Contribution of japonisme to the aesthetic of the French naturalist novel: A study of selected works of the Goncourts, Zola and Huysmans.
Item
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Title
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Contribution of japonisme to the aesthetic of the French naturalist novel: A study of selected works of the Goncourts, Zola and Huysmans.
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Identifier
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AAI9959162
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identifier
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9959162
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Creator
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Barrow, Susan Miranda.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Bettina Knapp
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Date
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2000
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, Romance
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Abstract
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Japonisme, the appreciation and emulation of the arts of Japan, is a cultural phenomenon of the second half of the nineteenth century which found its greatest expression in France. Earl Miner terms japonisme "one of the most important determinants of modern literature...[which] has shaped or affected...the literary movements of Impressionism, Naturalism and Symbolism." Indeed, the most progressive minds in literary and artistic, milieus---Baudelaire, Manet, Whistler, the Goncourts, Zola and Huysmans---were early initiates to the cult of Nippon, in particular the ukiyo-e color woodblock print by masters such as Hokusai and Utamaro. The Japanese Pavilions at the Exposition Universelle of 1867, 1878, 1889 and 1900 propagated an enthusiasm for Japanese art amongst the French bourgeoisie, reflected in the material culture of the era.;The Goncourts, Zola and Huysmans were all sensitive art critics who commented upon the positive influence of Japanese art on painters of the Impressionist circle, exemplified in their creative use of bright, unmodulated patches of color, the sweeping overhead perspective or birds'-eye view, asymmetrical compositions and the fragmentation of subject matter. While there may be explicit references in Naturalist fiction to the contemplation of Japanese images in the Goncourts' Manette Salomon (1867), to the collecting craze for japonaiserie in Zola's Une Page d'amour (1878) and Au bonheur des Dames (1883), or even to the imitation of oriental architecture in Huysmans' Les Soeurs Vatard (1879), japonisme in literature as in contemporary painting is largely implicit. This movement encouraged an experimental approach in literature which valued the exploration of tone, texture and atmosphere even at the expense of linear narrative. Japonisme , the reinterpretation of an oriental aesthetic reflected in art and literature, was a humanist approach to creation which was instrumental in the formulation of modernism.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
