Imaginary of the sunken lane and imaginary sunken lane Aesthetics of the writing of nature in Pierre Gascar

Pierre Schoentjes discusses the image of the sunken path in Le Fortin (1983) by Gascar. The author took it when he was a soldier in 1939 and is convinced that it is a path described in Madame Bovary. Gascar, an admirer of Flaubert, intends to find the passage, but several rereadings convince him that this novel does not mention any sunken path. This is an opportunity for him to reflect on a writing that aims to give the impression that “we are there”. Could it be that there is nevertheless a sunken path in Madame Bovary?