Encyklopedia i szklana kula. „Bouvard i Pécuchet” Gustave’a Flauberta jako opowieść o poszukiwaniu kontaktu człowieka z cywilizacji
The Encyclopedia and a Crystal Ball. Gustave Flaubert’s "Bouvard and Pécuchet" as a Story about the Search for Human Contact with Civilization

Summary/Abstract: Gustave Flaubert’s "Bouvard and Pécuchet" is an important voice in the 19th-century debate on civilization and the attitude that one should adopt to endow it with personal meaning. The move away from the traditional plot schemes was dictated by the author’s established formula of “Encyclopedism,” which was to help in the creation of a masterpiece that would comprise the essence of the times. Flaubert confronted his two 'cloportes' with the challenge of facing the past and its achievements and an attempt to systematize them in order to ruthlessly expose the unfeasibility of this task. The course of their quest was developed on the basis of free association and random readings, which on the one hand, we can interpret as evidence of one’s confusion over the vastness of the material, while on the other, it can be regarded as Flaubert’s proposal on how to approach reality. Only the freedom of associations, an individual approach, and equal treatment of all sources give a chance to reach one’s own views on truth.

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