Boucquey Thierry (General Editor). Encyclopedia Of World Writers. 3 volumes
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expressionism
Expressionism refers to a literary and artistic
movement that emerged in Germany in the late
19th century and reached its pinnacle in the late
1920s. Expressionists generally believed that an
individual’s thoughts and experiences cannot be
rendered in objective terms because such repre-
sentation would distort and sterilize subjective,
emotional experience. Under this premise, expres-
sionists rejected
REALISM and aimed to depict the
world artistically through personal vision. To
achieve this, expressionists portray their subjects as
experience or emotion rather than through realis-
tic detail. In general, expressionists tended either to
simplify or to distort their subjects to expose
extreme and fragmented states of human con-
sciousness. Expressionist works are often set in a
nightmarish atmosphere to emphasize the dra-
matic gap between subjective and objective reality.
Expressionism has a more precise meaning in
art criticism than it does in literary criticism. In
art, the term refers to a school of German and
Scandinavian painters of the early 20th century
who claimed that human condition cannot be
mimetically represented through exact depiction
of reality. In the visual arts, one of the most famous
examples of a work that depicts expressionistic
ideals is Edvard Munch’s painting The Cry (1893).
Expressionism also found a fertile ground in
film: Fritz Lang’s expressionist film Metropolis
(1927), for example, presents a dystopian vision of
the future in which the workers are oppressed and
held under control by the machines and the elite
that controls the machines. Metropolis established
itself as the foundational classic of world cinema.
In literature, expressionism also originated in
Germany. Most literary scholars identify the emer-
gence of expressionism with the works of drama-
tists Frank Nedekind, Carl Stranheim, and August
STRINDBERG. Expressionism also took root in the
poetry of Franz Werfel and the fiction of Franz
KAFKA. Eventually, literary critics began to refer to
every work of literature of the period in which re-
ality is purposefully distorted as expressionist.
Consequently, it has become difficult to demar-
cate the literary expressionists precisely. Although
some critics limit the use of the term to the Ger-
man literary movement of the 20th century, some
critics apply the term more liberally to any work
that manifests expressionist characteristics.
The German expressionist movement had an
intriguing influence on psychology as well, partic-
ularly in the works of the Austrian psychoanalytic
theorist Sigmund
FREUD. Expressionism tended to
explore the dark corners of the human mind, often
illuminating anxieties, fears, and secret fantasies.
Many critics have attributed this interest to the his-
torical conditions following World War I and the
subsequent disillusionment with humanity. Ex-
pressionism, thus, also artistically revealed the re-
pressed fears and anxieties of the human psyche.
The expressionist movement was brutally sup-
pressed by the Nazi government. The Nazis viewed
the expressionists as a degenerate and subversive
group and organized an exhibition of confiscated
works of expressionists to demonstrate their “deca-
dence” and “absurdity”; ironically, the exhibition
backfired, and thousands of people flooded in to
appreciate the works of the famous expressionist
artists.
German expressionism influenced a number of
writers and artists around the world, including
James Joyce and T. S. Eliot. Many modern and
POSTMODERN writers, including Tennessee
Williams, the Beat writers, and Joseph Heller, were
all influenced by the expressionism, which ques-
tioned accepted ideas about “objective” reality and
brought to literature and art a new psychological
dimension—one that is often dark, disturbing, and
thought-provoking.
Works about Expressionism
Barron, Stephanie, and Wolf-Dieter Dube, ed. Ger-
man Expressionism: Art and Society. New York:
Rizzoli, 1997.
Polcari, Stephen. Abstract Expressionism and the Mod-
ern Experience. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1993.
138 expressionism
139
F
Fabian
See LAGERKVIST, PÄR.
Fadeyev, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich
(1901–1956) novelist, short-story writer
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Fadeyev was born in
Krimy, Russia. His father was a village teacher, and
his mother a nurse. Fadeyev’s family moved to
Sarovka, in the far eastern region of Russia, in 1908.
Fadeyev attended a small village school where he
learned the basic skills, and went on to the Com-
mercial Academy of Vladivostok. After becoming
involved in the Communist cause in 1918, he left
school without graduating. He joined the partisans
to defend the Vladivostok region against invading
Japanese forces and eventually joined the Red Army,
where he was quickly promoted. Fadeyev started
his writing career as a journalist for Soviet South, a
small newspaper in the Russian city of Rostov. He
also established a literary journal called Lava.
