Literary Responses to the trauma of the French Revolution
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: French Studies
Abstract
The French Revolution is seen by literary scholars as marking a watershed between the literary production of the Ancien Régime and that of the 19th century. There is generally a consensus that history and literature are not in step with each other as only a small number of literary texts from the 1790s appear to engage directly with the events of the Revolution. Historians, on the other hand, do see literature as reflecting changing mentalities during this decade and believe that the Revolution does have a revolutionising effect on fiction. This study will try to reconcile these two viewpoints by taking a much broader view of literary production of the Revolutionary decade than other literary specialists, and in particular by studying those literary works which appear to have nothing to do with the historical reality surrounding their creation.
I will be using the theory of trauma studies as a way of exploring the apparent contradiction between the proliferation of apparently non-poltical literary texts such pastoral novels or moral tales (both forms prevalent in the pre-Revolutionary period) and the events of the Revolution. Trauma theorists have established a series of stages through which the traumatised need to pass before they can fully articulate what they have experienced. Parallels between these psychological stages and the types of fiction most common at the beginning of the Revolution, during the Terror and in the post-Robespierre period suggest that trauma theory might allow us to explore the fiction of the Revolution and its apparent contradictions in a way that has not been done before. This project will provide a valuable new reading of the development of French aesthetic production at a key period in French history and open up new avenues of research into writers and writing during the Revolution.
I will be using the theory of trauma studies as a way of exploring the apparent contradiction between the proliferation of apparently non-poltical literary texts such pastoral novels or moral tales (both forms prevalent in the pre-Revolutionary period) and the events of the Revolution. Trauma theorists have established a series of stages through which the traumatised need to pass before they can fully articulate what they have experienced. Parallels between these psychological stages and the types of fiction most common at the beginning of the Revolution, during the Terror and in the post-Robespierre period suggest that trauma theory might allow us to explore the fiction of the Revolution and its apparent contradictions in a way that has not been done before. This project will provide a valuable new reading of the development of French aesthetic production at a key period in French history and open up new avenues of research into writers and writing during the Revolution.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
Katherine Astbury (Principal Investigator) |
Description | In an innovative and wide-ranging study published in the MHRA's prestigious Legenda series in September 2012, I used trauma theory as a way of exploring the apparent contradiction between the proliferation of non-political literary texts and the events of the Revolution. Through the narratives of established bestselling literary figures of the Ancien Regime, and the early works of first generation Romantics such as Madame de Sta?l and Chateaubriand, I traced how the Revolution shaped their writi |
Exploitation Route | I have been using the notion of trauma and the Revolution in schools sessions looking at hidden profiles of the King and Queen in prints from the Revolutionary decade held at Waddesdon Manor. |
Sectors | Creative Economy,Education |
URL | http://www.legendabooks.com/titles/isbn/9781907975424.html |
Description | I have been using the notion of trauma and the Revolution in schools sessions for years 6, 9 and 12, looking at hidden profiles of the King and Queen in prints from the Revolutionary decade held at Waddesdon Manor. I have held Warwick student research days on campus for year 6 and 9 pupils in 2013 and 2014 and worked with Leamington and Coventry primary schools on a stop-motion animation competition to use the Waddesdon prints as inspiration for a short video about the storming of the Bastille. |
First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
Sector | Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism |
Impact Types | Cultural |
Description | Paper at the (Trans)national Identities / Reimagining Communities conference, A Joint Conference of the Centro Interdisciplinare di Studi Romantici and the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, Bologna. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Scientific meeting (conference/symposium etc.) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Type Of Presentation | paper presentation |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
Results and Impact | Information taken from Final Report n/a |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
Description | School visit Oxford High |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | 15 pupils attended a talk and workshop. In 2013 on the relationship between music and melodrama in 19th-century France and in 2014 on Staging Napoleon's 100 days. The school asked for the visit. 2013 visit seems to have led to an increase in the numbers applying to university to study languages this year. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013,2014 |