Bovarysme

Term describing fanciful romantic daydreaming

Bovarysme is a term derived from Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857), coined by Jules de Gaultier in his 1892 essay on Flaubert's novel, "Le Bovarysme, la psychologie dans l’œuvre de Flaubert". It denotes a tendency towards escapist daydreaming in which the dreamer imagines themself to be a hero or heroine in a romance, whilst ignoring the everyday realities of the situation. The eponymous Madame Bovary is an example of this.[1]

In his essay "Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca" (1927), T. S. Eliot suggested Othello's last great speech as an example: "I do not believe that any writer has ever exposed this bovarysme, the human will to see things as they are not, more clearly than Shakespeare."[2]

The term bovarysme collectif was used by Arnold van Gennep (1908) and Jean Price-Mars in the 1920s to critique Haitian populations' embrace of French forms and rejection of local (Haitian as African diasporic and indigenous) forms.[citation needed]

See also

  • Walter Mitty

References

  1. ^ Baldick, Chris (2008). Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ Eliot, T.S. (1999). T.S. Eliot Selected Essays. London: Faber and Faber. p. 131. ISBN 0-571-19746-9.
  • v
  • t
  • e
Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary
Films
  • Unholy Love (1932)
  • Madame Bovary (1934)
  • Madame Bovary (1937)
  • Madame Bovary (1947)
  • Madame Bovary (1949)
  • Madame Bovary (1969)
  • Madame Bovary (1991)
  • Madame Bovary (2014)
Television
  • Madame Bovary (1975)
  • Madame Bovary (2000)
Adaptations
  • Ryan's Daughter (1970)
  • Signora Bovary (1987)
  • Maya Memsaab (1992)
  • Madame Blueberry (1998)
  • Gemma Bovery (1999)
  • The Reasons of the Heart (2011)
Related
Inspiration