Imagining and Appropriating Belgium in Nineteenth-Century British Literature and Culture

THE OTHER CROSS-CHANNEL NEIGHBOR: IMAGINING AND APPROPRIATING BELGIUM IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH LITERATURE AND CULTURE BY THIERRY RAMAIS DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2019 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Julia F. Saville, Chair and Director of Research Professor Lauren M.E. Goodlad, Director of Research, Rutgers University Professor Eleanor Courtemanche Professor François Proulx ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates the effects of increasingly negative perceptions on the representation of Belgium in Victorian literature, but also those of more positive associations, particularly in the literature that more closely followed Belgium's independence. The study focuses on works by Charlotte Brontë, William Thackeray, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Florence Marryat and reveals that, while these authors have sometimes been described as a-political by some critics or biographers, they all show a surprisingly acute knowledge of Belgian affairs. This study seeks to throw new light on each author's ability to explore questions related to British, Belgian and European identities, the contemporaneous situation of Belgium and the state of Belgo-British perceptions, as well as to their position as travelers, outsiders and writers of their own experiences on the Continent. It investigates how these literary productions showcase not only these authors’ knowledge of Belgium and of Victorian views of Belgium, but also their integration of the context of changing British perceptions towards Belgium in the service of unique, individual artistic pursuits that often have a lot more to do with the British cultural realm at the time than with international politics. The first chapter focuses on two little-known productions by William Makepeace Thackeray, Papers by the Fat Contributor and Little Travels and Roadside Sketches (1844-1845) and shows how these travel accounts showcase not only Thackeray's burgeoning talent for satire but also his ability to explore questions of literary genre in ways that belie the apparent disorganization of these texts. At a time when British interest in Belgium had not yet waned, Thackeray uses Belgium to question how an increased British access to Continental tourism might change Romantic ideas about travel and extends the focus of his narrative to the ii Victorians' conceptions of travel writing and the latter’s role, alongside history writing, in shaping ideologies around class and nationalism. The second chapter tackles Charlotte Brontë’s The Professor (1846-1857) and Villette (1853). While pre-1960s criticism of both novels focuses on these characters' individual experiences, later critics have positioned their conflicts in the context of Britishness in a Continental setting. This chapter extends the latter approach to include an investigation of the effects of Belgian history on the multicultural, interpersonal conflicts described in each narrative and analyzes descriptions of national and religious identity crises as they affect characters from both sides of the Channel. Reading Villette from the standpoint of Belgium's struggle for independence, and the role played by religion and education in the latter, it analyzes how this historical background inflects Brontë's narrative. Then, while investigating the changes in Victorian perception of Belgium in the time gap separating the two novels, it offers possible explanations for Brontë's choice in Villette to shift from The Professor's setting (Brussels in 1846) to the fictional Labassecour, as it considers the advantages and limitations that a recognizably Belgian setting poses to her. The third chapter focuses on Dante Gabriel Rossetti's trip taken with William Holman Hunt to France and Belgium and the resulting A Trip to Paris and Belgium (1849), in particular the lesser-known travel poems that document the poet's experience in the Belgian cities and landmarks he visits, his modes of transportation, and his occasional musings on Belgium and the Belgians. It shows that, even if a close reading reveals the poet's awareness of the post-1848 political climate on each side of the Belgo-French border, his chief preoccupation is with Medieval “Belgian” art and its potential enrichment of Pre-Raphaelitism. The chapter highlights the variety of themes these poems ultimately investigate: from train travel and its resulting iii sensory explorations, to reflections on mass tourism and its effects on artistic institutions and, last but not least, a poetic quest to connect intellectually with the Flemish masters of the past while acknowledging Belgian modernity. The sonnet sequence echoes a different use of Belgium (aiming at changing opinions at home) as well as a waning interest of Victorians in Belgium starting in the late 1840s. Finally, chapter four focuses on Florence Marryat’s The Blood of the Vampire (1897). It shows how both the rise of middle-class British tourism to Belgium and the growth of Belgium as a colonial power in Central Africa restored Belgium to Victorian public attention in the 1880s and 1890s, and how this double historical backdrop informs Marryat's use of the country in her story. The study reveals how, while Brontë, Rossetti and Thackeray used Belgium to investigate questions related to Britishness within a mostly cross-Channel and North-European framework, Marryat's novel places Heyst and London as nodes on an even more international network, echoing the increasing inter-connectedness of European and world economies. Finally, it connects these observations with a discussion and questioning of the novel's genre, showing how Marryat's use of Belgium serves to undermine the core of her novel's supernatural promises. This, the chapter argues, echoes the propensity of her British characters to embrace fantastical logic at the expense of truth about colonial exploitation, poor factory working conditions and racism. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all the people who provided me with guidance and support during my experience as a doctoral student. When I started my graduate studies at the University of Illinois, I was a Belgian exchange student, single and unattached. As I am now putting the final touches to this dissertation, I am a happily married American with four wonderful children. Needless to say, completing this project has not only been an academic journey, but a personal one as well. I am grateful to have found in my family, friends and advisers not only everyday support, but an unwavering trust that, whatever lemons life was throwing my way, I was capable of bringing this project to fruition. This dissertation would not exist in its present form, or maybe even at all, without them. I would of course like to start with thanking my two directors, Lauren M.E. Goodlad and Julia F. Saville, for their dedication in helping me always challenge myself, clarify and refine my thoughts and see the forest for the trees throughout the processes of researching, writing and revising. I'm grateful for their encouragement whenever important milestones were reached, but also, and more importantly perhaps, for tirelessly motivating me to move “onward and upward” (to quote one of my favorite phrases from Julia F. Saville) whenever they were. My final two semesters as a doctoral student were filled with multiple rounds of revisions and sensitive administrative deadlines; I am thankful for their time, patience, and dedication in making sure I never dropped the ball during this final stretch. Their acute insights in the realm of Victorian literature and culture, particularly in connection to Cross-Channel and, generally, international relations, have been invaluable. v I would also like to thank my two other final committee members, Eleanor Courtemanche, for brainstorming ideas in original ways and cheering me on whenever I needed it, and François Proulx, for graciously agreeing to step in during the last stages of my doctoral process and offering valuable feedback during my defense. I also thank Patrick Bray for his help during the earlier stages of my research, in particular his insights on mid-nineteenth century French literature and culture in my preparation for the field exam. I would also like to thank Michel Delville, my mentor and friend from the University of Liège, who, with many other faculty members from my “Belgian” English Department, fostered my interest in English literature and encouraged me to pursue further graduate studies at the University of Illinois. I am also grateful for the friends I have made along the years as a student, researcher and teaching/research/administrative assistant, for their support at various stages of my long journey, in particular Stéphanie Brabant, Cecily Garber, Donghee Om, In Hye Ha, Jean Lee, Sarah Sahn, Carrie Dickenson, Cinda Heeren, and Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider. Last but not least, I thank my family. Colleen, for being an extraordinarily supportive wife and a wonderful mom. Thank you for taking care of one, then two, then three, then four little ones whenever “Papa” needed to focus on his work, and for never doubting me. My four little loves, for all the hugs and kisses whenever I needed them (and even when I did not), for the smiles and laughs, for all the little reminders that academic life and family life can and should happily coexist. Raphael and Noah, I love to watch you engrossed in books. William and Elyse, I have no

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