Proquest Dissertations
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
INFORTvIATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Artxjr MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 COMMENT PEUT-ON ÊTRE EUROPEEN? CONCEPTIONS OF EUROPE IN FRENCH LITERATURE AND FILM DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Edward H. Ousselin, M.A, M .A , M.B.A ***** The Ohio State University 1999 Dissertation Committee: Apmoved by: Professor Jean-François Foumy, Adviser ^ joT K ? ----- Professor Judith Mayne Professor Jean-François Foumy Professor Karlis Racevskis Department of French and Italian UMI Number: 9931665 Copyright 1999 by Ousselin, Edward Henry All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9931665 Copyright 1999, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright by Edward H. Ousselin 1999 ABSTRACT With the end of the Cold War and the quickening pace o f global economic integration, the concept of a united Europe has taken on greater importance and momentum, becoming a major focus of public discourse among journalists, academics and politicians. However, the steadily increasing level of institutional integration has not yet been matched by a shared perception of what it means to be “European.” Indeed, the word ‘Europe” itself in spite of its common usage, does not refer to a clearly identifiable geographical, historical, ethnic or cultural entity. And yet, there is today such a thing as the European Union, with its established institutions and its recognized symbols. The modem concept of a united Europe arose in large part fi"om the excesses of competing nationalisms, a phenomenon that proponents of the European Union seek to transcend. In its most narrow form, the rationale for European unification is simply to avoid a reoccurrence of the increasingly destmctive wars that have periodically ravaged the continent. In its most generous form, the push for unification reflects a form of intercultural commonality w ithin the current ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity of the continent, a commonality that in turn calls for a greater degree of political integration. In this latter view, it is increasingly artificial national borders, and not fundamental cultural distinctions, that divide Europeans. Citizens of established nation states generally base their sense of collective identity, their interpersonal and societal ties, on a commonp a st, whether real or partly imagined. The currently evolving economic and political experiment, which finds its institutional expression in the European Union, instead posits an emerging multinational/multicultural identity largely based on its fu tu re prospects. To a great extent, these prospects, or expectations, have been developed within the fields of literature and film. u This study explores the conceptions of Europe found in the works of five authors: Voltaire, Germaine de Staël, Victor Hugo, Maurice Barrés, and Jean Renoir. These authors (in the broad sense o f the term, thus including the film director Jean Renoir) were all extremely well-known during their lifetimes, and highly influential in the cultural life of their day. They also played important political roles, most of them throughout their careers, and thus exerted a perceptible degree of direct or indirect influence on the development of Europe as a concept and as a practical project. Taken together, the literary and filmic production of these authors provides a historically continuous sampling of the principal representations of Europe, within France, since the eighteenth century. It is also indicative of the wide range o f viewpoints expressed in the public discourse on the topic of European integration. The following chapters are by no means intended as comprehensive studies of the works and lives of each author. Neither do they constitute an attempt at a complete history of the idea of Europe fi'om the eighteenth to the twentieth century in France. While highly influential, each of the authors I have chosen hardly constitutes the only relevant example within his or her lifetime. This study is thus limited in terms of its chronology, of its focus on France, and of the number of authors it covers. The chronological succession found in the following chapters is not designed to retrospectively designate the authors I have chosen as precursors or prophets of Europe. Of the five, only Victor Hugo can be classifled as having provided a “défense et illustration” of a united Europe. I have therefore not tried to superimpose a progressive or teleological pattern of evolution towards a united Europe onto the works of these authors. My approach has instead been archeological, a sustained attempt at extracting the changing and sometimes contradictory conceptions of Europe, through an examination of the texts. In this perspective, the idea of Europe is less a unitary historical fact to be retrospectively explored, and more of a multifold corpus of literary constructs to be analyzed and contextualized. m To Sharon IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to my adviser, Jean-François Foumy, who first encouraged me to write with a view to publication, and without whose intellectual guidance this study would still be at the stage of inchoate hypotheses. I am grateful to Judith Mayne and Karlis Racevskis for their suggestions concerning this study, and for their assistance in my work on previous articles. I thank the Department of French and Italian and its successive Chairs, Charles Williams and Robert Cottrell, for the financial support which allowed me to attend several conferences and seminars. VITA 1957 ......................................................................Bom - Red Bank, New Jersey 1980 ......................................................................Licence - Anglais Université de Tours, France 1987 ......................................................................Maîtrise - Français Langue Etrangère Université de Tours 1988 ......................................................................Maîtrise - Anglais Université de Tours 1991 ......................................................................M.B.A, University of Kentucky 1994-1999 ............................................................ Graduate Teaching Associate Department of French and Italian The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS ‘“Et maintenant, mesdames et messieurs, le spectacle va commencer’: l’espace théâtral dans trois films de Jean Renoir,” Cincinnati Romance Review 18 (1999): 90-8. “L ’Homme aux quarante écus: Voltaire économiste,”The French Review 72.3 (Feb. 1999): 493-502. Review of Making Business French Work: Models, Materials, Methodologies, by Steven J. Loughrin-Sacco and Jayne Abrate, eds. The Jourrml o f Language fo r International Business 9.2 (June 1998): 50-1. VI Translation of “Nation des lumières ou nation des brumes?” by Samir Amin: “The Nation: An Enlightened or Fog-Shrouded Concept?” Research in African Literatures 2Z A (Winter 1997): 8-18. ‘Trench Cultural Studies: An Oxymoron?” Special issue (“Cultural Studies, Cultural Wars”) ofContemporary French Civilization 21.2 (Summer/Fall 1997): 87-99. “ZZs sont frais, mes menhirs: Comic Strips in the Business French Class,” The Journal o f Language fo r International Business 8.2 (June 1997): 22-35. “Integrating Elements of the Communicative Approach into the Preparation for the Paris Chamber of Commerce C ertifica t Exam,” Global Business Languages 1 (1996): 109-15. “/f la Judaïque: Traces of Jewish Absence in François Rabelais’s Works,” The M IF LC R eview 6 (Oct. 1996): 9-18. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: French and Italian 19th- and 20th-Centuiy French Literature; Film Studies; Business French. vu TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ......................................................................................................................ii Dedicatioii..................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments .....................................................................................................v