The life of Elisha P. Hurlbut (1807-1889) has been mostly forgotten since his death. This examination of his personal journal, which he wrote from 1858 to 1887, brings back to the forefront an influential figure that lived most of his life in and around Albany, New York. Prior to beginning the journal, Hurlbut was a lawyer and then a Supreme Court justice in New York. Seven years after retiring from public life in 1851, he commenced work on the journal that provided a detailed social and political commentary on New York, the United States, and the world as a whole. While the journal offers detailed insight into many specific subjects, this thesis focuses on Hurlbut’s views and expertise in civil rights, religion, and phrenology. This body of work will demonstrate how he shaped arguments for equality for all people, despised the influence of organized religion, and was a leader in phrenological studies.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) lived at the perfect time to write about several of the most dramatic technological developments ever recorded in history. Up until the nineteenth century, professional scientists were almost the exclusive agents for writing about science. However, during this period, non-professional writers also emerged as important conveyors of popular science news to the public. Though Poe was a lay writer, his popular writing conveyed several of the most important new discoveries of the Industrial Age. He also projected his views about how nineteenth-century technologies might impact civilizations of the future. Poe’s writing offers a key example of a widespread movement of thinkers who attempted to mediate the tensions and debates that were taking place in his lifetime between those who perceived and described the world from either the “Mechanical” or the “Romantic” approach. This study explores the ways that Poe wrote about science in poetry, non-fiction, and fiction. I argue that a review of his earlier science writing helps to unlock several of the enigmatic writings of his culminationg work, Eureka:A Prose Poem. The final chapter of this thesis concludes with an in-depth discussion of Eureka. In Eureka, Poe proposes that man’s literary works are imperfect. However, he contends that the Creator has written and executed a perfect “Plot of the Universe.” Poe attempts to unravel several of its deepest mysteries in a multi-genre work of poetry, history, science, and metaphysics. I argue that modern scholars of literature and science history can gain a clearer view of the ways that the nineteenth-century public received and understood information about science by exploring Poe’s science writing than has been provided in previous historical or literary scholarship.

The creation of the French Penal Code of 1791, which failed to address the legality of prostitution, and the social climate of nineteenth-century France led to the rapid development of sexual commerce. The spread of syphilitic diseases soon became a serious crisis, and the fault of the spread of syphilis and disease was quickly ascribed to purchasable women. Other social crises of the time, such as problems with sewage and the spread of disease and decay also came to be associated with prostitution. My thesis will examine ways in which male artists of the time used literature and painting to suppress the contagious, transgressive sexual female, and the ways in which the representation of this female illustrates deeper anxieties and fears of the French bourgeois society about class and gender. I have constructed my argument in the context of two literary/artistic prostitute figures: the “heart of gold” and the “man-eater.” The “heart of gold” is characterized as a prostitute with qualities of goodness and integrity, who must ultimately die as the only way to reconcile her deviant behavior. The “man-eater,” by contrast, is a woman who destroys the men who seek her, driving them to financial, emotional, and even physical devastation. In order to complete my thesis, I have used a selection of primary sources (the works of Balzac, Dumas fils, Maupassant, Flaubert, and Manet), analyses of nineteenth-century French literature, and several historical sources, as well as the memoirs of Céleste Mogador, a courtesan in nineteenth-century France. The goal of my thesis is to examine the two literary figures mentioned above in the context of gender relations and power, the spread of disease, and decay and degeneration.

