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 IIs 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 Sades La Philosophie dans le boudoir, particularly its fabricated political pamphlet, Français, encore un effort si vous voulez être républicains. Sades work is juxtaposed with that of a virtually unknown émigré writer, Louis de Brunos Lioncel, ou lÉmigré, nouvelle historique. The next event studied is the Franco-Prussian War, and the resulting Paris Commune. Victor Hugos Quatrevingt-Treize and Jules Vernes Le Chemin de France are both set during the Revolutionary War, but address 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 Sartres Nativity play, Bariona ou le fils du tonnerre and Marc Blochs wartime testimonial LÉtrange 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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04082009-011333 |
| Date | 09 June 2009 |
| Creators | Deininger, Melissa A. |
| Contributors | Dennis Looney, Phil Watts, Giuseppina Mecchia, Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Seymour Drescher |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04082009-011333/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0013 seconds