Nineteenth Century French Studies
Volume 31, Number 3&4, Spring-Summer 2003

Contents

• Index to Vol. 31, Nos. 1-4

Articles

Beus, Yifen Tsau, 1965-
• Alfred de Musset's Romantic Irony
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  Subject Headings:
  • Musset, Alfred de, 1810-1857 -- Criticism and interpretation.
  • Irony in literature.
  • Romanticism -- France.
  Abstract:
  Advocated by Friedrich Schlegel, romantic irony reveals the poet's mature and self-reflexive attitude in creativity. The romantic poet juxtaposes an intimate, subjective perspective and a detached, objective perspective toward his work. Musset demonstrates this irony in his contention that a true poet should attain both a state of exaltation and one of detachment of his emotions. Musset's armchair dramas, Les Caprices de Marianne, On ne badine pas avec l'amour, Fantisio, and Lorenzaccio in particular, realize the ideal of Romantic theatre through his sarcastic and comic attitudes and through a reflection of his awareness of the very nature of dramatic art. (YB)

Mileham, James W.
• Desert, Desire, Dezesperance: Space and Play in Balzac's La Duchesse de Langeais
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  Subject Headings:
  • Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850. Duchesse de Langeais.
  • Space and time in literature.
  • Play in literature.
  Abstract:
  Spatial metaphors in Balzac's La Duchesse de Langeais (1839) tell us a lot about the amorous struggles of its two protagonists. These metaphors fall into two groups: games and rituals. Game metaphors demonstrate the struggles of Antoinette and Armand, each to dominate the other, and the strategies that each employs. (The game theories of Johan Huizinga and Roger Caillois help analyze this competition.) Ritual metaphors are centered around the symbolic journeys completed by Antoinette and Armand: his desert crossing and her kidnaping scene are both rites of passage by which each becomes able to love and worthy of being loved. (JWM)

Booker, John T., 1942-
• Indiana and Madame Bovary: Intertextual Echoes
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  Subject Headings:
  • Sand, George, 1804-1876. Indiana.
  • Flaubert, Gustave, 1821-1880. Madame Bovary.
  Abstract:
  A close look at scenes of seduction in George Sand's Indiana (1832) and Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary (1857) reveals a number of intriguing textual echoes. There is no evidence to indicate that Flaubert had read Indiana by the time he finished Madame Bovary, and for that matter the two heroines themselves are quite different in fundamental respects. Nevertheless, for the reader familiar with both works, one novel may well appear to "haunt" the other, to use the evocative term of Matei Calinescu, at certain key moments. (JTB)

Best, Janice.
• Quel horizon l'on voit du haut de la barricade
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  Subject Headings:
  • French literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.
  • French literature -- 19th century -- Censorship.
  • Roadblocks (Police methods) in literature.
  Abstract:
  Certain places, such as battlefields and houses of ill-repute, were more often the subject of censorship in the nineteenth century than others, not just for the stories they told, but for the other narrative structures they suggested. This article focuses on one such place, the barricade, in the works of Dumas, Flaubert, Hugo, Delacroix, and Manet. I analyze the way in which multiple discourses meet in these images, creating an ambiguity authorities found sub-versive, since in both victory and defeat the barricade suggested the possibility of resistance to power. (In French) (JB)

Humphreys, Karen Lynne, 1965-
• Dandyism, Gems, and Epigrams: Lapidary Style and Genre Transformation in Barbey's Les Diaboliques
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  Subject Headings:
  • Barbey d'Aurevilly, J. (Jules), 1808-1889. Diaboliques.
  • Dandyism in literature.
  • Epigrams in literature.
  Abstract:
  This article explores the processes of creative innovation and genre transformation in Barbey d'Aurevilly's Les Diaboliques (1874). Barbey's adaptation in his dandy narratives of stylistic features associated with earlier epigrammatic and lapidary genres reveals both his interest in preserving and revitalizing literary tradition. The epigram's ambiguity, its tendency to produce the unexpected, and its combination of maximum impact through minimal expression inspire the irony that was the keystone of nineteenth-century French dandyism. Barbey's figuration of the epigram and the lapidary reveals a tension between ancient and modern, between art and nature, that culminates in his apocalyptic vision of contemporary society. Consequently the lapidary imagery in Barbey's text creates a monument to his time and etches his own style into literary history. (KH)

Santos, José.
• Réalité et imaginaire des parcs et des jardins dans la deuxième moitié du XIX^e siècle
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  Subject Headings:
  • French literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.
  • Gardens in literature.
  Abstract:
  Although gardens have always played an important part in European literature, their representation becomes gradually more prevalent in French art and literature after 1850. Such a recurrence may be explained in part, as this study claims, by Napoleon iii's attempt to beautify an aging and dirty capital city, as well as providing each city in France with a public garden. A close study of the prose and poetry of the period reflects many aspects of this change in sensibility, bestowing a new dimension to the garden in fin-de-siècle flights of the imagination. If romantic topoï are still present, they are usually given a new twist. Moreover, due to the growing industrialization of the French landscape, gardens evoke a nostalgia for an idealized past, a time when men and women were one with nature. (In French) (JS)