The Communist regime assigned Fadeyev as
the representative of the Writers’ Association. In
this capacity, Fadeyev traveled throughout Europe,
including Spain during its civil war. When World
War II broke out, he worked as a frontline reporter
for the two major newspapers in Russia, Pravda
and Izvestya. After the war, he served as the gen-
eral secretary of the Union of Soviet Writers from
1946 to 1954, editor of several literary journals,
and member of the party’s Central Committee. He
was awarded two Orders of Lenin for his work
with the Communist Party.
Fadeyev’s fiction often glorifies the struggle of
the Soviet Union, specifically of its workers and
soldiers, during the Russian civil war and World
War II. The Birth of the Amgunsky Regiment (1934)
describes the war efforts of Communist partisans
in Far East during the early 1920s. His most
seminal work was The Young Guard (1945), which
deals with the resistance efforts of the young
Communist workers of Krasnodon during the
Nazi occupation.
During the last years of his life, Fadeyev suffered
from a number of physical and psychological dis-
orders that were a result of alcoholism. He com-
mitted suicide in 1956, leaving a note that revealed
his disillusionment with the party and with Stalin.
Fadeyev’s vivid description of the war experience
contributed to the discourse of the Soviet national
identity. The heroes of his novels, although highly
politicized, display heroism and patriotism in their
commitment to defend their homeland.
Another Work by Aleksandr Fadeyev
The Nineteen. New York: Hyperion Press, 1973.
Faiz, Faiz Ahmed (1912–1984) poet
Faiz Ahmed Faiz was born in Sialkot, modern Pak-
istan. His father was a successful lawyer. Faiz stud-
ied extensively in the humanities and earned his
master’s degrees in English and Arabic literatures
from Punjab University. Next to Muhammad
IQBA
¯L, he is perhaps Pakistan’s best-known poet.
He is regarded as the cofounder of the progressive
movement in Urdu literature and wrote exclusively
in Urdu, a language similar to Arabic.
Faiz was editor of The Pakistan Times, a leftist
English daily, and of Imraz, an Urdu daily. In the
1930s, he was introduced to marxism and became
increasingly involved in politics. Through the
course of his life, Faiz spent several terms in jail
for alleged sabotage against the government. His
poetry, however, is a unique intermingling of ro-
mantic, sublime, and political themes. He uses tra-
ditional images of Urdu love poetry in ghazal
form, a conventional prose form of the Mughal
courts, to address contemporary politics. The cus-
tomary representation of the bulbul (nightingale),
the gul (rose), and the baghban (gardener) in
Faiz’s ghazals were reconfigured to represent the
poet, the poet’s ideals, and the political system,
respectively. At a time when the tensions between
Hindus and Muslims in India were rising, Faiz was
able to address the state of Muslims in India in
this manner.
Faiz’s politically motivated works, such as Zin-
dan Namah (Prison narrative, 1956) and Naqsh-e
Faryadi (Image of complaint, 1941), are written in
protest against the government, but Faiz never ex-
cludes the power of human love in these verses.
This can also be seen in the collection of poems,
Zindan Naman, which Faiz wrote while in prison. It
contains a poem called “Come, Africa” that unites
the beating of the heart of the poet with Africa’s,
evoking a life force that will free the poet and his
nation from political and religious intolerance.
Despite being viewed as a militant and
subversive by the government of Pakistan, Faiz
won the Soviet Lenin Peace Prize in 1962 for his
commitment to people’s struggles through his
poetry.
Other Work by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
The True Subject: Selected Poems of Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Translated by Naomi Lazard. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1988.
Zakir, Mohammed, and Menai, M. N., trans. Poems
of Faiz Ahmad Faiz: A Poet of the Third World.
South Asia. Print House, 1998.
Falkner, Gerhard (1951– ) poet,
dramatist, essayist
Gerhard Falkner was born in Schwabuch, Ger-
many. He prepared for a career as a book dealer be-
fore moving to London and the United States.
Falkner published his first volume of poetry, so be-
ginnen am körper die tage (so begin the days along
your body), at the age of 30. After publishing two
more poetry collections and a work of prose in the
1980s, he expanded his focus in the following
decade to include works for the stage. Falkner wrote
the libretto for the opera, A Lady Dies (2000), which
is based on the death of Princess Diana.
