Comte - Zolà - De Maupassant

Materie:	Appunti
Categoria:	Inglese
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Data:	03.10.2006
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Auguste Comte
Auguste Comte was a French philosofer who was born in 1798 and died in 1857. He formulated the three-stage theory. He wrote the “Plan des travaux scientifiques pour reorganiser la societé; the course de philosophie positive; le discours sur l’esprit positif.”. He makes known the positivism.
The project of the « réorganisation sociale »
He believed the main problem of his time was caused by the French revolution (of the 1789) that hasn’t caused an economic crisis like a lot of his contemporany ’s philosopher said. He thought that was a intellectual crisis. He proposed to change the theology and metaphysical system in a system based on the science. He talked about the interdependence between the truth and the usefulness of the knownoledge. (utilitarism) and about the historical relativity of the knownoledge ’s organisation.
The three-stage theory
It was based on the biunique correspondence between political and social organisation. The three-stage are the teological or false, the metaphysical or abstract and the scientifical or positive. These stages don’t provoke (with their succession) a changement but a progress.
He believe that in every stage there is an input to make the next stage better. The stage of sciences wasn’t an extension of the previous stages. In this time he introduced his system made up from maths, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and sociology. In this science there is an order. Every science that follow is always less universal and more complex (that the previous).
About the sociology, he called himself “the social science’ Galileo” because he arrived to goal with the osservation of a phenomenon not throught the theory”.
Emile Zolà
Emil zolà was a French novelist who was born in Paris in 1840 and died in 1902. Zolà ideas were influenced by Darwin and Taine. He was fond of Deschand and Letourneau theories. They tried to link passionality and science and intellectual life of science. He was keen on Balzac and Flaubert works ‘cause they tried to eliminate the divarious between science and licterature. He wrote a big cycle of novels: les Rougnon-Ma cquart. Here he talked about scientifical theme in a particular way and he linked all characters trough Darwin’s theory. He played the role of the historiographer of a French family looked with a naturalistic and phisiologyst ’s eyes.
In these books he compare the man with the bad world where he live with his instincts. He is pessimistic and fatalist so he has this vision of history. He relay on the natural justice even if his characters live an existential tragedy and a physic and moral sufferance. After the composition of the Rougon-Macquert, he left the naturalism. He was influenced by his family’s situation. Zola became a man that tried to find himself and the truth. He became utopistic. In 1902 he died.
Guy de Maupassant
Guy de Maupassant was a French novelist who was born in Miromesnil (Seine Maritme) in 1859 and who died in Paris in 1893. He was employed in navy and public education ministry. From the 1873 to the 1880, Guy the Maupassant devoted himself only to wrote. His teacher was Flaubert. Some think he was his father. De Maupassant was a brilliant writer, even if his sexual life and his illness have destroyed his body since his youth. After the “diner chez trappe” (1877) he didn’t attend Zolà but he participated at the naturalistic manifest “Le soirées de Medan”, for example, in Novara with the story “Boule de Souif”. Unlike other his contemporany writers, he made short but strong stories. His characters especially was farmers, little clerks, street walkers and military men.
“Bel-ami” is the novel of a young man, Duroy, who try to go cinically up in the journalistic world. He was all women’s friend. Another important novel is “une vie” that talk about the life of Jeanne, a woman married with Julient de Lamar. She doesn’t love him: she had be attracted by his moneys and his social condition. “Pierre et Jean” is the story of the conflict between two brothers. Jean have inherited something from their mother’s friend. Pierre became jealous.
De Maupassant, like Zolà has a pessimistic and fantastic vision of the life.
We can find this peculiarities of the author in two stories: “Sur l’eau” and “La vie errante”.
After the abandonment of the erotomania, he was afraid of the death.
He became crazy and try to kill himself in January 1892. He died in the same year on the sixth of july.