parallel treatment of Maupassant and several texts of psychoanalysis, the article suggests a version of Maupassant which differs from critical representations of Maupassant as a pessimistic hater of the bourgeoisie. He emerges instead as ethically more ambiguous, and aware that a certain amount of disavowal is inevitable and indeed necessary in any given community.

Keywords: Guy de Maupassant; ornaments; epistemology; disavowal; psychoanalysis

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Christ's College, Cambridge

Publication date: 2008-07-01

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  • The Modern Language Review, the flagship journal of the Association, is available to all individual members as part of their subscription. MLR is one of the oldest journals in its field, maintaining an unbroken publication record since its foundation in 1905, and publishing more than 3,000 articles and 20,000 book reviews.

    Each volume consists of four issues, published in January, April, July and October of each year. Its 1000+ annual pages are divided roughly equally between articles, predominantly on medieval and modern literature in the languages of Europe, and over 500 reviews of books in these areas. All contributions are in English, and each section is edited by a noted scholar in the field, under the overall supervision of the General Editor. Articles are chosen not only for their scholarly worth and originality but also, as far as possible, for their potential interest to a wider readership in other disciplines.
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