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A Study of the Theatrical Works of Olympe De Gouges 1748-1793

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A Study of the Theatrical Works of Olympe De Gouges 1748-1793 i TITLE OF THESIS: Liberté, Égalité, Sororité : A Study of the Theatrical Works of Olympe de Gouges 1748-1793. Name of Author: Vivien Hennessy Research Masters Thesis in Arts (French Studies) Department of French Studies Mary Immaculate College University of Limerick Internal Supervisor: Mr. Darach Sanfey Internal Examiner: Prof. Geraldine Sheridan External Examiner: Dr. Síofra Pierse Submitted to Mary Immaculate College: 18th September 2012 ii Abstract Liberté, Égalité, Sororité: A Study of the Theatrical Works of Olympe de Gouges 1748-1793. Author: Vivien Hennessy Marie Olympe de Gouges was born Marie Gouze in Montauban, France on the seventh of May 1748. Widowed at the age of eighteen, she left her native Montauban accompanied by her young son to pursue a career as a writer in Paris in 1766. Changing her name to Olympe de Gouges, she forged a new identity for herself as a political pamphleteer, social activist, revolutionary sympathiser and playwright. Throughout her time as a writer she courted controversy for her proto-feminist principles and uncompromising advocacy of the cause of the abolitionists. De Gouges is principally remembered for her political and feminist writings, however she wished above all to be considered as a femme de lettres. This thesis involves a detailed study of the complete dramatic works of Olympe de Gouges, and aims to increase awareness of an important area of the playwright’s literary repertoire which is deserving of greater critical attention. Olympe de Gouges was found guilty of ‘pro- royalist’ sentiment by the revolutionaries and was thus executed on the third of November 1793. Altogether it is believed that she wrote around nineteen plays, twelve of which remain for posterity, and it is these plays which are examined in this thesis under the thematic headings of liberté, égalité and sororité. iii Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Darach Sanfey for his invaluable insight, advice and wisdom in the supervision of this thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Loïc Guyon, the head of the French Department of Mary Immaculate College, for his kind encouragement. To all my family and friends, as well as my colleagues in the French Department, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your support and guidance. Above all, this project is dedicated to my four children, Dolores, Hema, Ciara and Fionn; may the guiding lights of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity shine on your life’s path. iv Dedication À mes enfants v Declaration I hereby declare that this dissertation is entirely my own work and has not, in full or part, been submitted to any other institutions. Signed: ……………………………………………………….. Vivien Hennessy September 2012 vi Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………...ii Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………..iii Dedication…………………………………………………………………………...iv Declaration…………………………………………………………………………...v Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………vi Introduction………………………………………………………………………….1 Section One: Liberté……………………………………………………………….11 Chapter One: Personal Liberty……………………………………………………..12 Chapter Two: Libertinage…………………………………………………………..25 Chapter Three: Freedom from Traditional Frameworks: redefining family.............38 Section Two: Égalité……………………………………………………………….50 Chapter Four: Social Division and Feudal Tradition………………………………51 Chapter Five: The Monarchy, The Clergy and The Military……………………….65 Chapter Six: Race and Gender……………………………………………………..79 Section Three: Sororité…………………………………………………………….89 Chapter Seven: Performing Sisterhood…………………………………………….90 Chapter Eight: Male Redemption through Female Intervention…………………..101 vii Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………112 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….118 Appendix……………………………………………………………………….i-xxxvi 1 Introduction To any scholar of French eighteenth-century studies, Olympe de Gouges needs little or no introduction. She is principally celebrated for her proto-feminist philosophies, as well as her political pamphleteering, and her most enduring work, the Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (1791), a feminist revision of the Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen (1789), is still considered to be one of the cornerstones of early feminist thought. However, of all the titles bestowed upon de Gouges, from proto-feminist to political thinker and abolitionist advocate, her designation of preference was undoubtedly, femme de lettres. Olympe de Gouges’ true passion was for the theatre, a fact stated personally by the author on numerous occasions. In the preface to the 1791 publication of Le Couvent ou les vœux forcés, de Gouges