The national habitus: ways of feeling French, 1789–1870

350 Pages·2014·1.609 MB·English

by  Marie-Pierre Le Hir

Marie-Pierre Le Hir
The National Habitus
Culture & Conflict
Edited by
Isabel Capeloa Gil and Catherine Nesci
Editorial Board
Arjun Appadurai · Claudia Benthien · Elisabeth Bronfen · Joyce Goggin
Lawrence Grossberg · Andreas Huyssen · Ansgar Nünning · Naomi Segal
Márcio Seligmann-Silva · António Sousa Ribeiro · Roberto Vecchi
Samuel Weber · Liliane Weissberg · Christoph Wulf
Volume 4
Marie-Pierre Le Hir
The National Habitus
Ways of Feeling French, 1789–1870
DE GRUYTER
ISBN978-3-11-036291-6
e-ISBN978-3-11-036306-7
ISSN2194-7104
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Acknowledgments
Yearafteryear,thisprojectevolvedasIpresenteditbitbybitattheNineteenth-
CenturyFrenchStudiesColloquium.Mygratitudegoestofriendsandcolleagues,
pastandpresent,whohavecontributedtomakingthisannualeventthevibrant,
intellectuallystimulating,andcollegialgatheringitistoday.AFall2012sabbat-
icalprovidedthetimeneededtowritethisbook,forwhichIthanktoCollegeof
HumanitiesattheUniversityofArizona.Iamparticularlyindebtedtocolleagues
whogenerouslyagreedtoreadchaptersofthemanuscriptandwhoprovidedin-
cisivecritiquesandhelpfuladvice:CorryCropper,IsabelleNaginski,Dominique
Rincé,GisèleSéginger,CharlesStivale,andLynnWilkerson.CatherineNescide-
servesspecialthanksforencouragingmetosubmitthemanuscript forpublica-
tionintheCultureandConflictseriessheco-editswithIsabelCapeloaGilatDe
Gruyter, forgoingover the manuscript with a fine tooth-comb, and for her nur-
turingsupportinbringingthisprojecttocompletion.IalsowishtothankStella
Diedrich and Angelika Herman for their valuable editorial assistance.

Contents
Introduction 1
Part I: The Revolutionary Field
Chapter I Olympe de Gouges’s Revolutionary Patriotism 35
. Vive le roi! (1788–1791) 36
.. Bourgeois values vs. aristocratic ethos 37
.. Royal patriotism 41
.. Manifestations of the aristocratic code of conduct 44
.. Attitudes towards foreigners 47
.. The French Revolution as a breakdown of civility 51
.. Constructing the nation: the cult of great men 54
. Vive la France! (1792–93) 56
.. From loving the king to loving the nation 56
.. “L’esprit français” 59
.. War: the catalyst of national sentiment 65
Conclusion 69
Chapter II Identity Lost and Found: Chateaubriand’s Culturalist
Nationalism 72
. The Historical, Political, and Moral Essay on Revolutions 76
.. The aristocratic sense of self and national identity 76
.. Christianity: the foundation of French identity 82
.. Against the Enlightenment and the French Revolution 87
. The Genius of Christianity, or The Beauties of the Christian
Religion 99
.. Chateaubriand’s case for Christianity’s modernity 99
.. Chateaubriand’s politics 107
.. Grounding identity in faith and soil 112
Conclusion 118
Chapter III Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism in Germaine de Staël’s
Works 122
. Delphine, an ambiguous critique of the aristocratic ethos 126
.. The aristocratic ethos of the Parisian salon 129
.. Bourgeois life in the countryside 132
VIII Contents
.. Exile and war 137
.. Delphine’s reception 144
. Dividedallegiance:cosmopolitanismandnationalisminCorinne,or
Italy 148
.. Cosmopolitanism and the national character 149
.. The national habitus in Corinne 155
.. Corinne’s reception 161
Conclusion 163
Part II: The Post-Revolutionary Field
Chapter IV Through Stendhal’s Eyes: The National Habitus in the
Making 173
. The French character in Chronicles for England 176
.. Of Frenchmen, old and new 177
.. Assessing change in Restoration France 187
. Identity nationalization as inescapable universal process 205
.. On becoming ‘British’ 207
.. Obstacles to real democracy 216
Conclusion 223
Chapter V Looking Back: National Past and Culture in Mérimée 226
. Mérimée and the invention of the national patrimony 229
. A history of violence and superstition 238
.. Violenceand religion in AChronicle of the Reign of Charles
IX 238
.. Taming the superstitious mind: the fantastic tales 243
. Colomba: savage past and modernity 245
. State and religion in The Mormons 254
Conclusion 262
Chapter VI National Belonging in George Sand’s Novels 266
. George Sand and the Republic 267
.. Republican patriotism 268
.. George Sand’s project of national unity 272
. Patriotism and nationalism at times of war 279
.. National identity in Nanon 282
.. Nationalism in Francia 285
Conclusion 295
Contents IX
Conclusion 297
Works cited 313
Primary texts 313
Secondary sources 317
Index of names 328
Index of subjects 333