Orientalism - autonomous learning

"
I,'"
I ,
I:
I
Redrawn Frontiers, Redefined
Issues, Secularized Religion
Gustave Flaubert died in 1880 without having finished Bouvard
et Pecuchet, his comic encyclopedic novel on the degeneration of
knowledge and the inanity of human effort. Nevertheless the essential
outlines of his vision are clear, and are clearly supported by the
ample detail of his novel. The two clerks are members of the
,:,1
bourgeoisie who, because one of them is the unexpected beneficiary
of a handsome will, retire from the city to spend their lives on a
country estate doing what they please ("nous ferons tout ce que nous
plaira!"). As Flaubert portrays their experience, doing as they
please involves Bouvard and Pecuchet in a practical and theoretical
Ill: jaunt through agriculture, history, chemistry, education, archaeol­
I~ ogy, literature, always with less than successful results; they move
through fields of learning like travelers in time and knowledge,
experiencing the disappointments, disasters, and letdowns of uninspired
amateurs. What they move through, in fact, is the whole
disillusioning experience of the nineteenth century, whereby-in
Charles Moraze's phrase-"les bourgeois conquerants" turn out to
be the bumbling victims of their own leveling incompetence and
mediocrity. Every enthusiasm resolves itself into a boring cliche,
-;~(
and every discipline or type of knowledge changes from hope and
power into disorder, ruin, and sorrow.
Among Flaubert's sketches for the conclusion of this panorama
of despair are two items of special interest to us here. The two men
debate the future of mankind. Pecuchet sees "the future of
Humanity through a glass darkly," whereas Bouvard sees it
"brightly!"
III
Modern man is progressing, Europe will be regenerated by Asia.
The historical law that civilization moves from Orient to Occident
. , : the two forms of humanity will at last be soldered together. 1
This obvious echo of Quinet represents the start of still another of
the cycles of enthusiasm and disillusionment through which the two
men will pass. Flaubert's notes indicate that like all his others,
113
I:
Ii
,,,",,,,
J ::,
~~- -­