Falkner’s influences include critic T. W. Adorno,
poet Oskar Pastior, and the DADA movement.
Falkner takes a critical view of society in his
poems, which reflect a synthesis of several post-
war trends in German poetry. His verse is sensual,
intellectually full, and written with a disorienting
dissection of syntax. In his review of Voice and Void
by Neil H. Donohue, critic Jerry Glenn describes
Falkner as “one of the most talented and explosive
poetic voices to have emerged from Germany in
recent decades.” Although not widely recognized
by scholars and critics, Falkner’s influence is al-
ready evident in the work of younger German
poets such as Durs GRÜNBEIN.
Another Work by Gerhard Falkner
Seventeen Selected Poems. Translated by Mark Ander-
son. Berlin: Qwert, 1994.
A Work about Gerhard Falkner
Donahue, Neil. Voice and Void: The Poetry of
Gerhard Falkner. Heidelberg, Germany:
Universitätsverlag G. Winter, 1998.
140 Faiz, Faiz Ahmed
Fallaci, Oriana (1930– ) novelist,
journalist
An accomplished journalist who has had the
opportunity to interview some of the most
remarkable political figures of the 20th century,
Oriana Fallaci was born in Florence, Italy, on
June 29. The daughter of a cabinetmaker and lib-
eral political activist, her childhood coincided
with Mussolini’s rise to power. Growing up under
a fascist regime, she became interested in power
and the ways in which it can be both used and
abused.
By the time Fallaci was 10 years old, Italy was
deeply involved in World War II. One of her great-
est influences throughout her life came from this
period and the political views of her very liberal fa-
ther, who opposed Mussolini. Fallaci joined her
father as a member of the underground resistance
movements that were dedicated to fighting the
Nazis, who were allied with Italy. During this pe-
riod, her father was captured, sent to jail, and tor-
tured. Fallaci continued to fight in his absence,
receiving, at age 14, an honorable discharge from
the Italian army. The war ended when she was 15,
but the effects of having been so directly involved
with the struggle remained ingrained in her mind
and formed the background for her future work
as an author and journalist.
Fallaci began writing at age 16. She received a
degree from the University of Florence and
went on to become an award-winning writer
for several newspapers. Her first journalistic as-
signment was to a crime column at a daily paper,
but she rapidly progressed and soon was inter-
viewing such political figures as U.S. Secretary of
State Henry Kissinger, CIA director William
Colby, and Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini.
She has also interviewed actors and scientists and
conducted intensive research on the U.S. space
program.
Aside from her accomplishments as a journal-
ist, Fallaci is also an accomplished novelist. Her
works of fiction also address the subject of power,
particularly in terms of resistance. Letter to a Child
Never Born (1976), for example, tackles the sub-
ject of an unwed pregnant woman who is faced
with the difficult choice between having an illegal
abortion or keeping the child and facing the social
stigma. In this case, the power struggle comes in
the form of cultural perceptions and the control
they exert on the individual’s decision-making
processes.
Fallaci maintained a long-term relationship
with political activist and Greek resistance leader
Alexandros Panagoulis. His death in 1976
prompted her novel A Man (1980). Although fic-
tional, this work expresses the challenges of con-
frontation and resistance to political power
structures. Similarly, her novel Inshallah (1992)
tackles these themes by restructuring the setting
to illuminate the same challenges with regard to
the civil war in Lebanon.
Fallaci continues to write. Her works are im-
portant for their contemporary social and political
implications and the glimpse they provide at social
conditions.
Other Works by Oriana Fallaci
Interview with History. New York: Liveright, 1976.
The Egoists: Sixteen Surprising Interviews. Chicago:
Henry Regnery Company, 1963.
Works about Oriana Fallaci
Arico, Santo L. Oriana Fallaci: The Woman and the
Myth. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University
Press, 1998.
Gatt-Rutter, John. Oriana Fallaci: The Rhetoric of
Freedom. Washington, D.C.: Berg, 1996.
Farah, Nuruddin (1945– ) novelist,
playwright, essayist
When Nuruddin Farah was born, his section of
what is now called Somalia, located on the eastern
coast of Africa, was a colony of Italy. In 1960, the
nation of Somalia was formed by the merger of
this Italian colony with what had been known as
British Somaliland. He is descended from no-
madic peoples who wandered far to feed their
herds. His father was a merchant, and his mother
Farah, Nuruddin 141
was a poet who spoke several languages. Today,
Farah has married an exile’s nomadic life to a nar-
rative style that wanders far from any conception
of “traditional” REALISM. His travels throughout
the world mirror his experiments in language use:
His novels tend to use fantastic, improbable
elements, what some critics refer to as MAGICAL
REALISM.
