Poétique des lieux: Enquête sur les mémoires féminins de l’aristocratie française (1789–1848) (review)

Memoirs written by French aristocratic women during and about the nineteenth century have recently become a focus of critical research on the period and its literature. As a genre the memoir finds itself at the border between literature and history where readers are given a fresh look at both the author and the period during which she lived. Using aspects of autobiography and fiction, the “feminine memoir” creates worlds previously unknown to its readers. In her new book, Poétique des lieux: Enquête sur les mémoires féminins de l’aristocratie française (1789–1848), Claudine Giacchetti provides us with a thoughtful study of eight memoirs in an effort to identify the geographical landscape of these writings and the genre more broadly. To arrive at a “poetics of place” she examines the framing rhetorical discourse, depictions of place, and narration within her corpus.

Following in the footsteps of Henri Rossi whose influential and pioneering work, Mémoires aristocratiques féminins: 1789–1848, defined the genre, Giacchetti limits her study to a chronologically diverse group of women born between 1770 and 1805 and who have varied relationships to the Revolution of 1789: the Marquise de La Tour du Pin, Madame de Chastenay, the Countess de Boigne, Queen Hortense, the Duchess de Maillé, Marie d’Agoult, the Countess Dash, and the Countess de Castelbajac. In the opening chapter she examines the spaces that surround these texts and addresses questions of authorship and intent. The use of pseudonyms, titles, dedications, and epigraphs provide a clearer picture of the genre though their use varies widely amongst the memoirs. As is expected, the typical conventions arise when the memoirists explain their own writing. These protests against authorship and proclamations of truth in writing dominate the introductory moments of the memoirs and give Giacchetti a starting point for her analysis.

Poétique des lieux examines the memoirs from two different perspectives: self and other. Chapters two, three, and six discuss childhood, married life, and the body respectively, presenting a more personal look into the lives of the memoirists. Giacchetti evokes the numerous conventions that are found across the genre and points to key issues that define both the women and their writing. With few exceptions, the memoirists present certain standard discussions: an idealization of the father, a criticism of the mother, a nod to a lost childhood, a critique of the marriage process, a presentation of her social world, to name a few. The focus shifts from the social self, to the corporeal. The social experiences become bodily as they describe their own experiences of health, aging, and childbearing. Writing itself becomes the focal point as these women who record their lives create a place for themselves to survive once their bodies no longer remain.

The question of other is best seen in chapters four and five, which discuss narrative technique and what Giacchetti terms, exteriors, meaning travel. While arguably the memoirists are still presenting their personal experiences, it is in these types of discussions that we see a greater commentary on society in general rather than on the personal lives of an individual. Giacchetti suggests here that narrative style is tied to content and that these techniques provide memoirists with more freedom to express themselves. One such example is seen in the anecdotes that populate the memoirs and often diverge from the chronology and subject matter at hand. Giacchetti explains that these anecdotes mirror the experiences of the authors and allow them to discuss personal issues in a more indirect way. The stories of travel, to include both forced voyages in the form of emigration and pleasure trips also provide an outside perspective into a world that is different than the everyday lives of the memoirists.

Concluding, Giacchetti explains, is a final area for analysis in the aristocratic memoir. The works she...