Institutions and Power in Nineteenth-Century French Literature and Culture.

Intro -- Institutions and Power in Nineteenth-Century French Literature and Culture -- Contents -- List of illustrations -- Introduction -- Part I. Political Power: Legacies and Myths -- Balzac, Théoricien du pouvoir absolu et romancier du chaos post-révolutionnaire -- The French Revolution: Historical Necessity or Historical Evil? Terror and Slavery in Hugo's Quatrevingt-treize and Confiant's L'Archet du colonel -- Institutions et pouvoirs occultes: Huysmans et l'imaginaire conspirationniste -- Les Hommes de bronze de la Troisième République: Commémoration ou oubli de l'histoire? -- Part II. Power and Space -- Power in the City: Balzac's Flâneur in La Fille aux yeux d'or -- The Colony Within? Poets and the Politics of Particularism in Toulouse's Capitole -- Le Pouvoir de la représentation: Écriture pittoresque et construction de la nation dans la série provinciale des Français peints par eux-mêmes -- Razzia in Stone: Building Colonial Algiers, 1830-1900 -- Part III. Institutions and Knowledge -- Doctors, Priests, Magistrates: Stendhal, Cabanis and the Power of Medical Practitioners -- The Crocodiles of Caen and the Molluscs of the Museum: Rhetoric, Science, and Power in Nineteenth-Century France -- Education, Education, Education: The Space of the Muséum as Showcase for Thinking its Public -- L'État comme propriétaire? Schools as Property in Nineteenth-Century France -- Part IV. Writing Art History: Institutions and Alternative Authorities -- Whose History? Art, History and the Nation State in Early Third Republic France -- Beyond Institutions: In Search of le souffle moderne in Gautier's Salon de 1844 -- Le Contre-pouvoir critique: Huysmans, vers une fiction d'art -- Auguste Rodin, or the Institutionalization of the Self as Artist -- Notes on contributors -- Index.

The French Revolution of 1789 altered the face of power and the institutions it inhabited in France, and the aftershocks of this seismic change rippled throughout the nineteenth century. With power changing hands between monarchy, empires and republics in quick succession, the nature of power, both personal and political, and institutions, both real and metaphorical, was constantly being redefined, argued over and fought for. This volume provides innovative analyses of nineteenth-century power relations in France across a series of interlinked spheres: artistic, literary, cultural, political, scientific and topographical. Its seventeen chapters trace the direct impact of politics and the shifting power of regimes on the creative arts, and explore power relations in a wide range of contexts including novels, sculpture, painting, education, religion, science, museums and exhibitions across a wide geographical area from Paris to the provinces, southern France and the colonies. The contributors, all experts in their fields, assess the evolving relationship between institutions and power in nineteenth-century France, exploring how the nation debates its past, negotiates its present and, as the foundation of the Third Republic ushers in a period of relative stability, sets about creating its common future.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.