Young Farah grew up speaking Somali, Arabic,
and Amharic. English is his fourth language. From
his mother, he gained a love of the sounds of
words, of the power of language, and of the need to
use the tapestry of cultures that language repre-
sents as a political tool. In many countries like So-
malia that have a history of colonialism, the
language one uses has political implications. Be-
cause English (and Italian and French) are re-
minders of a time when racism and oppression
were the order of the day in such countries, many
writers have chosen to avoid what they saw as the
“language of the conqueror.” Unlike the Kenyan
writer, NGUGI WA THIONG’O, however, Farah chooses
to write in English for pragmatic reasons. As
Charles Larson has observed in The Ordeal of the
African Writer (2001), relatively few Africans in any
country are able to read literary works in any lan-
guage. Farah is not, however, unaware of the polit-
ical implications of this choice. His novels often
deal with political themes, including language
usage.
For example, Farah’s third novel, A Naked Nee-
dle (1976), so infuriated Somali dictator Mohamed
Siyad Barre that Farah has lived in exile for more
than 20 years. Among other issues, A Naked Nee-
dle deals with the corruption of those who have
ruled the country since independence.
Farah has continued to speak for his country
and his people, most notably in his trilogy, Sweet
and Sour Milk (1979), Sardines (1981), and Close
Sesame (1983), known collectively as Variations on
the Theme of an African Dictatorship. This trilogy is
the fullest and most complex treatment that Farah
has yet attempted on his most important theme:
the oppression of Somalia’s various groups by a
succession of despots.
Farah is Somalia’s first novelist and its most
renowned international literary figure. In addition
to his focus on racial inequality and the problems
of POSTCOLONIALISM, he has also focused exten-
sively on gender inequities and the problems
women face in the Third World. In 1998, he re-
ceived the Neustadt Prize for literature, one of the
most prestigious literary awards in the world. The
Neustadt Prize is awarded by the University of Ok-
lahoma and its international quarterly journal
World Literature Today. It carries a $50,000 award
and is often seen as a precursor for consideration
for the Nobel Prize.
Other Works by Nuruddin Farah
From a Crooked Rib. London: Heinemann, 1976.
Maps. New York: Pantheon, 1986.
A Work about Nuruddin Farah
Alden, Patricio, and Louis Tremaine. Nuruddin Farah.
New York: Twayne, 1999.
feminism
The term feminism, with regard to literature, has
a number of distinct associations. Largely
grouped under the interdisciplinary field of gen-
der studies, and arising out of increasing under-
standing of women’s issues, different branches of
the discipline focus on divergent ideas. The oldest
identifiable form of literary feminism grew out of
18th-century liberal philosophy such as that
found in Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of
the Rights of Women (1792), which emphasized
female autonomy and self-fulfillment. In the 20th
century, liberal feminism worked to achieve
economic and social equality for women. More a
revisionist than a revolutionary movement,
feminism’s literary aim was to reform existing
structures by getting people to learn and read
about women’s issues, not to break down those
structures to create new ones.
The movement eventually broadened to en-
compass radical feminism, which accused liberal
feminism of not having high enough goals. Arising
142 feminism
out of the Civil Rights movement and the surge of
Leftist activism in the late 1960s, radical feminism’s
goal of addressing the women’s oppression was
revolutionary. As the 1970s progressed, the move-
ment gained a more cultural perspective, the one
most widely adopted by feminist writers.
Cultural feminism celebrates women’s culture
and community. Its goal is to seek out those qual-
ities that are traditionally associated with women,
such as compassion, subjectivity, intuition, and
closeness to nature, and to claim them as desir-
able, positive, and even superior traits. Proponents
of cultural feminism, including the writers Eliza-
beth Gould Davis and Ashley Montagu, also be-
lieve that these qualities are not innate but are
learned.
In France, the feminist social movement began
in April 1944 when French women obtained the
right to vote. It was advanced greatly by the 1949
publication of Simone de BEAUVOIR’S The Second
Sex, in which she states “One is not born, but
rather becomes, a woman. No biological, psycho-
logical or economic fate determines the figure
that the human female presents in society; it
is civilization as a whole that determines this
creature.”
