The Bourgeois, the Novel, and a Metaphor. The Metonymic Field of “Flow” in Late 18th-Century Literature

Abstract

The aim of this article is to conduct a survey concerning the cultural use of the concept and image of flux at the dawn of capitalist modernity. Although this work is certainly indebted to Hans Blumenberg’s reflections on the metaphor’s catalytic power for the conceptual universe, my intention is also to treat the metaphorical concretion as an indicator of a metonymic field. The concept and image of flux and fluidity are seen as the most conspicuous element in a series of cultural operations that, from the mid-18th century, pervade cultural reflection with images pertaining to the sphere of liquidity, becoming, and protean forms. The metaphor is thus explored when referred to a precise conceptual order linked to the collapse of certainties (solidity) of an epistemological, social, or aesthetic nature. Although the metaphor in question tends to permeate all types of intellectual reflection (economic, sociological, philosophical, etc.), in this article, while acknowledging some references to extra-literary debates, I will focus mainly on the metaphor in relation to the development of the novel.