"Fashion Victim"--A Literary Critique

Paper Summary:

This paper examines Erica Jong's literary critique of Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" as presented in her essay "Fashion Victim." The reviewer appreciates Jong's novel approach to analyzing Flaubert's work, in which Emma Bovary is seen as a consumer of literature. The paper considers Emma's downfall as the result of her trying to live her life as a novel. The reviewer concludes that although Jong's essay does not offer an extensive, deep interpretation of the entire novel, it acts as an important reminder of critical aspects of the work that may be overlooked. This includes the importance of reading to Emma's interior life.

From the Paper:

"Thus, Jong concedes there are a number of approaches to take with Madame Bovary beyond her reading, or a feminist reading. One method is to stress the construction of the novel, and to de-emphasize the central figure as merely an imaginative creation of Flaubert. As such, the novel is not a social commentary at all, but merely a sublime vehicle for Flaubert's artistry and obsessions--even the most personal of the author's fixations like his foot fetishism. Another competing perspective is to examine the work from a historical perspective in the history of the European novel and 19th century middle class culture. The novel is realistic in its detail, rather than fantastic, and had seismic effects upon how 'good prose' was supposed to function in a novel's narrative. A Marxist critic might note how the novel both satirizes the bourgeois, even while reading novels for leisure was a bourgeois cultural institution. The novel examines "consumption as an outlet for anxiety, the attempt to people with objects the emptiness that modern life has made a permanent feature of the existence of the individual." (Jong, 1997)"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Jong, Erica. "Fashion Victim." Salon.com. September 15, 1997. 1 Oct 2006. <http://www.salon.com/sept97/bovary970915.html>

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