Simone de Beauvoir was not alone in her sup-
port of the emerging feminist trend in France.
Other writers soon began to follow her example.
Hélène
CIXOUS and her “écriture feminine,” devel-
oped in her essay “The Laugh of the Medusa”
(1975), established a new form of women’s writ-
ing whereby women could learn to “write from the
body” to break free of the bonds of male-domi-
nated rhetoric. Theories of the body became par-
ticularly important for feminist thinkers, as a
woman’s body was traditionally the source of such
male-defined constructs as physical weakness, im-
morality, and unseemliness. One of the main goals
of feminism as a literary movement was to redefine
the body and society’s view of it.
In reference to the concept of the body, many
feminist critics turn to the work of writer Julia
Kristeva. Although she does not consider herself a
feminist writer, her theories linking the mind to
the body and linking biology to representation
have been pivotal to the movement. Kristeva em-
phasizes the maternal function of a woman’s body
and its significance to the development of language
and culture. As a result of this function, Kristeva
purports, ideals of feminism as espoused by de
Beauvoir should be rejected because they negate
the importance of motherhood. She also insists
that early feminism, which sought total equality, is
remiss in its attempts to ignore the inherent dif-
ferences between genders. She further argues that a
unique feminine language, as proposed by Cixous,
is impossible. However, in rejecting existing femi-
nisms, Kristeva paves the way for another form of
feminism, one grounded in the exploration of
multiple identities, arguing that there are as many
sexualities as there are individuals.
In the 1990s, the trend toward gender studies,
encompassing not only feminism but also lesbian
criticism and queer theory, has shifted the focus
once again to a more inclusive philosophy.
Some Works by Feminist Writers
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Mad-
woman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the
Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000.
Kristeva, Julia. The Kristeva Reader. Edited by Tori
Moi. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.
Millet, Kate. Sexual Politics. Champaign: University of
Illinois Press, 2000.
Moers, Ellen. Literary Women. Indianapolis, Ind.:
Doubleday, 1976.
Moi, Tori. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary
Theory. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Woolf,Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. Fort Washing-
ton, Pa.: Harvest Books, 1990.
Works about Feminism
Richardson, Angelique, and Chris Willis, eds. The
New Woman in Fiction and in Fact: Fin de Siècle
Feminisms. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
Warhol, Robyn R., and Diane Price, eds. Feminisms:
An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. Pis-
cataway, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1977.
feminism 143
Feng Zhi (Feng Chih; Feng Chengzhi)
(1905–1993) poet
Feng Zhi was born in China’s Hebei Province on
September 17. At age 12, he was sent to Beijing to
study. He entered Beijing University in 1921 and
produced a high volume of poems. In 1924, his
first work appeared in Hidden Grass, a journal he
published with friends in Shanghai. From 1925 to
1932, he edited another journal, The Sunken Bell.
He graduated from Beijing University two years
later and published his first collection, Songs of Yes-
terday. He then moved to Harbin to teach second-
ary school but returned to Beijing a year later to
rejoin the literary community.
Feng Zhi’s second collection, The Northern
Journey and Other Poems (1929), is one of the most
famous examples of modern Chinese lyric poetry.
Written in melodic, romantic vernacular, it is a
lengthy narrative poem about Feng Zhi’s social ed-
ucation and his encounters with decadent and
morally destitute warlords, prostitutes, and foreign
invaders.
The next year, Feng Zhi traveled to Germany to
study philosophy and literature in Heidelberg and
Berlin. He earned a Ph.D. and translated German
poets such as Rainer Maria
RILKE. When he re-
turned to China in 1936, he taught at Tongji Uni-
versity until 1939, when he joined the faculty at
South-West United University in Kunming.
In 1941, Feng Zhi published Sonnets (1942), a
collection of 27 sonnets that earned him fame as
the Chinese practitioner of the poetic form. The
sonnets are mostly contemplative reflections on
life and nature, and because of their tone and in-
ternal direction, Feng Zhi is sometimes referred to
as a metaphysical poet.
After the 1949 communist revolution, Feng Zhi
wrote mostly patriotic poems (in Collected Poems,
1955) and focused on scholarship. He joined the
Communist Party in 1956 and became director of
the Foreign Literature Institute at the Academy of
Social Sciences, where he continued his transla-
tions and studies of German literature.
