Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T08:10:44.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Perfect Copy: Clarín's Su único hijo and the Flaubertian Connection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Noël M. Valis
Noël M. Valis*
Affiliation:
University of MichiganAnn Arbor
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Copying as both duplication and writing informs the structure and thematics of Leopoldo Alas's Su único hijo (1891). In building an entire novel around a copy clerk, Alas, known as Clarín, taps into a rich literary tradition. He also ends up suggesting that the imaginative impulse emerges out of a deeply felt and little understood desire to copy. Clarín's own “corrective copying” of Flaubert illustrates the classic artistic formula of “schema and correction,” revision of the canonical schemata to come up with an “original.” His homage to Flaubert, reenacted textually through the issue of paternity in Su único hijo, operates paradoxically by denying the nihilistic implications of Flaubertian repetition and paternal absenteeism. Where Bouvard et Pécuchet is about copying and an absent father, Clarín's novel is about the inescapable paternal presence, the sign of individuality, and the assertion of self.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 104 , Issue 5 , October 1989 , pp. 856 - 867
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Alas, Leopoldo [Clarín]. His Only Son. Trans. Jones, Julie. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1981.Google Scholar
Alas, Leopoldo [Clarín]. Su único hijo. Ed. Richmond, Carolyn. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1979.Google Scholar
Alsop, Joseph. “The Faker's Art.” New York Review of Books 23 Oct. 1986:25 +.Google Scholar
Armand, Octavio. “Birth Certificates as Fiction.” Trans. Maier, Carol. Fiction International 16.2 (1986): 78–98.Google Scholar
Austen, Jane. Emma. New York: Washington Square, 1963.Google Scholar
Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Illuminations. Ed. Arendt, Hannah. Trans. Zohn, Harry. 1955. New York: Schocken, 1985. 217–21.Google Scholar
Bernheimer, Charles. Flaubert and Kafka: Studies in Psychopoetic Structure. New Haven: Yale UP, 1982. 102–10.Google Scholar
Blanquat, Josette, and Botrel, Jean-François, eds. Clarín y sus editores (65 cartas inéditas de Leopoldo Alas a Fernando Fe y Manuel Fernández Lasanta, 1884–1893). Rennes: Centre d'Etudes Hispaniques, Hispano-Américaines et Luso-Brésiliennes, Université de Haute-Bretagne, 1981.Google Scholar
Bobadilla, Emilio [Fray Candil]. “Su único hijo (por Leopoldo Alas).” Triquitraques. Madrid: Fernando Fe, 1982. 193–214.Google Scholar
Boime, Albert. The Academy and French Painting in the Nineteenth Century. 1971. New Haven: Yale UP, 1986.Google Scholar
Cascardi, Anthony J. The Bounds of Reason. New York: Columbia UP, 1986. 225–22.Google Scholar
Cave, Terence. The Cornucopian Text: Problems of Writing in the French Renaissance. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1979.Google Scholar
Cirlot, J. E. A Dictionary of Symbols. 2nd ed. New York: Philosophical Library, 1983.Google Scholar
Cortázar, Eduardo de. “Plagios y coincidencias.” El bazar 10 Oct. 1875: 27–30; 17 Oct. 1875: 43–46.Google Scholar
Cotarelo y Mori, Emilio. Diccionario biográfico y bibliográfico de calígrafos españoles. Vol. 1. Madrid: Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos, 1913. 393–403.Google Scholar
Donato, Eugenio. “The Museum's Furnace: Notes toward a Contextual Reading of Bouvard et Pécuchet.” Textual Strategies. Ed. Harari, Josué V. 1979. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1986. 213–21.Google Scholar
Eliot, T. S. “Tradition and the Individual Talent.” The Sacred Wood. London: Methuen, 1969. 47–59.Google Scholar
Felman, Shoshana. “Gustave Flaubert: Folie et cliché.” La folie et la chose littéraire. Paris: Seuil, 1978. 159–213.Google Scholar
Flaubert, Gustave. Bouvard et Pécuchet. Ed. Cento, Alberto. Paris: Nizet–Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1964.Google Scholar
Fournier, Louis. “Bouvard et Pécuchet, comédie de l'intelligence.” French Review 47.6 (1974): 73–81.Google Scholar
Gaillard, Françoise. “A Little Story about the Bras de Fer: Or, How History Is Made.” Flaubert and Postmodernism. Ed. Schor, Naomi and Majewski, Henry F. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 84–99.Google Scholar
“Genius.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Vol. 2. Edinburgh: Bell and Macfarquhar, 1771. 672.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, Michal Peled. Flaubert Writing: A Study in Narrative Strategies. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1986.Google Scholar
Gogol, Nikolay. “The Overcoat.” Trans. Garnett, Constance. Six Great Modern Short Novels. New York: Dell, 1964. 213–21.Google Scholar
Gombrich, E. H. Art and Illusion. 1960. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1972.Google Scholar
Hafter, Monroe Z. “Heroism in Alas and Carlyle's On Heroes.” Modern Language Notes 95 (1980): 312–31.Google Scholar
Herschberg-Pierrot, Anne. “Le cliché dans Bouvard et Pécuchet.” Flaubert et le comble de l'art. Nouvelles recherches sur Bouvard et Pécuchet de Flaubert. Paris: CDU et SEDES, 1981. 31–37.Google Scholar
Hollander, John. “Originality.” Raritan 2.4 (1983): 24–44.Google Scholar
Kayser, Wolfgang. The Grotesque in Art and Literature. Trans. Weisstein, Ulrich. New York: Columbia UP, 1981.Google Scholar
Levin, Harry. The Gates of Horn. New York: Oxford UP, 1966.Google Scholar
Llanos y Alcaraz, A. “El literato por fuerza.” El mundo cómico [Madrid] 7 Dec. 1873: 2 +.Google Scholar
Magné, Bernard. “Boulevard écrit.” Revue romane 17.2 (1982): 75–88.Google Scholar
Martínez Ruiz, José [Azorín]. “Una lección de estilo.” Ejercicios de castellano. Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 1960. 133–13.Google Scholar
Maurice, Barthélemy. “Les deux greffiers.” Oeuvres. By Gustave Flaubert. Vol. 2. Paris: Gallimard, 1952. 991–99.Google Scholar
McFarland, Thomas. Originality and Imagination. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1985.Google Scholar
Melville, Herman. “Bartleby.” Billy Budd and Other Tales. New York: New American Library, 1961. 103–10.Google Scholar
Nombela, Julio. Impresiones y recuerdos. Vol. 2. Madrid: “La última moda,” 1910.Google Scholar
Ortega, Soledad, ed. Cartas a Galdós. Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1964.Google Scholar
Poe, Edgar Allan. Complete Stories and Poems. Garden City: Doubleday, 1966.Google Scholar
Rivkin, Laura. “Extranatural Art in Clarín's Su único hijo.” Modern Language Notes 97 (1982): 311–31.Google Scholar
Santiago y Palomares, Francisco Javier de. Selected Writings, 1776–95. Ed. Seniff, Dennis P. Exeter: U of Exeter, 1984.Google Scholar
Tillett, Margaret. “Les pièges de Chavignolles ou le lecteur ‘moyen’ aux prises avec Bouvard et Pécuchet.” Essais sur Flaubert. Ed. Carlut, Charles. Paris: Nizet, 1979. 345–34.Google Scholar
Unamuno, Miguel de. “Bonifacio.” El espejo de la muerte. Obras completas. Vol. 2. Madrid: Afrodisio Aguado, 1951. 557–55.Google Scholar