Modernism and Identity: The Subject of Madame Bovary.

In lieu of an abstract, here is the opening of the article:

Nothing ever happens on time in Madame Bovary. When a cannon goes off to announce the arrival of a government prefect at the local agricultural fair, the Comices Agricoles, we are told: “C’était une fausse alerte. M. le préfet n’arrivait pas; et les membres du jury se trouvaient fort embarrassés, ne sachant s’il fallait commencer la séance ou bien attendre encore.” Even Emma Bovary’s death fails to come at the expected time: following the abrupt, brutal moment at which she takes the arsenic that will kill her (a moment in which we receive no indications of her inner state), Emma—and the reader—must wait for the poison to take effect. In what she believes to be her last beau geste, Emma kisses the crucifix held out by her priest: “elle y déposa de toute sa force expirante le plus grand baiser d’amour qu’elle eût jamais donné.” But death does not come at this “appropriate” moment: instead, she goes on living long enough to experience the horror of a blind beggar’s song coming from the street, whose ugliness replaces the beauty which she had wanted to be the setting for her death.