Feng Zhi was considered one of modern
China’s great poets and also was honored with sev-
eral German literary prizes, such as the Medal of
Brothers Green from the German Democratic Re-
public and the Prize for the Arts by the Center for
International Exchanges. He died on February 22.
A Work about Feng Zhi
Cheung, Dominic. Feng Chih. Boston: Twayne, 1979.
Ferré, Rosario (1942– ) novelist, short-
story writer, poet, critic
Rosario Ferré was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, to
Luis Ferré, politician and eventual governor of the
island, and Lorenza Ramírez Ferré. Although Ferré
received a conventional, aristocratic education, her
childhood nanny, a vivid storyteller, introduced
her early on to the worlds of fantasy, legend, and
myth. Later in life, she studied under the Peruvian
novelist Mario VARGAS LLOSA and the Uruguayan
critic Ángel RAMA, both of whom encouraged her
to write.
Ferré’s early work, including The Youngest Doll
(1976), a series of short stories set in Puerto Rico,
established her as one of the first Puerto Rican
feminist writers. In it, one finds the criticism of
feminine stereotypes and an implicit call for the
end of the repression of women, both of which
themes have come to characterize much of her
work. Her writing also deals with the cultural and
historical heritage of Puerto Rico. To explore such
themes, she incorporates elements of local myth
and legend as well as realistic depictions of char-
acters and settings. The title story of one of her
best-known books, Sweet Diamond Dust (1986),
relates the rise and fall of the aristocratic De la
Valle family. The alternation of colloquial and
formal language and the incorporation of different
narrative perspectives in this work are typical of
her fiction.
For Ferré writing has been and continues to be
a manner of breaking through the societal con-
straints placed on her as a woman and as an indi-
vidual. In this sense, she has followed in the
tradition of such feminine writers as Simone de
BEAUVOIR and Virginia WOOLF. Her questioning of
144 Feng Zhi
restrictive gender and class divisions in Puerto
Rico and the West in general, as well as her sensi-
tive and profound character portrayals, have made
her an important figure in contemporary Hispanic
and world literature.
Another Work by Rosario Ferré
Ferré, Rosario. The House on the Lagoon. New York:
Plume, 1996.
A Work about Rosario Ferré
Hintz, Suzanne S. Rosario Ferré, A Search for Identity.
New York: Peter Lang, 1995.
Fiedeler, Hans
See DÖBLIN, ALFRED.
fin de siècle
French for “end of the century,” fin de siècle first
came about as a literary movement in 1871 when
German troops withdrew from Paris after the
Franco-Prussian War. French anarchists were able
to establish the Commune of Paris briefly, which,
although it did not last for an extended period of
time, was instrumental in creating an atmosphere
in French culture in which radical ideas in litera-
ture, theater, and the visual arts began to thrive.
Paris, at this time, became one of the centers of
avant-garde culture.
DECADENCE, drug abuse, degra-
dation, and surrealism are commonly associated
with the era, as were the fascination with prostitu-
tion by male writers, the development of lesbian-
ism as an artistic trend, and an increased focus on
sexuality, both heterosexual and homosexual.
Among the most influential writers of this pe-
riod was Victor HUGO, whose works, including Les
Misérables (1862), were published in the middle of
the century and greatly influenced the next gener-
ation of artists. In particular, his portrayal of bo-
hemians and student revolutionaries was
consistent with fin de siècle dark idealism. Other
writers, such as Guy de MAUPASSANT (whose works
dealt chiefly with the Franco-Prussian war and
fashionable life in Paris) and the prominent
SYM-
BOLIST poets Stephan MALLARMÉ and Charles
BAUDELAIRE and their often dark and unconven-
tional ideas flourished at the turn of the century
as well.
The tone of the fin de siècle movement was
dark without the expected, accompanying melan-
choly. It was a time of political scandal, the most
notable of which was the Dreyfus affair in which
Captain Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused and
convicted of spying for the Germans during the
war. He was sentenced to serve time on Devil’s Is-
land, French Guiana. Angered by this, and feeling
that the charges were largely a result of anti-Semi-
tism, the writer Emile ZOLA wrote a letter that
openly criticized Dreyfus’s conviction and subse-
quent imprisonment. Titled J’Accuse (January 13,
1898), Zola’s letter passionately defended Dreyfus.