Fisher, Dominique D., 1954-
• A propos du "Rachildisme" ou Rachilde et les lesbiennes
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  Subject Headings:
  • Rachilde, 1860-1953 -- Criticism and interpretation.
  • Rachilde, 1860-1953 -- Characters -- Lesbians.
  • Lesbians in literature.
  Abstract:
  While Rachilde was one of the first women writers to introduce lesbians in her work, her lesbians are not exempt from the clichés of the time, those of decadent aesthetics, French universalism and exceptionality: they are invisible and perceived as pederasts. Rachilde herself was accused of pederasty, of "Rachildisme." This article examines how lesbians in Rachilde's novels are subjected to contradictory positions: on one hand her work shows a strong fascination for lesbians, but on the other it is embedded in misogyny. Rachilde's work praises dominant male homosexuals, but presents lesbians as "petits frères inférieurs." She often hypersexualizes or desexualizes lesbians and sentences them to death. (In French) (DDF)

Brady, Heather.
• The Frontiers of Popular Exoticism: Marie Bonaparte's New Orleans Crossings
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  Subject Headings:
  • Bentzon, Th., 1840-1907. Maxime: récit des moeurs créoles.
  • Bentzon, Th., 1840-1907. Américaines chez elles.
  • New Orleans (La.) -- In literature.
  • Race in literature.
  Abstract:
  Popular novelists played a remarkable role in transforming the female traveler into a heroic model of cosmopolitanism for Second Empire readers. One of the least known and most prolific writers of the popular exotic, Marie Bonaparte-Wyse, published her works with Hachette and in reviews like Revue des deux mondes. In the short story "Maxime: Récit des mœurs créoles" (1874) and the book-length travel account Les Américaines chez elles (1895), Bonaparte-Wyse turns her exotic gaze to Reconstruction New Orleans as a cultural crossroads for female settler, traveler, and slave. This essay will shed light on the unique contribution of this prolific and outspoken femme de lettres and voyageuse, showing that Bonaparte-Wyse's notions of race and foreignness rely consistently upon her conflation of the slave descendent and the settler woman as equal victims of Reconstruction era politics. (HB)

Mesch, Rachel L.
• The Sex of Science: Medicine, Naturalism, and Feminism in Lucie Delarue-Mardrus's Marie, fille-mère
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  Subject Headings:
  • Delarue-Mardrus, Lucie, 1875-1945. Marie, fille-mère.
  • Sex in literature.
  • Medicine in literature.
  Abstract:
  Lucie Delarue-Mardrus published over forty novels during her lifetime, but her critical import has yet to be recognized. Delarue-Mardrus's first novel, Marie, fille-mère (1908), is both a rewriting of Zola's La Bête humaine and a feminist science of sex. The author's sentimentalized naturalist description of childbirth offers a moral and political critique of the patriarchal medical establishment and leads to an original theory of sexual desire that redefines the role of female sexual instincts. Further, Delarue-Mardrus's text acted as a kind of literary consciousness-raising for her largely female readership, thus signaling a new form of feminist politics at the turn of the nineteenth century. (RLM)

Book Reviews

General Critical Studies

Porter, Laurence M., 1936-
• Trauma and Its Representations: The Social Life of Mimesis in Post-Revolutionary France (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Jenson, Deborah. Trauma and its representations: the social life of mimesis in post-revolutionary France.
  • French literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.

Starr, Peter, 1956-
• Rendering French Realism (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Schehr, Lawrence R. Rendering French realism.
  • French fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism.

Gollrad, Gareth E.
• Fiction Rivals Science: The French Novel from Balzac to Proust (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Thiher, Allen, 1941- Fiction rivals science: the French novel from Balzac to Proust.
  • French fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism.

Forrest, Jennifer, 1958-
• Beauty Raises the Dead: Literature and Loss in the Fin de Siècle (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Ziegler, Robert, 1947- Beauty raises the dead: literature and loss in the fin de siècle.
  • French literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.

Art, Culture, History

Lathers, Marie.
• Parallel Lines: Printmakers, Painters and Photographers in Nineteenth-Century France (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Bann, Stephen. Parallel lines: printmakers, painters and photographers in nineteenth-century France.
  • Prints, French -- 19th century.

MacNamidhe, Margaret.
• Impression: Painting Quickly in France 1860-1890 (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Brettell, Richard R. Impression: painting quickly in France 1860-1890.
  • Impressionism (Art) -- France -- Exhibitions.

Kadish, Doris Y.
• Exile to Paradise: Savagery and Civilization in Paris and the South Pacific, 1790-1900 (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Bullard, Alice. Exile to paradise: savagery and civilization in Paris and the South Pacific, 1790-1900.
  • New Caledonia -- Relations -- France.

Smeets, Marc.
• Antiquité latine et décadence (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • David, Marie-France. Antiquité latine et décadence.
  • Decadence in literature.

