Biblioteca Digital de VanguardiaBernard, Bouvard and Pécuchet
During the 19th century, which History remembers as the “Century of Scholars,” medical-scientific triumph flourishes. Following the words of famous French physiologist Claude Bernard, who wrote in his Introduction to experimental medicine that “medicine is heading towards its definite scientific pat...
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| Formato: | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
| Lenguaje: | fra |
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Lettres Françaises
2019
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| Acceso en línea: | https://periodicos.fclar.unesp.br/lettres/article/view/12101 http://biblioteca-repositorio.clacso.edu.ar/handle/CLACSO/63705 |
| _version_ | 1782334309069225984 |
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| author | Chainey, Benjamin Gagnon |
| author_facet | Chainey, Benjamin Gagnon |
| author_sort | Chainey, Benjamin Gagnon |
| collection | Repositorio |
| description | During the 19th century, which History remembers as the “Century of Scholars,” medical-scientific triumph flourishes. Following the words of famous French physiologist Claude Bernard, who wrote in his Introduction to experimental medicine that “medicine is heading towards its definite scientific path” (BENARD, 1865, p. 6, my translation), physicians and their apprentices abandon the bookish authority of medical treatises and the hazards of their subjective intuition, to invest – for good? – the rigor of scientific objectivity. Yet, the trials of reality bring with them their lot of ambivalence and contradiction, hinting that the “anatomical-clinical conversion” Bernard promotes may not be as “definite” as he hoped. This article will shed light on the paradoxical medical and literary (re)conversions that took place in the 19th century, through the medical chapter of Gustave Flaubert’s Bouvard et Pécuchet, published posthumously in 1881. It will also contrast the history of medicine as described by French surgeon Jean-Charles Sournia, and the medical-experimental perspective of Claude Bernard, a contemporary of Flaubert and his passionate copyists. |
| format | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
| id | clacso-CLACSO63705 |
| institution | CLACSO, Repositorio Digital |
| language | fra |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Lettres Françaises |
| record_format | greenstone |
| spelling | clacso-CLACSO637052022-03-18T18:38:24Z Bernard, Bouvard and Pécuchet Bernard, Bouvard et Pécuchet Chainey, Benjamin Gagnon Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert Claude Bernard Medicine 19th Century French Literature Epistemology Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert Claude Bernard Médecine Littérature française du XIXe siècle Épistémologie During the 19th century, which History remembers as the “Century of Scholars,” medical-scientific triumph flourishes. Following the words of famous French physiologist Claude Bernard, who wrote in his Introduction to experimental medicine that “medicine is heading towards its definite scientific path” (BENARD, 1865, p. 6, my translation), physicians and their apprentices abandon the bookish authority of medical treatises and the hazards of their subjective intuition, to invest – for good? – the rigor of scientific objectivity. Yet, the trials of reality bring with them their lot of ambivalence and contradiction, hinting that the “anatomical-clinical conversion” Bernard promotes may not be as “definite” as he hoped. This article will shed light on the paradoxical medical and literary (re)conversions that took place in the 19th century, through the medical chapter of Gustave Flaubert’s Bouvard et Pécuchet, published posthumously in 1881. It will also contrast the history of medicine as described by French surgeon Jean-Charles Sournia, and the medical-experimental perspective of Claude Bernard, a contemporary of Flaubert and his passionate copyists. Au cours du XIXe siècle, communément reconnu par l’Histoire comme le «Siècle des Savants», les triomphes médico-scientifiques se multiplient. Suivant la parole du célèbre physiologiste français, Claude Bernard, affirmant dans son Introduction à la médecine expérimentale «que la médecine se dirige vers sa voie scientifique définitive» (BERNARD, 1865, p. 6), les médecins et leurs apprentis délaissent graduellement l’autorité livresque des traités de médecine et les aléas de leur intuition subjective, dans l’effort d’investir – pour de bon ? – la rigueur de l’objectivité scientifique. Or l’épreuve de la réalité apporte avec elle son lot d’ambivalences et de contradictions, donnant à penser que la «conversion anatomoclinique » promue par Bernard ne soit pas aussi «définitive» que prévue. Le présent article mettra en lumière ces paradoxales (re)conversions médico-littéraires au XIXe siècle, dans le chapitre médical de Bouvard et Pécuchet, de Gustave Flaubert, publié à titre posthume en 1881, en mettant en tension l’histoire de la médecine, telle que pensée par le chirurgien français Jean-Charles Sournia, et la perspective médico-expérimentale de Claude Bernard, contemporain de Flaubert et de ses copistes passionnés. 2019-01-23 2022-03-18T18:38:24Z 2022-03-18T18:38:24Z info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion https://periodicos.fclar.unesp.br/lettres/article/view/12101 http://biblioteca-repositorio.clacso.edu.ar/handle/CLACSO/63705 fra https://periodicos.fclar.unesp.br/lettres/article/view/12101/7937 Copyright (c) 2019 Lettres Françaises application/pdf Lettres Françaises Lettres Françaises; n.19 (1), 2018 2526-2955 1414-025X |
| spellingShingle | Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert Claude Bernard Medicine 19th Century French Literature Epistemology Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert Claude Bernard Médecine Littérature française du XIXe siècle Épistémologie Chainey, Benjamin Gagnon Bernard, Bouvard and Pécuchet |
| title | Bernard, Bouvard and Pécuchet |
| title_full | Bernard, Bouvard and Pécuchet |
| title_fullStr | Bernard, Bouvard and Pécuchet |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bernard, Bouvard and Pécuchet |
| title_short | Bernard, Bouvard and Pécuchet |
| title_sort | bernard, bouvard and pécuchet |
| topic | Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert Claude Bernard Medicine 19th Century French Literature Epistemology Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert Claude Bernard Médecine Littérature française du XIXe siècle Épistémologie |
| url | https://periodicos.fclar.unesp.br/lettres/article/view/12101 http://biblioteca-repositorio.clacso.edu.ar/handle/CLACSO/63705 |