Under the July Monarchy (1830-1848)
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REPRESENTATIONS OF “LE TRAVAIL” UNDER THE JULY MONARCHY (1830-1848) by Rebecca Terese Powers A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland July, 2015 Representations of le travail under the July Monarchy ABSTRACT This project traces the definition of a social reality of labor under the July Monarchy. More specifically, it investigates how the ubiquitous but elusive term travail – understood as manual, non-agricultural work – operates at different levels of discourse in the 1830s and 1840s. To underline this specific cultural context, I employ the French travail rather than the English “work” or “labor.” French workers expected improved social conditions after their contribution to the 1830 Revolution, but were promptly denied this by the new Constitutional Monarchy. Their frustration came to a head in 1848, when they again revolted, demanding the right to work – le droit au travail. This moment is often considered the dawn of the French labor movement, but I contend that it is in the years leading up to 1848 that travail undergoes its most dramatic definition and consecration as a modern value. In order to better understand how the term took on such significance, I examine a variety of cultural documents, both literary and what we would today consider paraliterary. The corpus includes novels by Honoré de Balzac and George Sand; moralist inquiries by René Villermé and Honoré-Antoine Frégier; Jules Michelet’s historiography of the French people; and writings by the workers themselves, whose first-hand accounts of physical labor were becoming increasingly influential. In considering this multiplicity of voices as part of a more-or-less society-wide conversation, I am indebted to Michel Foucault’s theory of discourse formation as well as Marc Angenot’s social discourse theory which allows me to analyze interactions between discourses. I found two general trends in the way July Monarchy authors talked about work: one which changed over time, the other remaining stable. Chronologically, I found a ii Representations of le travail under the July Monarchy progression in the modalities of representation: le travail shifts from an object of observation in Balzac, to an object of discourse in Sand and the moralists, and finally to a political imperative in the workers’ press. Throughout the period, however, and even as authors strove to represent labor as an observed reality, the use of the imaginary types and tropes of literature remained constant, highlighting the centrality of literature in the formation of a social conscience. The dissertation was completed under the direction of Professor Jacques Neefs of Johns Hopkins University. Professor Dominique Kalifa, Professeur d'histoire contemporaine at Université Paris 1 Panthéon, was the second reader. It was successfully defended on May 5, 2015 to a committee including Professors Jacques Neefs, Dominique Kalifa, Elena Russo, Derek Schilling, and Michael Kwass at Johns Hopkins University. iii Representations of le travail under the July Monarchy TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT…………………………………………...........................….. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………….….. vi IMAGES………………………………………………………………..…viii INTRODUCTION……………………………………...……...………:…..1 I. CRYSTALLIZATION OF A PARADIGM: BALZAC’S ALLEGORIES OF LE TRAVAIL …….…………………..……………..10 Why Allegory? …………………………………………...….……..12 A “Social Zero” ………………………..…………...…………..14 Allegory as Literary Labor ……………………………….……..20 Three Allegories of le travail in Balzac ………………….…..……21 “Physionomies Parisiennes” …………………………….…..…..22 Tales of Work as Active Prayer …………………………..……..38 Le Médecin de campagne ………………………...………..40 Le Curé de village ……………………….……...………..49 “Le Travail” According to Balzac ……..…………………...……..61 II. REPRESENTING A NEW REALITY: OBSERVATIONS AND REVELATIONS ……………………………………………………....…..69 Different Types of Vision …………………………………...….…..69 The Social Enquêtes: Moralists, Industrialists, Postivists …….....…71 Sand’s utopian gaze ………………………………...……….…..79 Shared Vision ………………………………….………………..…..89 Sand’s Real Utopias ………………………..…………….….…..89 Enquêteurs, Idealisms ……………………………………....…...95 A Common Imperative ………………………………...…...…...95 iv Representations of le travail under the July Monarchy III. READING THE WORKING BODY: ALIENATION AND SOCIAL IDENTITY …………………………………………………….………....108 Signs of work on the body ………………………………………..110 Physical and Moral Corruption ………………………….....…..110 Physical and Moral Embellishment ………………………..…...115 Physical Destruction and Moral Construction ………………..…119 Alienation and identity ………………………………………..….123 Alienation through Representation ………………………..……123 Alienation of the Worker Within the Narrative ………...