Facing history : French memoirs abouth the 1789-1799 Revolution : doctoral dissertation

[M. Vinaver-Ković]

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Francuska književnost i kultura - Francuska autobiografska književnost i istoriografija XVIII i XIX veka / French literature and culture - French autobiographical literature and historiography of the 18th and 19th century

Disertacija nastoji da utvrdi odnos izmedju francuskih memoara o Revoluciji i istorijske i knjiţevne epohe kojoj pripadaju. “Istorija” iz naslova uzima se u nekoliko značenja: kao francuska istoriografija, kao francuska istorijsko-knjiţevna memoarska tradicija, kao racionalizovan i usmeren istorijski proces, kao istorijsko zbivanje uobličeno pripovedanjem. Najpre se memoari o Revoluciji posmatraju u kontekstu francuske profesionalne istoriografije romantičarskog doba. Pokazuje se da se njihov status u prvoj polovini XIX veka razlikuje i od prethodnog i od potonjeg perioda: romantičari sakralizuju memoare, videći u njima ne samo validan istorijski izvor, nego i stilski i kompozicioni uzor za istoričara. Status memoara kao povlašćenog istorijskog izvora preispituje se na osnovu programskih, normativnih tekstova uvaţenih istoričara kao što su Ogisten Tjeri, Prosper de Barant, Adolf Tjer, te na osnovu analize zastupljenosti memoara o Revoluciji u romantičarskim istorijama Revolucije (čiji su autori Bolije, Tulonţon, Šarl de Lakretel, Adolf Tjer, Fransoa Minje, Luj Blan, Mišle Barant). Zatim se pravi pregled francuske memoarske i autobiografske tradicije (na osnovu radova glavnih savremenih teoretičara i istoričara autobiografskog ţanra) i odredjuje krunsko mesto koje memoari o Revoluciji zauzimaju u toj tradiciji, zahvaljujući izuzetnom obimu korpusa i tematici, romantičarskoj usmerenosti na Istoriju i na Subjekat, izdavačkom i čitalačkom interesovanju za memoare u prvoj polovini XIX veka. Na kraju poglavlja se skiciraju opšte karakteristike korpusa memoara o Revoluciji (u pogledu autorstva, pripadnosti knjiţevnom i istoriografskom modelu, raznolikosti stilova i knjiţevnih registara, preovladjujućeg raspoloţenja i vrste istorijske gradje, delimične fikcionalnosti i teškoća oko razgraničenja od drugih memoarskih korpusa i autobiografskih podţanrova). Drugi deo disertacije usredsredjuje se na knjiţevno i istoriografski vredna dela pet memoarista izabranih tako da se razlikuju po političkoj orijentaciji, ţivotnom putu i karijeri, mentalitetu, generacijskoj pripadnosti. U pitanju su memoari Pola Barasa, grofa de Lavaleta, Matjea Molea, gospodje Rolan i grofa de Tijija. U opštem prikazu njihovih dela obraća se paţnja na istorijat nastanka i objavljivanja memoara, ranu recepciju, sastav memoara i njihovo ţanrovsko odredjenje, pokazuje se njihov dug prema ţanrovskim modelima i aspekti originalnosti, izvesni narativni izbori, kao i determinantan značaj Revolucije u njima. Zatim se ispituje kako ovi memoaristi koncipiraju istorijski tok i tradicionalne pokretače istorije, u okviru kategorija progresa, dekadencije i cikličnosti, te Boţjeg providjenja, sudbine, slučaja i sreće. Najzad, u poglavlju o pisanju istorije, ispitane su oglašene pobude i namene memoarskih projekata, vrste istorije koje su zastupljene, te slike kojima se predstavlja Revolucija.

This dissertation aims to establish the relationship between French memoirs about the Revolution and the historical and literary epoch that they belong to. The term “history”, as used in the title, is taken in several of its meanings: as French historiography, as the French historical-literary memoir tradition, as a rationalised and orientated historical process, and as historical events shaped through narration. The memoirs dealt with in this thesis are first reviewed in the context of the professional French historiography of the era of Romanticism. As it turns out, their status in the first half of the 19th century differs from their status in both the preceding and the subsequent period: romanticists sacralise memoirs, viewing them not just as a valid historical source but also as a stylistic and compositional role model for a historian. The status of memoirs as privileged historical sources is examined on the basis of programmatic, normative texts of well-respected historians such as Augustin Thierry, Prosper de Barante, Adolphe Thiers, and also on the basis of the degree and the ways of presence of memoirs on the Revolution in romanticist histories of the Revolution (by authors such as Beaulieu, Toulongeon, Charles de Lacretelle, Adolphe Thiers, François Mignet, Louis Blanc, Jules Michelet, Prosper de Barante). We then go on to provide an overview of the French memoir and autobiographical tradition (based on the works of the main contemporary theorists and historians of the autobiographical genre) and to determine the key position that memoirs of the Revolution occupy within the framework of that tradition, owing to the exceptional volume of the corpus of these works and their topics, the romanticist orientation towards History and the Subject, the publishers’ and readers’ interest in memoirs in the first half of the 19th century, etc. At the end of this chapter, we sketch out the general characteristics of the corpus of memoirs about the Revolution (concerning their authorship, which literary and historiographical model they belong to, the variety of styles and literary registers, the predominant mood and the type of historical material, their partially fictional character and the difficulties encountered when it comes to differentiating between this and other memoir corpuses and autobiographical subgenres). The second part of the dissertation focuses on the works of five memoir authors that are worthy in literary and historiographic terms, selected in such a way that they differ in their authors’ political orientation, biography and career, mentality and generational affiliation. We deal with the memoirs written by Paul Barras, comte de Lavalette, Mathieu Molé, Madame Roland, comte de Tilly. Within the framework of a general overview of their works, we pay attention to the history of the creation and publication of these memoirs, their early reception, the contents of the memoirs and their genre orientation, while also pointing out their indebtedness to genre models and aspects of originality, some narrative choices, as well as the determining significance of the Revolution upon them. Then we examine how these memoir writers conceive of the flow of history and the traditional propulsive forces of history, within the framework of the categories of progress, decadence and cyclicality, the providence of God, fate, chance and fortune. Finally, in the chapter dealing with writing history, we examine the declarative motives and intentions of memoirists’ projects, the types of history represented here, and the images used to represent the Revolution.

Istorija, memoari, autobiografija, Francuska revolucija 1789-1799, Gospodja Rolan, Tiji, Lavalet, Baras, Mole

History, memoirs, autobiography, French Revolution 1789-1799, Barras, Lavalette, Molé, Madame Roland, Tilly

821.133.1.09-94"17/18"(043.3)

Francuska revolucija 1789-1799

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