describes her devotion to writing: La littérature est une passion qui porte jusqu'au délire. Cette passion m'a constamment occupée pendant dix années de ma vie. Elle a ses inquiétudes, ses alarmes, ses tourments, comme celle de l'amour…Il m'a pris fantaisie de faire fortune, je veux la faire, et je la ferai. Je la ferai, dis-je, en dépit des envieux, de la critique et du sort même […]1 Nevertheless, to date, de Gouges’ complete dramaturgy remains a relatively neglected area of her literary repertoire. It was not until 1981, with the publication of her biography by the historian Olivier Blanc, almost two hundred years after her trial and death by execution, 1 Olympe De Gouges, preface to Le Couvent ou les vœux forcés, Olympe de Gouges, Théâtre, Tome I (Paris: Indigo et Côté-femmes éditions, 1991), p. 34. 2 that a revival of interest in this fascinating and pivotal figure of Revolutionary history was to initiate. Yet heretofore critical attention has been focused mainly on de Gouges’ politics, and her significance as a proponent of proto-feminist ideology. Though recent studies from acclaimed academics, notably those of Gisela Thiele-Knobloch, Janie Vanpée and Joan Wallach-Scott, have concentrated on some of her theatrical works, there is as yet no comprehensive analysis of her dramatic corpus as a whole. Critics have tended to regard de Gouges’ dramaturgy as a footnote to her political writings, however this thesis endeavours to highlight her theatrical works as a noteworthy contribution to eighteenth-century literature. This thesis aims to provide a detailed analysis of the complete dramaturgy of Olympe de Gouges, and proposes that the playwright be considered as an eighteenth- century femme de lettres of note. As such, this analysis supports the claim by Blanc that: ‘C’est un auteur de comédies ou de drames qui valaient bien la plupart des productions […] de l’époque.’2 Blanc’s hypothesis will be validated by a close reading of de Gouges’ dramatic works, while an examination of the tropes of liberté, égalité and sororité will underscore the important social, philosophical and political import contained therein. From comedy to tragedy, melodrama to political polemic, de Gouges’ dramaturgy is markedly of a social nature. As befitted the didactic function of such ‘social theatre’, the playwright strove to highlight contemporaneous concerns and to dramatise popular themes 2 Olivier Blanc, Olympe de Gouges, with a preface by Claude Manceron (Paris: Éditions Syros, 1981) p.5. 3 which were increasingly pertinent in an era of great social change.3 De Gouges particularly engaged herself with the depiction of those she considered marginalised and subjugated, such as slaves, domestics and women. Camille Aubaud asserts that: ‘Les pièces d’Olympe de Gouges clament les souffrances et les résignations de tous les opprimés.’4 De Gouges’ theatre has at times been criticised for employing somewhat flimsy plotlines, or for indulging in overt bathos. However the dramatist’s social commentary is always lucid and forthright. She also displayed a keen ear for language and characterisation. Memorable dialogue, as exemplified in such plays as Molière chez Ninon (1787), and lively rhetoric, as illustrated in her political dramas, among them L’Entrée de Dumouriez à Bruxelles (1792), are the hallmarks of de Gouges’ unique style, always assuring a fresh perspective and a novel approach to familiar themes. Yet actual stage performance, or the lack thereof, is the tragedy behind the history of de Gouges’ dramatic works. Between 1783 and 1792, de Gouges wrote some twenty plays, of which only twelve remain. The last of her dramas, Le Tyran détrôné ou La France sauvée (1792) is incomplete, but was cited as evidence of her subverse intentions at the time of her trial, for its supposed espousal of pro-royalist sympathies. Of these plays, only four were publicly performed, and only one, Le Couvent ou les vœux forcés (1790) had a successful run, staged on no fewer than eighty occasions from the time of its first production on the fourth of October 1790 at the Théâtre National Comique et Lyrique. 3 For more see R. Emmet Kennedy, Marie Netter and Mark Olsen, Theatre, Opera and Audiences in Revolutionary Paris: Analysis and Repetory, (Greenwood: Praeger, 1996), where such ‘social theatre’ is defined as performances designed to reflect and portray social concerns above philosophical concepts or political dogma. 4 Camille Aubaud, Lire les femmes de lettres (Paris: Dunod, 1993), p. 92. 4 The reasons for this low number of public performances are twofold. Firstly, as observed by Gisela Thiele-Knobloch: ‘[…] la réserve extrême du monde théâtral et du public envers les productions des femmes’ was undoubtedly a factor.5 Secondly, the playwright’s fraught relationship with leading theatrical institutions, notably the Comédie Française, earned her a reputation as a difficult and demanding
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