DeLue, Rachael Ziady.
• Seurat: Drawings and Paintings (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Herbert, Robert L., 1929- Seurat: drawings and paintings.
  • Seurat, Georges, 1859-1891 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Moscovici, Claudia, 1969-
• The Other Enlightenment: How French Women Became Modern (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Hesse, Carla Alison. Other Enlightenment: how French women became modern.
  • France -- Intellectual life -- 19th century.

Kinsey, Marjorie Schreiber.
• Monumental Intolerance: Jean Baffier, a Nationalist Sculptor in Fin-de-Siècle France (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • McWilliam, Neil. Monumental intolerance: Jean Baffier, a nationalist sculptor in fin-de-siècle France.
  • Baffier, Jean, 1851-1920 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Cumberland, Debra L.
• Artistic Brotherhoods in the Nineteenth Century (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Morowitz, Laura, ed. Artistic brotherhoods in the nineteenth century.
  • Vaughan, William, 1943-, ed.
  • Art -- Europe -- Societies, etc.

Berlanstein, Lenard R.
• Marianne in the Market: Envisioning Consumer Society in Fin-de-Siècle France (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Tiersten, Lisa, 1959- Marianne in the market: envisioning consumer society in fin-de-siècle France.
  • Women consumers -- France -- History -- 19th century.

Poetry Studies

Paliyenko, Adrianna M., 1956-
• Maternal Echoes: The Poetry of Marceline Desbordes-Valmore and Alphonse de Lamartine (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Boutin, Aimeé, 1970- Maternal echoes: the poetry of Marceline Desbordes-Valmore and Alphonse de Lamartine.
  • Desbordes-Valmore, Marceline, 1786-1859 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Baudelaire Studies

Guillard, Cécile.
• Approaches to Teaching Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Porter, Laurence M., 1936-, ed. Approaches to teaching Baudelaire's Flowers of evil.
  • Baudelaire, Charles, 1821-1867. Fleurs du mal.

Duras Studies

Moscovici, Claudia, 1969-
• D'un siècle l'autre: Les romans de Claire de Duras (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Bertrand Jennings, Chantal. D'un siècle l'autre: les romans de Claire de Duras.
  • Duras, Claire de Durfort, duchesse de, 1777-1828 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Flaubert Studies

Séginger, Gisèle.
• Flaubert et l'Antiquité: Itinéraires d'une passion (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Laüt-Berr, Sylvie. Flaubert et l'antiquité: itinéraires d'une passion.
  • Flaubert, Gustave, 1821-1880 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Hugo Studies

Betz, Dorothy M.
• Victor Hugo: Selected Poetry, and: Mallarmé in Prose (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885. Selected poetry.
  • Monte, Steven, 1967-, tr.
  • Mallarmé, Stéphane, 1842-1898. Mallarmé in prose.
  • Caws, Mary Ann, ed.
  • Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885 -- Translations into English.
  • Mallarmé, Stéphane, 1842-1898 -- Translations into English.

Lamartine Studies

Goergen, Maxime.
• Correspondance d'Alphonse de Lamartine (1830-1867), Tome III: 1833-1837 (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Lamartine, Alphonse de, 1790-1869. Correspondance d'Alphonse de Lamartine (1830-1867).
  • Croisille, Christian, ed.
  • Morin, Marie-Renée, ed.
  • Lamartine, Alphonse de, 1790-1869 -- Correspondence.

Mallarmé Studies

Betz, Dorothy M.
• Mallarmé and the Poetics of Everyday Life: A Study of the Concept of the Ordinary in his Verse and Prose (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Stafford, Hélène. Mallarmé and the poetics of everyday life: a study of the concept of the ordinary in his verse and prose.
  • Mallarmé, Stéphane, 1842-1898 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Sand Studies

Christiansen, Hope.
• While the Music Lasts: The Representation of Music in the Works of George Sand (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Powell, David A. While the music lasts: the representation of music in the works of George Sand.
  • Sand, George, 1804-1876 -- Criticism and interpretation.

Stendhal Studies

Day, James T., 1948-
• Stendhal, journaliste anglais, and: Stendhal sous l'oeil de la presse contemporaine (1817-1843) (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Berthier, Philippe, ed. Stendhal, journaliste anglais.
  • Rey, Pierre Louis, ed.
  • Del Litto, Victor, 1911-, ed. Stendhal sous l'oeil de la presse contemporaine (1817-1843).
  • Stendhal, 1783-1842 -- Contributions in journalism.
  • Stendhal, 1783-1842 -- Appreciation.

Day, James T., 1948-
• D'un nouveau complot contre les industriels (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Stendhal, 1783-1842. D'un nouveau complot contre les industriels.
  • Crouzet, Michel, ed.
  • French literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.

Walker Studies

Walker, Philip D.
• La Pertinence réaliste: Zola (review)
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  Subject Headings:
  • Thorel-Cailleteau, Sylvie. Pertinence réaliste: Zola.
  • Zola, Emile, 1840-1902 -- Criticism and interpretation.