As a result, the case was reopened and the convic-
tion ultimately overturned. The situation, how-
ever, was typical of the prevailing mood of the
time, and art was used to effect for social change
and rebellion.
Another fin de siècle scandal involved the poet
Arthur RIMBAUD. He had already caused quite an
artistic commotion with his dark, introspective A
Season in Hell (1873; translated 1932), in which he
described his own intense and often tortured exis-
tence. He had further scandalized Parisian society
when he left his wife for a man, poet Paul
VERLAINE.
This affair was an integral part of A Season in Hell
and also typical of the tumultuousness of the age.
The social, literary, and artistic changes that
were occurring at this time affected the theater as
well. Actresses began to interpret the works of
writers such as COLETTE, whose simulated sexual
performance on stage caused a riot at the Moulin
Rouge. Women, in particular, began to display
their sensuality openly. Bored aristocrats, such as
lovers Natalie Barney and poet René Vivien, often
gave private yet elaborate shows in their own
homes. The concept of lesbian chic emerged and
flourished in these venues.
As a movement, the fin de siècle officially came
to an end in 1905. It had achieved such momen-
fin de siècle 145
tum that it ultimately reached a breaking point;
however, many of the influences that came out of
the movement and other avant-garde and experi-
mental art forms continued into the next century,
shaping future trends in literature, culture, and the
arts, not just in France but also internationally.
Works about the Fin de Siècle
Chadwick, Kay, and Timothy Unwin, eds. New
Perspectives on the Fin-de-Siècle in Nineteenth- and
Twentieth-Century France. Lewiston, N.Y.:
E. Mellen Press, 2000.
McGuinness, Patrick, ed. Symbolism, Decadence and
the Fin de Siècle: French and European Perspectives.
Exeter, England: University of Exeter Press, 2000.
Fischer, Caroline Auguste (Karoline
Auguste Fernandine Fischer)
(1764–1842) novelist, short-story writer
Little is known about Caroline Auguste Fischer’s
childhood and youth. Her father, Karl Heinrich
Ernst Venturini, was a court violinist at the Duchy
of Brunswick. Her mother, Charlotte Juliane Wil-
helmine Köchy Venturini, was the daughter of a
local tailor. Fischer married Christoph Johann
Rudolph Christiani in the early 1790s and moved
to Copenhagen. The couple separated in 1798, and
Fischer moved back to Germany the following
year. In 1803, she had a child with the writer
Christian August Fischer (1771–1829). The couple
married in 1808 but separated after only seven
months.
Fischer used Christian’s literary contacts to
publish her first novel, Gustavs Verirrungen (Gus-
tav’s Aberrations, 1801). She quickly followed up
with two more novels, Vierzehn Tage in Paris (A
Fortnight in Paris, 1801) and Die Honigmonathe
(The Honeymoons, 1802). These works sold well
and made her a popular author. After Fischer’s sec-
ond marriage ended, she tried to support herself
by running a girls’ school in Heidelberg and a li-
brary in Würzburg, but these ventures failed. Fis-
cher had only limited success with her later novels
and short stories before she quit writing in 1820.
She spent her last years in and out of mental insti-
tutions and died penniless in 1842.
Fischer often wrote about the incompatibility
between pursuing happiness and pursuing virtue.
Her stories often portray women forced to choose
between creativity and a stifling home life. Fis-
cher’s powerful works expose the destructiveness
that stereotypes and gender roles had on women in
the 1800s. Largely forgotten until the late 20th cen-
tury, Fischer is now viewed as a significant precur-
sor to modern women’s literature in Germany.
Works about Caroline Auguste Fischer
Purver, Judith. “Passion, Possession, Patriarchy: Im-
ages of Men in the Novels and Short Stories of
Caroline Auguste Fischer.” Neophilologus 79
(1995).
———.“Caroline Auguste Fischer: An Introduction.”
In Margaret C. Ives, ed., Women Writers of the Age
of Goethe IV. Lancaster, U.K.: Lancaster University
Press, 1991.
Flanagan, Richard (1962– ) novelist,
filmmaker
Richard Flanagan was born in Australia to an Irish
Catholic family. He grew up in a mining town on
the west coast in the state of Tasmania and left
school at 16 to be a bush laborer. In his life since
that time, he has been a construction worker at a
hydroelectric plant, a Rhodes scholar, and a river
guide. He began his writing career by concentrat-
ing on history, but his ambition from an early age
was to be a fiction writer.