À la suite d’une formation artistique à l’École des beaux-arts dans l’atelier de Bosio puis à l’Académie de France à Rome, le sculpteur Francisque Duret (1804-1865) se distingue particulièrement au Salon de 1833 avec un Jeune Pêcheur dansant la Tarentelle, fondu en bronze à la cire perdue par Honoré Gonon, prouesse technique pour l’époque. S’il exploite autant que possible cette veine pittoresque, notamment à travers la statuette d’édition, Duret, devenu membre de l’Institut en 1843 et professeur à l’École des beaux-arts en 1852, accumule les commandes officielles. La concrétisation de ce cursus honorum, qui fait de la carrière de Duret un archétype dans le monde de l’art officiel du XIXe siècle, repose sur une stratégie de carrière lisible notamment dans sa production de portraits, révélatrice de ses réseaux. Elle se décline également à travers des choix formels toujours marqués par l’antique qui lui permettent tant de rassurer ses commanditaires que de rentabiliser ses œuvres. En effet, ces dernières sont sujettes à de multiples variations, à toutes les échelles et dans des matériaux variés. Cette thèse a également pour ambition de mettre en lumière les ressorts intimes de la création de Duret en s’appuyant sur une correspondance très peu exploitée dans les précédentes études ainsi que sur des albums de dessins et des esquisses en terre cuite inédits. L’ensemble de ces sources révèle comment Duret, qui avait d’abord voulu être comédien, s’est constamment nourri des arts de la scène dans sa pratique de sculpteur. L’art du ballet mais aussi la tragédie et l’opéra lui ont permis d’approfondir son travail sur le drapé, le corps en mouvement et la composition du geste. / Following an artistic training at the School of Fine Arts in Bosio's workshop then at the Academy of France in Rome, the sculptor Francisque Duret (1804-1865) distinguishes itself particularly in the Show of 1833 with "Jeune Pêcheur dansant la Tarentelle" (Young fisherman dancing the Tarantella) a molten bronze made with lost wax method by Honoré Gonon, technical exploit for that period. If he exploits as far as possible this picturesque vein, in particular through the statuette of edition, Duret, who became in 1843 a member of the Institute and a professor of the School of Fine Arts in 1852, accumulates official orders. The realization of this Honorum Cursus which makes Duret's career an archetype in the world of the XIXth Century official Arts is based on a career strategy readable particularly in his production of portraits revealing his networks. His career also comes through formal choices always marked by the Classic Art (Antique) which gives him to reassure his sponsors and to make profitable works. Indeed the latter are subject to multiple variations at all level and in varied materials. This thesis has also for ambition to bring to light the intimate skills of Duret's creation by leaning on a correspondence little exploited in previous studies as well as on unpublished workbook of drawings and sketches in terracotta. All of these sources reveal how Duret, who wanted to be a stage actor, nourished constantly on performing arts for his sculptor's art. The Ballet, Tragedy and Opera arts allowed him to deepen his work on drape, body in movement and gesture composition.

Le sculpteur François Rude (1784-1855), auteur du relief universellement connu de La Marseillaise qui orne l’un des piédroits de l’arc de triomphe de l’Étoile à Paris, est l’un des artistes majeurs de la période romantique. Pourtant, depuis 1904, aucune étude d’envergure ne lui a été consacrée. Cette thèse propose de réévaluer son œuvre par le prisme de la question stylistique. Qu’est-ce que le romantisme de Rude et comment s’inscrit-il dans le mouvement romantique en sculpture ? À partir d’un catalogue raisonné, la totalité de sa carrière est interrogée : ses années de formation à Dijon puis à Paris sous l’Empire ; son exil à Bruxelles dans les années 1820 où il développe la leçon néoclassique ; son retour à Paris où il devient une figure centrale du mouvement romantique avec le Jeune Pêcheur Napolitain au Salon de 1833 ; l’accomplissement de ce qui restera son chef-d’œuvre, Le Départ des volontaires inauguré en 1836 et qui sous le titre La Marseillaise va devenir une icône nationale ; son investissement politique au travers de ses nombreuses statues de Grands Hommes, qu’il réalise en interrogeant les codes académiques ; enfin, la part plus intime de son travail dans les autres genres majeurs de la statuaire que sont les œuvres religieuses et mythologiques. Cette étude réaffirme la place centrale de Rude dans le paysage artistique du premier XIXe siècle. Elle démontre qu’il n’a pas été l’artiste d’une seule œuvre, mais qu’il a bien réformé en profondeur la pratique statuaire, devenant ainsi un maître pour plusieurs générations de sculpteur tant classiques que d’avant-garde, comme Carpeaux, Rodin ou Bourdelle. On peut ainsi donner raison à Apollinaire qui avait vu en lui le père de la statuaire moderne. / The sculptor François Rude (1784-1855), known for his work La Marseillaise which decorates the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, is one of the major artists of the romantic period. Yet there have been no major studies focused on his work since 1904. This thesis reevaluates Rude's oeuvre through a stylistic lens. What was romanticism for Rude, and how did he influence the Romantic Movement in sculpture? Based on a catalogue raisonné, the thesis investigates his full career—his years of training in Dijon and then in Paris under the Empire, his exile in Brussels in the 1820s where he internalized the lessons of Neo-classicism, his return to Paris where he became one of the central figures of the Romantic Movement with the exhibition of his Neapolitan fisherboy at the 1833 Salon, the completion of what remains his primary masterpiece and a national icon, La Marseillaise, unveiled in 1836 under the name Le Départ des volontaires, his sense of political engagement as demonstrated through his numerous Great Men statues, built with a constant questioning of the academic codes, and finally, the more intimate side to his work represented by his religious and mythological statues.This thesis confirms Rude’s central position in the artistic field of the first part of the 19th century. It demonstrates that, more than just the creator of a single masterpiece, Rude contributed profoundly to reforming sculptural practice, becoming a master for multiple generations of sculptors both classical and avant-garde, such as Carpeaux, Rodin or Bourdelle. In this way, the thesis validates Apollinaire, who saw in Rude the Father of Modern Sculpture.

