Evacuating Lamartine: Flaubert's Use of Etc. as Shifter in Madame Bovary

Flaubert's use of nine syllables of Lamartine's poem, "Le Lac" in part 3, chapter 3, of Madame Bovary seems to naturalize sentimental memorializing. Nevertheless, it may be argued that Flaubert has used the poetic fragment to emphasize the discontinuity between remembrance and actuality by moving into an extended ellipsis, and thereby redistributing Lamartine's language into the void. The result not only provides an ironic perspective on the inefficacious use of memory to complete experience, but also illustrates how Flaubert uses the clash of contradictory codes to evacuate Lamartine's text. (MBK)