Flaubert, Foucault, and the Bibliotheque Fantastique: toward a postmodern epistemology for library science - Gustave Flaubert, Michel Foucault - Qualitative Research

Library Trends, Spring, 1998 by Gary P. Radford

LA TENTATION DE SAINT ANTOINE

To understand Foucault's use of the concept of "library," it is necessary to briefly consider the text which was the main focus of his essay. According to Foucault (1967/1977) and Bart (1967), La Tentation de Saint Antoine was inspired by Flaubert's viewing of Breughel the Younger's painting of the same name at the Balbi Palace in Genoa in 1845. The text was written over a period of thirty years through three versions and "remained Flaubert's favorite until the end of his life" (Bart, 1967, p. 581). The historical Saint Antony portrayed in Breughel's painting was a monk in the Egypt of the fourth century. Flaubert's text opens with Saint Antony alone before his hut, high on a mountain, overlooking the Nile and the desert. The hermit's hut consists of "mud and reeds, with a flat roof and no door. Inside it are visible a pitcher and a loaf of black bread; in the middle, on a wooden slab, a fat book" (Flaubert, 1874/1980, p. 61). Antony, who has "a long beard, long hair, and wears a goatskin tunic" (Flaubert, 1874/1980, p. 61), is seated, cross-legged, engaged in making mats. The sun is setting, and Antony heaves a deep sigh. He is tired of making baskets and mats; his desire to pray has been exhausted, and he has doubts about his vocation. Antony laments:

A fine style of life this is, twisting pieces of palm tree into

crooks over the fire, making baskets, stitching mats, and exchanging

it all with the Nomads for bread that breaks your teeth! Ah, misery!

will it never end? Better be dead! I can't bear any more! Enough!

enough! (Flaubert, 1874/1980, p. 66)

Antony turns to his Bible, and the passages on which he falls suggest "feasting, carnage, and vengeance, orgy, wealth, and ... carnal love" (Buck, 1966, p. 54). Weak from fasting, Antony becomes faint. The hallucinations that comprise the remainder of the text begin:

He leans unsteadily against his cabin. "It's the fasting! I'm losing

my strength. If I could eat, just for once ... a bit of meat." He half

shuts his eyes with faintness.

"Ah! reed meat ... a bunch of grapes to bite into! ... curds shivering on

a plate! But what's the matter with me now? ... What is it? ... I

can feel my heart heaving like the sea, when it swells before a

storm. I'm over-come with utter weakness, and the warm air seems to

blow me a hint of scented hair; Surely no woman has arrived? ..."

He turns toward the narrow path between the rocks. ... [He] climbs

onto a rock at the near end of the path; he leans over, trying to

pierce the gloom.

"Yes! A moving mass, down there, right at the bottom, like people

looking for their way. It's over here! They're going wrong" He calls:

"This way! Come! come!" The echo repeats: Come! come! He drops his

arms, dumbfounded. "How shameful! Ah! poor Antony!"

At once he hears a whispered `Poor Antony!'

"Who's there? Answer me!"

The wind that blows through cracks between the boulders is freely

modulating and in these confused sonorities he makes out VOICES, as if

the air were talking. They are soft, insinuating, hissing.