L’objectif de cette thèse est l'analyse de scènes de bal dans des textes narratifs du XIXe siècle produits dans trois pays : France, Portugal et Brésil. Nous soulignons premièrement la présence et l'imaginaire construits autour de cette pratique sociale ; ensuite, à partir d'onze scènes littéraires de bal, nous analysons et discutons la diversité de représentations auxquelles cet événement a donné lieu. En considérant la scène de bal un endroit privilégié pour le développement de rencontres, drames et promotions, on observe comment chaque texte travaille le phénomène du bal, en établissant, pour cela, un constant mouvement dialectique entre l’imaginaire social et le littéraire. Dans la dernière partie du travail, les résultats obtenus sont placés à la lumière des études sur les régimes de l'imaginaire. Cette analyse nous permet de vérifier la présence du régime nocturne comme trace commune, bien que, à l'intérieur de cet univers, les personnages présentent des éléments contradictoires et innovateurs. Au long du travail, nous observons la position occupée par l’individu dans le bal et sa relation avec la société moderne, en analysant, en même temps, de quelle manière les scènes contribuent à renforcer ou à réfuter des conceptions littéraires et artistiques de l’époque. Nous visons à démontrer que ce topos, fréquent dans les productions du XIXe siècle, constitue un élément remarquable pour la compréhension de l'imaginaire historique, social et littéraire de la période. Il s'agit d'une recherche de caractère pluridisciplinaire qui se fonde sur des textes de critique littéraire, d’histoire, de sociologie, d’anthropologie, en complément à la lecture des textes littéraires. La mise en perspective comparatiste se révèle stimulante pour comprendre les particularités et la complexité de ces scènes, ainsi que les éléments de l'imaginaire qui les composent. / This thesis aims at analyzing ball scenes in narrative texts produced in three countries in the nineteenth century: the countries are France, Portugal, and Brazil. First, we emphasize the presence and the imaginary built around this social practice; after that, altogether with the eleven ball literary scenes, we analyze and discuss the diversity of representations to which this event has given place. Considering the ball scene as a privileged situation to the development of meetings, dramas, and promotions, we observe in what way each text works with the ball phenomenon, settling for this, a constant dialectical movement between the social and literary imaginary. In the last part of this paper, the results are placed to the light of studies on the imaginary schemes; such an analysis that allows us to verify the presence of the night scheme as a common thread, though, within this universe, the characters exhibit contradictory and innovative elements. Throughout this study, we have highlighted the position occupied by the individual at the ball and his or her relationship with modern society, analyzing at the same time, how the scenes contribute to strengthen or refute literary and artistic conceptions at the time. Our aim is to demonstrate that this topos, often present in the nineteenth century literary pieces, is a significant element in understanding the historical, social and literary imaginary of those times, social and literary period. Our research has a multi-disciplinary nature supported by literary criticism, history, sociology, anthropology, in addition to the reading of literary texts. The comparative perspective proves to be stimulating when it comes to understanding the characteristics and complexity of these scenes as well as imaginary elements that compose them.