Flanagan considers his major literary influences
to be Henry
LAWSON, CAMUS, DOSTOYEVSKY, KAFKA,
Faulkner, South American novelists, and, most re-
cently, Toni Morrison. Supported by a grant from
Ars Tasmania, he wrote his first novel, Death of a
River Guide (1994); it was an unexpected success.
As Flanagan states in an interview with Giles
Hugo, he is interested in writing about Tasmania
not as a nostalgic regional novelist but to find new
forms for the richness and complexities of Tasma-
nia’s past and present. He draws on oral traditions
146 Fischer, Caroline Auguste
from his own Irish culture, aboriginal myths, the
landscape, and migrant experience, particularly
since World War II. Married to a Slovenian, he is
particularly interested in how immigrants from
Central Europe have redefined themselves,
through many trials, as Tasmanians.
Flanagan’s first film, “Sound of One Hand
Clapping,” is situated in a community of mostly
Central European migrant workers. He uses music
as an integral role in the film, not as background
but as a component of character and action.
“Sound of One Hand Clapping” was shown at
both the Berlin and Cannes film festivals.
Flanagan’s most recent novel, Gould’s Book of
Fish (2002), supported by a grant from the Aus-
tralia Council, is a best-seller and a critical success
in Australia and internationally. It has won the
Commonwealth Writers Prize for 2002, establish-
ing Richard Flanagan as one of the most imagina-
tive and innovative of contemporary novelists.
Flaubert, Gustave (1821–1880) novelist
Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen, France. His
father was the chief of surgery at the hospital in
Rouen, and his mother, who went on to become
the most important and influential person in his
life, was the daughter of a physician. Flaubert was
never satisfied with his bourgeois background and
often rebelled against it; these rebellions ultimately
led to his expulsion from school and to his finish-
ing his education privately in Paris.
Flaubert’s school years, aside from aiding in the
development of his rebellious personality, also in-
troduced him to his love of writing. As a teenager,
he fell in love with a married woman, Elisa
Schlésinger. The relationship was destined to end
in disappointment, but his idealized love for Elisa
provided the inspiration and subject matter for
much of his writing.
While studying law in Paris in the early 1840s,
Flaubert suffered from what was diagnosed at the
time as a nervous attack, probably a form of
epilepsy. He subsequently failed his law exams and
decided to devote himself full time to writing.
In 1846, he was introduced to another writer,
Louise Colet. This was the start of a relationship
that lasted many years. Although they spent very
little time together, they corresponded regularly,
and she became his mistress. He broke off the re-
lationship in 1855 when she attempted to visit him
at his country retreat. Her novel, Lui (1859), gives
a vengeful account of their relationship.
Although he was living outside of Paris at the
time, Flaubert maintained close contact with fam-
ily and friends in the city and was a witness to the
Revolution of 1848. Afterward, he took up an ac-
quaintance with the writer Maxime du Camp. To-
gether, the pair traveled for three years, visiting
North Africa, Greece, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, and
Italy. On his return to France, Flaubert began work
on what would become his greatest achievement,
Madame Bovary, a novel that took five years to
complete.
Critical Analysis
Madame Bovary is a shocking tale of adultery,
based on the unhappy affair of the title character,
Emma Bovary. The novel was first published in the
Revue de Paris in 1856 and appeared as a two-vol-
ume book in 1857. Like many of his contempo-
raries’ works, Flaubert’s novel was attacked for its
vivid depiction of what was considered morally of-
fensive behavior. Flaubert was prosecuted for the
work on charges of immorality and on the
grounds that it was offensive to religion. He came
before the same judge who later found Charles
BAUDELAIRE guilty on a similar charge. Flaubert,
however, was not convicted.
Madame Bovary is more than a simple tale of
adultery. The protagonist, Emma Bovary, is a
dreamer who, as a child, read the works of Sir
Walter Scott and the romantics and, as an adult,
longs for a life of romance and adventure. She is
stuck, instead, in an unhappy marriage to Charles
Bovary, a physician, who fails to recognize how
miserable his wife is. Seeking escape from her
boredom, she turns to extramarital affairs as a
source of happiness and adventure. Her pursuit
of another life ultimately causes her to fall deeply
Flaubert, Gustave 147