La représentation de l’argent dans L’Éducation sentimentale : Étude de la généricité du roman de mœurs

Sammanfattning

The purpose of this study is to analyze the genericity of Sentimental Education (1869) by Gustave Flaubert, through money as a literary theme. Bernard Gendrel’s definition of the novel of manners is used to examine how money is represented through the three dimensions identified in his theory: the novelistic, psychological, and social dimensions. The results of the study show that all three types of justifications are present in the representation of money in Sentimental Education. The analysis indicates a strong presence of the social dimension, which makes the literary representation of money in the novel largely consistent with its representation in the novel of manners. However, the novelistic dimension also remains relatively important, which is not typical of this very genre. The distinction between the social and psychological justifications proves less clear than the distinction between these two dimensions and the novelistic justification. Gendrel’s definition of the novel of manners also appears limited by the absence of clear criteria for determining what constitutes a dominant literary justification.