After the Revolution: Terror, Literature, and the Nation in Modern France
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
After the Revolution: Terror, Literature, and the Nation in Modern France. by Melissa A. Deininger B.A., College of William and Mary, 1996 M.A., University of Pittsburgh, 2002 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2009 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH College of Arts and Sciences This dissertation was presented by Melissa A. Deininger It was defended on January 7, 2009 and approved by Dr. Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Professor, French and Italian Dr. Seymour Drescher, Professor, History Dr. Dennis Looney, Associate Professor, French and Italian Dr. Philip Watts, Associate Professor, Columbia University Dissertation Advisor: Giuseppina Mecchia, Associate Professor, French and Italian ii Copyright © by Melissa A. Deininger 2009 iii After the Revolution: Terror, Literature, and the Nation in Modern France. Melissa A. Deininger, M.A., Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2009 This dissertation provides a framework in which to consider how collective memory, national identity, and literature insist on a political vision of the nation. The works in question are examples of the enduring impact of pivotal events on the French literary tradition. This study takes a diachronic approach to studying literature written during moments of crisis in France. It examines works dealing with the Revolutionary Terror (1793-1794), the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), and World War II’s drôle de guerre (1940). The writers chosen for this dissertation all use the rhetoric of literature as a way to think through the crisis and imagine ways to respond to it. In particular, this study explores how fear, power, and indoctrination are used to represent ideals of French national identity and the chaos surrounding earth-shattering events. Theories of historical representation, nationalism, and event fidelity provide the framework to reveal underlying political perspectives in the works studied. The chapters of this dissertation are organized chronologically, beginning with the Terror. Within the first chapter, the focus is on the Marquis de Sade’s La Philosophie dans le boudoir, particularly its fabricated political pamphlet, “Français, encore un effort si vous voulez être républicains.” Sade’s work is juxtaposed with that of a virtually unknown émigré writer, Louis de Bruno’s Lioncel, ou l’Émigré, nouvelle historique. The next event studied is the Franco-Prussian War, and the resulting Paris Commune. Victor Hugo’s Quatrevingt-Treize and Jules Vern’es Le Chemin de France are both set during the Revolutionary War, but address iv events taking place in nineteenth-century France. The last chapter deals with the initial period of defeat and occupation in World War II. Both Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nativity play, Bariona ou le fils du tonnerre and Marc Bloch’s wartime testimonial L’Étrange défaite encourage Frenchmen to continue the fight against foreign aggressors. The authors in question attempted to give the nation cultural roots, or shared lieux de mémoire, in the aftermath of traumatic events. This study shows how writers use texts to mediate chronological and ideological distance between events and to recreate what no longer exists, in hopes of defining a new way forward for the nation. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE....................................................................................................................................IX 1.0 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 1 2.0 “MAKE TERROR THE ORDER OF THE DAY”: REPRESENTATIONS OF THE TERROR IN MARQUIS DE SADE AND LOUIS DE BRUNO................................... 25 2.1 THE TERROR IN FRANCE............................................................................ 27 2.2 MARQUIS DE SADE........................................................................................ 36 2.2.1 Sade and Revolution ................................................................................... 39 2.2.2 Terror and Domination in Sade................................................................. 49 2.2.3 La Philosophie dans le boudoir................................................................... 51 2.2.4 The Libertine as Educator ......................................................................... 54 2.2.5 La Philosophie dans le boudoir as Political Satire .................................... 67 2.2.6 Post-Revolutionary Sade ............................................................................ 78 2.3 LOUIS DE BRUNO........................................................................................... 82 2.3.1 Lioncel, ou l’Émigré, nouvelle historique................................................... 93 2.3.2 Good versus Evil in Lioncel........................................................................ 96 2.3.3 Bruno and Terror ..................................................................................... 103 2.3.4 The Re-Education of France.................................................................... 109 2.3.5 The Role of Physiognomy......................................................................... 112 vi 2.3.6 Lioncel as Political Critique ..................................................................... 116 2.4 SADE AND BRUNO........................................................................................ 119 3.0 LITERATURE THRIVES ON HISTORICAL FEAR: THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR IN VICTOR HUGO AND JULES VERNE............................ 125 3.1 A CRUSHING DEFEAT................................................................................. 129 3.2 VICTOR HUGO .............................................................................................. 142 3.2.1 Quatrevingt-Treize ..................................................................................... 148 3.2.2 Quatrevingt-Treize as Didactic Novel....................................................... 164 3.2.3 Fear and Domination in Quatrevingt-Treize ........................................... 171 3.2.4 Quatrevingt-Treize as Political Statement ............................................... 174 3.2.5 Hugo as Monument to the Republic........................................................ 180 3.3 JULES VERNE................................................................................................ 181 3.3.1 Reading Verne in Context........................................................................ 182 3.3.2 Le Chemin de France ................................................................................ 199 3.3.3 Le Chemin de France as a Nationalist Text ............................................ 205 3.3.4 Fear and Loyalty in Le Chemin de France.............................................. 211 3.3.5 Jules Verne’s Legacy ................................................................................ 213 3.4 HUGO, VERNE, AND REVOLUTION ........................................................ 215 4.0 THE NATION IN DANGER: CALLS TO ACTION IN JEAN-PAUL SARTRE AND MARC BLOCH............................................................................................................... 218 4.1 THE THIRD REPUBLIC FALLS ................................................................. 220 4.1.1 Interwar Instruction ................................................................................. 225 4.1.2 The Role of the Revolution and the Commune’s Reappearance.......... 227 vii 4.2 JEAN-PAUL SARTRE ................................................................................... 233 4.2.1 Bariona, ou le fils du tonnerre .................................................................. 237 4.2.2 Religious Themes in Bariona.................................................................... 242 4.2.3 Bariona as a Mirror of France in Chaos................................................. 243 4.2.4 Roman Jews and French Prisoners-of-War ........................................... 244 4.2.5 Bariona’s Message of Hope ...................................................................... 249 4.2.6 Bariona and Later Criticism.................................................................... 258 4.3 MARC BLOCH ............................................................................................... 262 4.3.1 Criticism of Marc Bloch ........................................................................... 270 4.3.2 L’Étrange défaite as Wartime Testimonial ............................................. 275 4.3.3 Fear and Power in the Military Establishment...................................... 281 4.3.4 The Role of History in France’s Étrange défaite .................................... 286 4.3.5 The Political Message of L’Étrange défaite............................................. 294 4.4 SARTRE AND BLOCH.................................................................................. 296 5.0 CONCLUSION......................................................................................................... 300 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................... 305 viii PREFACE I thank my friends and family for their encouragement and support during the preparation and writing of this dissertation. In particular, thank you to my mother, who has always supported me in my academic pursuits, and who was one of my greatest cheerleaders in the writing process. An immense amount of gratitude goes to Alison