SOURCE: "Representational Strategies and the Early Works of Flaubert," in Modern Language Notes, Vol. 98, No. 5, December, 1983, pp. 1248-68.

Focusing in particular on Flaubert's early works, Ginsburg attempts in the following essay to demonstrate "how the problematic nature of representation and of the self dictates a certain number of narrative strategies which then determine the plot, themes, and narrative voice of [Flaubert's works. "]

The radical change which Flaubert criticism has undergone in recent years has as one of its effects the possibility of seeing for the first time the work of Flaubert as a whole. Not only because certain works are finally admitted into the canon, but mainly because it becomes more and more evident that beyond the superficial differences which seem to oppose the Tentation de Saint Antoine to Madame Bovary or Madame Bovary to Bouvard et Pécuchet the Flaubertian text has some constant features which give...