In the 1780s the medieval weapon of war; the English longbow, enjoyed a renaissance, as historical archery became a fashionable recreation among the English aristocracy. Later, during 1819-1845, longbow archery developed into a mass movement, as it spread downwards in the English class system, into the bourgeoning middle class. During the entire time period of 1780-1845, the “English warbow” was instrumental in producing a specific English (i.e. not British) nationalistic memory culture regarding the medievalmilitary triumphs of the “English bowmen” in battles of old, against French and Scottish forces, as well as reproducing a nationalistic narrative surrounding the English national hero and master-archer Robin Hood. The English longbow, as an object, became a mani- festation of English nationalism. An important fact was that both men and women were included as archers, despite the masculine context of the memory culture surroundingmilitary archery, the celebration of medieval English battlefield victories and the man- liness of the English “bowmen”. How did England come to view the female archer as an ideal for English women, while at the same time publicly upholding a patriarchal doctrine of a feminine “private sphere” womanhood, whereby women should be constrained to the domestic space as housewives, mothers and daughters? How was the English inclusion of females in the nationalistic public sphere of longbow archery made possible, communica- ted and reproduced? In summary, this study is about how longbow archery was manife- sted in the context of the rise of English modern nationalism and how women were inclu- ded – or rather included themselves – as English longbow archers. As the study shows, the answers exists in an inter-relating web of English memory culture regarding warfare and historical archery; gender constructions and female agency; constructions of English national identity and English nationalism within a British context; and class developments in English society. This accounts for how the Amazon Archers of England came to exist from 1780-1845. / På 1780-talet fick det engelska medeltida krigsvapnet; den engelska långbågen, en ovän- tad och plötslig renässans i England, när historiskt bågskytte blev en hobby på modet inom den engelska aristokratin. Efter Napoleonkrigens slut 1815 utvecklades skyttet till enfolklig massrörelse, inom den växande och allt mer inflytelserika engelska medelklassen. Under tidsperioden 1780-1845 blev den engelska långbågen (The English longbow ellerThe English warbow) instrumentell i produktionen av en specifikt engelsk – det vill sägainte brittisk – nationalistisk minneskultur, utifrån de medeltida engelska bågskyttarnassegrar på slagfälten, i krig mot franska och skotska arméer. Parallellt förstärktes de natio- nalistiska narrativen kring den engelske nationalhjälten och långbågeskytten Robin Hood. Den engelska långbågen, som objekt, blev en manifestation av engelsk nationalism. En viktig del av den engelska långbågskytterörelsen var inkluderingen av både kvinnor och män, trots skyttets karaktär av maskulin krigiskhet och militärhistoria, angående medel- tida krigståg, där ”the English bowman” hade triumferat. Faktum är att den kvinnliga bågskytten hyllades som ett ideal för engelska kvinnor, samtidigt som patriarkal brittisk doktrin dikterade att kvinnor borde hålla sig innanför hemmets väggar, i den privata sfä-ren, medan den offentliga sfären (yrkeskarriär, politik, idrott, etc.) borde vara ett exklusivtmanligt utrymme. Kvinnor skulle vara fruar, mödrar eller döttrar – inte krigare. Hur vardessa bägge kvinnoideal möjliga att förena? I denna fråga återfinns denna studies kärna. Hur konstruerades engelsk krigshistorisk nationalism 1780-1845 kring den engelska långbågen? Hur inkluderades kvinnor i denna maskulina nationalism? Hur producerades, kommunicerades och reproducerades kvinnlig agens i en militärhistorisk nationalistiskdiskurs, som i andra europeiska länder (exempelvis Sverige) ansågs självklart exklusivtmanlig? Sammanfattningsvis visar denna studie hur den engelska långbågen blev central för den gryende engelska moderna nationalismen 1780-1845, och hur kvinnor inkluderades – eller snarare inkluderade sig själva – i denna nationalism, som långbågeskyttar. Studien visar att svaren på forskningsfrågorna återfinns i en sammanflätad väv av engelskminneskultur, angående historiska krig och bågskytte; genuskonstruktioner och kvinnlig agens; konstruktioner av engelsk nationell identitet och engelsk nationalism; samt engel- ska samhällsutvecklingar under introduktionen av modernitet och industrialism. Allt detta berättar historien om hur de engelska bågskytte-amazonerna–The Amazon Archers of England–blev en realitet 1780-1845.

