Nineteenth-Century French Studies

2016 Nineteenth-Century French Studies

doi:

Abstract: This article explores the topics of confinement and claustrophilia in Xavier de Maistre’s Voyage autour de ma chambre (1795) and Expédition nocturne autour de ma chambre (1825), and in Jan Potocki’s Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse (1791–1814). These works resonate with ideas put forward by Blaise Pascal in the Pensées , more precisely with the reflections on man’s need for constant diversion, represented though the image of his incapacity to stay alone in a room. The fictions of de Maistre and Potocki have in common that they stage literary prison scenes where the characters experience confinement as stimulating for their creativity, giving way to a specific freedom of the imagination. The article argues further that, if the claustrophilia advocated by de Maistre and Potocki appears as responses to the problem of man’s restlessness as examined by Pascal, these responses depend on a Rousseauist understanding of the notion of exalted imagination.

Haugen, Marius Warholm

2016 Nineteenth-Century French Studies

doi:

This article explores the topics of confinement and claustrophilia in Xavier de Maistre’s <italic>Voyage autour de ma chambre</italic> (1795) and <italic>Expédition nocturne autour de ma chambre</italic> (1825), and in Jan Potocki’s <italic>Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse</italic> (1791–1814). These works resonate with ideas put forward by Blaise Pascal in the <italic>Pensées</italic>, more precisely with the reflections on man’s need for constant diversion, represented though the image of his incapacity to stay alone in a room. The fictions of de Maistre and Potocki have in common that they stage literary prison scenes where the characters experience confinement as stimulating for their creativity, giving way to a specific freedom of the imagination. The article argues further that, if the claustrophilia advocated by de Maistre and Potocki appears as responses to the problem of man’s restlessness as examined by Pascal, these responses depend on a Rousseauist understanding of the notion of exalted imagination.

Crahay, Géraldine

2016 Nineteenth-Century French Studies

doi:

This article examines Gautier’s novel <italic>Mademoiselle de Maupin</italic> (1835) as an example of nineteenth-century French society’s interest and reluctance regarding male homosexuality, and the subsequent strategy of allusion that is used to discuss this topic. It analyses the method used by the male protagonist d’Albert to render his feelings for “Théodore” (the cross-dressed woman Madeleine de Maupin) culturally acceptable. D’Albert turns his allegedly monstrous homoerotic desire into an aesthetic quest by comparing “Théodore” to the god Hermaphroditus, who embodies perfect neoclassical beauty and whose harmonious combination of masculine and feminine traits idealizes sexual ambiguity. This article also contrasts d’Albert’s discursive strategy of discretion with Madeleine’s own openness regarding her lesbian feelings, thus highlighting the difference in treatment between male homosexuality and lesbianism in the nineteenth century. (In French)

2016 Nineteenth-Century French Studies

doi:

Abstract: This article examines Gautier’s novel Mademoiselle de Maupin (1835) as an example of nineteenth-century French society’s interest and reluctance regarding male homosexuality, and the subsequent strategy of allusion that is used to discuss this topic. It analyses the method used by the male protagonist d’Albert to render his feelings for “Théodore” (the cross-dressed woman Madeleine de Maupin) culturally acceptable. D’Albert turns his allegedly monstrous homoerotic desire into an aesthetic quest by comparing “Théodore” to the god Hermaphroditus, who embodies perfect neoclassical beauty and whose harmonious combination of masculine and feminine traits idealizes sexual ambiguity. This article also contrasts d’Albert’s discursive strategy of discretion with Madeleine’s own openness regarding her lesbian feelings, thus highlighting the difference in treatment between male homosexuality and lesbianism in the nineteenth century. (In French)

Goergen, Maxime

2016 Nineteenth-Century French Studies

doi:

Victor Hugo’s socialism is characterized, from the 1830s onwards, by a holistic vision of the people. It comes as no surprise, then, that the concept of class struggle is not one he relies on to define his vision of social progress. In <italic>Les Misérables</italic>, however, Hugo shows an acute awareness of the conflicts permeating French society, especially since 1848; he engages with the concept of class, notably in his description of the barricades, and in so doing enters into dialogue with Marx’s own interpretation of class struggles in France. This paper analyses to what extent Hugo incorporates social conflicts in his own social messianism; it also demonstrates that class struggle acts as an important fictional catalyst, contributing to the narrative construction of the elusive figure of the <italic>misérable</italic>. (In French)

2016 Nineteenth-Century French Studies

doi:

Abstract: Victor Hugo’s socialism is characterized, from the 1830s onwards, by a holistic vision of the people. It comes as no surprise, then, that the concept of class struggle is not one he relies on to define his vision of social progress. In Les Misérables , however, Hugo shows an acute awareness of the conflicts permeating French society, especially since 1848; he engages with the concept of class, notably in his description of the barricades, and in so doing enters into dialogue with Marx’s own interpretation of class struggles in France. This paper analyses to what extent Hugo incorporates social conflicts in his own social messianism; it also demonstrates that class struggle acts as an important fictional catalyst, contributing to the narrative construction of the elusive figure of the misérable . (In French)

Knee, Philip

2016 Nineteenth-Century French Studies

doi:

While he laments the loss of traditional authority, Barbey’s early essays on dandyism and counter-revolutionary thought acknowledge the impossibility of political and religious restoration. His novels attempt to compensate for this by stimulating what remains of the past in the imagination of his readers. Some episodes from <italic>L’Ensorcelée</italic> and <italic>Les Diaboliques</italic> highlight how Barbey strives to foster the specter of what has been lost in the heart of those who have been defeated by history. (In French)

2016 Nineteenth-Century French Studies

doi:

Abstract: While he laments the loss of traditional authority, Barbey’s early essays on dandyism and counter-revolutionary thought acknowledge the impossibility of political and religious restoration. His novels attempt to compensate for this by stimulating what remains of the past in the imagination of his readers. Some episodes from L’Ensorcelée and Les Diaboliques highlight how Barbey strives to foster the specter of what has been lost in the heart of those who have been defeated by history. (In French)

Cooke, Roderick

2016 Nineteenth-Century French Studies

doi:

<p>Abstract:</p><p>Beginning with a close reading of the only appearance in <i>La Bête humaine</i> of the term <i>progrès</i> enables a reading of the novel that integrates its two settings—the railways and the legal system—into a single perspective. Zola’s narrative anticipates Heidegger’s postwar reflections on technology and technocracy, and the philosopher’s concepts of “Enframing” and “standing-reserve” in turn illuminate the novelist’s writing. Zola’s concern with showing the toxic effects of the Second Empire’s corruption, on both abstract ideals and physical systems, produces a work in which the possibilities of both progress and justice are precluded. Consideration of other novels such as <i>Son Excellence Eugène Rougon</i> and <i>Travail</i> establishes the railways as a dialectical site of tension between corruption and utopia across Zola’s œuvre.</p>

2016 Nineteenth-Century French Studies

doi:

Abstract: Beginning with a close reading of the only appearance in La Bête humaine of the term progrès enables a reading of the novel that integrates its two settings—the railways and the legal system—into a single perspective. Zola’s narrative anticipates Heidegger’s postwar reflections on technology and technocracy, and the philosopher’s concepts of “Enframing” and “standing-reserve” in turn illuminate the novelist’s writing. Zola’s concern with showing the toxic effects of the Second Empire’s corruption, on both abstract ideals and physical systems, produces a work in which the possibilities of both progress and justice are precluded. Consideration of other novels such as Son Excellence Eugène Rougon and Travail establishes the railways as a dialectical site of tension between corruption and utopia across Zola’s œuvre.