……124 Commodification of the Worker by the Author …………...…127 Creation of a Social Identity …………………………….....…..129 A Special Case: The Working Woman ………………………..…131 An Immoral Character ………………………………….....…..132 Moral Ambiguity of the Working Woman ………………...……139 La grisette ………………………………………………...…..144 Spectacle ……………………………………..…………...…..156 IV. REALIZATION OF THE PARADIGM: THE WORKER- INTELLECTUAL DEFINES “LE TRAVAIL” ……………………....161 Authority, Authenticity, and Experience ……………………..…162 Authority ………………………………………………..…...164 Representative Authority ……………………………..…..166 Authenticity or Morality ……………………………..…...172 Sentiment and Sensation of Le Travail ……………………..…...177 A New Definition of le travail ………………………………..…...181 Differentiation of Le Travail ………………………………..…..182 Formation of a Working-Class Morality ………………..…..184 Reading the Bible to Read the Worker …………..…..185 A New Reading of the Worker’s Body …………..…..196 Michelet’s Definition through Differentiation …………..…..199 Abstraction of Le Travail …………………………………..…..203 V. CONCLUSION ………………………….………………………….....212 VI. WORKS CITED …………………………………….………..….…..217 VI. CURRICULUM VITAE …………………………….….…….……..228 v Representations of le travail under the July Monarchy ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is the result of six years of travail, in all of its senses. While I cannot thank everyone who helped me along the way, I would like to show express my gratitude to some of the people who made this possible. First, of course, un grand merci to Jacques Neefs, whose patience and wisdom have been the moteur behind the project. Perhaps only Véronique Graslin can fully understand the feeling of joy I experienced that day in your office when you told me that the veil had been lifted from my eyes. Another grand remerciement goes to Dominique Kalifa, who has been a great source of inspiration and whose ability to see and the big picture has made the nineteenth-century come alive for me. A big “thank you,” as well, to the other members of the dissertation committee for taking the time to read and comment upon this work in its entirety. Your suggestions have been inspiring as I reread the manuscript and consider the next step in my research. Two other scholars stand out as having helped me to form my thoughts, and their words have been more helpful than perhaps they know. Thank you to Judith Lyon-Caen for her exciting ideas at the conception stage and to Claire White for her helpful comments as I worked to tame the beast near the end. I also wish to express my gratitude to the administrative team in the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures, especially Kathy Loehmer, whose endless patience and wizardry for all things involving paperwork and deadlines have been invaluable. Thank you also to Sue Waterman, a true ambassador of Information Literacy, and without whom my experiences at the many libraries across the United States and Europe could have been quite painful. vi Representations of le travail under the July Monarchy And finally, a more personal thank you goes to my friends and family who have provided me with the support and love that have gotten me this far. I am extra-grateful to my mother, Paula Powers for proof-reading the entire dissertation and for reminding me that the word with the longest syllables is not necessarily the best word. And last but certainly not least, to my dearest and best friend Clément de Chaisemartin: tu es le meilleur! vii Representations of le travail under the July Monarchy IMAGE 1 Eymery. Young Patriots, 1831. Bibliothèque Nationale, Gallica. viii Representations of le travail under the July Monarchy IMAGE 2 Chassériau. Une Forge au Creusot, 1836. Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts graphiques. ix Representations of le travail under the July Monarchy IMAGE 3 Daumier. Olympio, 1842. Bibliothèque Nationale, Gallica. x Representations of le travail under the July Monarchy INTRODUCTION Là je vis, un matin, à l’heure où sous les cieux Froids et clairs le Travail s’éveille, où la voirie Pousse un sombre ouragan dans l’air silencieux Un cygne qui s’était évadé de sa cage[.] --Baudelaire, 1859.1 In this dissertation, I aim to trace the evolution of a name, le travail, which came to signify a new social reality under the July Monarchy. The term finds itself at the intersection of a variety of discourses – most notably moral, social, economic, political, scientific and even artistic in nature. It is therefore not one idea, but rather a point of reference for many different ideas. As such, there are numerous possibilities of how this project might have been conducted. In the trajectory I have mapped out, Balzac sets in place a paradigm for representing le travail which goes beyond the traditional depictions of work as a religious or