A tese discute a atuação de Arthur Azevedo como crítico de arte e colecionador no circuito artístico do Rio de Janeiro entre os anos 1870 até os primeiros anos do século XX. A partir de um levantamento de textos esparsos sobre arte escritos pelo autor na imprensa carioca esforça-se por analisar e situar sua produção crítica frente à arte brasileira da segunda metade do século XIX. Concomitantemente busca-se analisar o conjunto de obras (gravuras, pinturas, livros, álbuns e manuscritos) reunidas pelo dramaturgo nesse mesmo período. Frente a essas duas extensas atuações desenvolve-se como tese central a ideia de que a dupla atuação de Arthur Azevedo somente foi possível, por ser aquele um período de reestruturação do meio artístico permitindo que intelectuais como ele, sem formação na área, pudessem atuar como crítico e colecionador. / This thesis discusses Arthur Azevedo\'s acting as an art critic and collector in the circuit of art in Rio de Janeiro from the 1870\'s until the early years of the Twentieth Century. According to a survey of scattered texts of art written by the author in the \"carioca\" press, he strives to analyze and situate his critical production within the Brazilian art of the second half of the Nineteenth Century. At the same time, it is sought to analyze the set of works (prints, painting, books, albums and manuscripts) gathered by the playwright in this same period. With respect to these two extended performances, it is developed as a central thesis the idea that Arthur Azevedo\'s dual acting was only possible because that period was the restructuring of the artistic movement. Thus, enabling that intellectuals like him could act as critics and collectors without professional training.

O Estado Independente do Congo foi reconhecido internacionalmente em 1885 como resultado da ação de representantes europeus em obter tratados de cessão de soberania junto às autoridades e chefes africanos da região da bacia do Congo. No entanto, a implantação de uma missão civilizadora, em consonância com os interesses comerciais do monarca belga Leopoldo II, não se deu sem conflitos, embates e resistências. A crueldade e a arbitrariedade que marcaram tal processo ecoaram na opinião pública internacional, gerando movimentos de denúncias sobre as violências que vitimaram as populações africanas. Este trabalho busca analisar as reações e acomodações ocorridas a partir da situação colonial que se impôs frente a um contexto no qual se faziam presentes múltiplas e variadas formas de organização política das sociedades africanas da região. / The Congo Free State was internationally recognized in 1885 as a result of the action of European representatives in obtaining sovereignty transfer treaties with the African authorities and leaders of the Congo Basin region. However, the implementation of a \"civilizing mission\" aligned to the commercial interests of the Belgian king Leopold II, has not been without conflicts, struggles and resistances. The cruelty and arbitrariness that have marked this process echoed on the international public opinion, generating movements of complaints about violence toward the African populations. This work seeks to analyze the reactions and accommodations that followed the colonial situation that was imposed in a context in which were present multiple and varied forms of political organization of African societies in the region.

As últimas décadas do século XIX foram marcadas por grandes transformações na sociedade brasileira. Além do fim da escravidão e da instauração do regime republicano, assistiu-se a um significativo crescimento das cidades, o que impactou o estilo de vida das classes instruídas e os valores herdados do sistema patriarcal. Em A musa de espartilho, o erotismo na poesia parnasiana brasileira é investigado em suas possíveis relações com seu contexto histórico-social, levando-se em conta as continuidades e descontinuidades com a sensibilidade romântica. Quatro poetas são estudados: Raimundo Correia, Alberto de Oliveira, Francisca Júlia e Luiz Delfino. / The last decades of the nineteenth century were marked by major changes in Brazilian society. In addition to the end of slavery and the establishment of the Republican regime, there has been a significant growth of cities, which impacted the lifestyle of the educated classes and the inherited values from the patriarchal system. In A musa de espartilho (The muse wearing a corset), the eroticism in Brazilian Parnassian poetry is investigated in its possible relations to its historical and social contexts, taking into account the continuities and discontinuities with the romantic sensitivity. Four poets are studied: Raimundo Correia, Alberto de Oliveira, Francisca Julia and Luiz Delfino.