The Censorship Effect: Baudelaire, Flaubert, and the Formation of French Modernism by William Olmsted

Abstract

Reviews 283 historiographies into a wider dialogue. It does not solely focus on historical developments , wars, and revolutions, but also takes into account the impact of environmental, geographical, and hygienic factors on the concept of ‘méditerranité’(103). For instance, chapter 4 discusses the impact of the 1960 earthquake in Agadir on urban planning, transnational diplomacy and Mediterranean politics. Ottoman-French relations are examined in chapter 1, focusing on the Ottoman Empire and its three revolutions. Transnational relations between France and North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean , in particular Mount Lebanon and Syria, the “France of the Levant” (76), are traced in chapters 2 and 3. This logically leads to an examination of migration patterns and circulation trends: discussions of French-Ottoman matrimonial alliances in eighteenth century Constantinople (ch. 5), currency reforms and forgery (ch. 6), the “French”educational trajectory of three African women (Fadhma Amrouche, Tawhida Ben Shaykh, and Dorra Bouzid, ch. 7), and that of Moroccan social scientist Moïse Nahon (ch. 10). The discussion in chapter 8 of who was considered European in Tunisia, Algerian, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, with the complex judicial and legal ramification citizenship entails, is a timely one, considering the current European migrant crisis and the thorny issue of multiple citizenships. Border-crossing also defines part 3 with a discussion of the jurisprudential impact of the Dreyfus Affair in Algeria (ch. 9). Readers expecting a broad sweep of French-Mediterranean histories will be disappointed or confused by the numerous chapters dealing with highly particular case studies that might appear somewhat obscure to a general readership. On the other hand, the study sheds light on topics that have been neglected by Anglophone historical scholarship, such as the systemic, trans-Mediterranean French military and civilian interment practices in colonial Algeria (ch. 12), or French colonial hygiene, prostitution, sex tourism, and the“medical construct of the‘syphilitic Arab’” (338) in colonial Morocco (ch. 11). This study would be of interest to historians, Mediterranean Studies scholars, and French and Francophone teachers and scholars. Utah State University Christa Jones Olmsted, William. The Censorship Effect: Baudelaire, Flaubert, and the Formation of French Modernism. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2016. ISBN 978-0-19-023863-6. Pp. 226. $65. What was the culture of censorship during the nineteenth century? What social factors ruled censorship? Who was it meant to protect? How did it influence writers,and who were the decision makers in censorship cases? In 1857, Flaubert and Baudelaire were both prosecuted for “outrage à la morale publique et religieuse et aux bonnes mœurs,” for their respective works, Madame Bovary and Les fleurs du mal. While Flaubert was acquitted of the charges, Baudelaire was condemned, resulting in the excising of six poems from his volume. Olmsted studies how Flaubert and Baudelaire responded to the censors’ accusations, and especially how they adapted their writing in order to avoid censorship. Olmsted’s aim is to prove that the modernist techniques that Flaubert and Baudelaire invented, and for which they are celebrated today, were foils they created to thwart state authorities. Relying on such documents as Flaubert’s sketches and scenarios for his novel, and Baudelaire’s revisions and various paratextual materials, Olmsted describes the“censorship effect”on their works, and on the development of their respective techniques of free indirect discourse, dramatic monologue, and multiple poetic personae. Olmsted’s book is distinct from earlier criticism of these writers’works; until now, no scholarship has shown the extent of the censorship effect on the formation of the writings themselves. Flaubert’s use of free, indirect discourse allowed him to paint ambiguous scenes and implied events, thus avoiding realistic representations that would have been considered scandalous. Olmsted compares Flaubert’s sketches and scenarios to the published novel, pointing out the graphic outlines of his intended meaning, drastically mitigated in his final text. Olmsted’s indepth study of the famous scene in which the heroine Emma joins Leon in a (implied) scandalous carriage ride,reveals the stylistic choices Flaubert made,creating ambiguous insinuations, thus evading censorship, although not controversy. Olmsted conducts a more detailed analysis of Baudelaire’s strategies. Acutely aware of Flaubert’s trial and the ongoing disputes related to it, Baudelaire first defended his work by...