Flaubert was a punk writer : une « éducation sentimentale punk » est-elle possible ? [Flaubert Was a Punk Writer : Is a "Sentimental Punk Education" Possible ?] Article - 2024

Does punk provide a sensitive framework for a "sentimental education" ? Is this initiatory concept even meaningful at a time when punk youth, in the wake of the explosion of No Future (1977), appears to be initially disenchanted with love in order to better camouflage its relationship with the world ? Moreover, at the heart of punk practices, and in particular of musical creation, songs and anthems, emerges an education that some might imagine to be part of an imposed "sentimental order", to be discussed, contested, deviated from or deconstructed. In Olivier Reboul’s view, there can be no education without values. Punk is a hotbed of subversion of established codes, an epicenter for the deconstruction of traditional values and decorum. Equally, it is the territory of experiments on the margins of social convention. It has provided, and still provides, a legitimate, relevant, sensitive and heuristic framework for discussing "sentimental education". This article analyzes this constitution through a study of the corpus of punk songs, extended to include forms of media coverage and testimonies gathered in the field.