Adapter l’ironie flaubertiennel’exemple de "Gemma" Bovery de Posy Simmonds

Abstract

Gustave Flaubert refused to illustrate his books throughout his life. This rigid attitude of the author contrasts, paradoxically, with the numerous occasions in which his works have been adapted to other formats. In the world of graphic storytelling, we find Posy Simmonds’ Gemma Bovery (2014), currently the only graphic novel inspired by Flaubert’s masterpiece, Madame Bovary (1857). The present article aims to study flaubertine irony as a source of Posy Simmonds’ humour in Gemma Bovery (2014). First, we will contextualize our study in the field of adaptations, comics and graphic novels through key works and authors. Then, in a methodological part, we will try to briefly define the concept of irony, as well as the different procedures that can trigger it in a literary text. Finally, in the proposed analysis we will study the presence of flaubertine irony from the form to the content of this graphic novel in order to also observe its originality.