This article examines Ernest Feydeau's autobiographical text Consolation (1872) as a precursor to the genre of disability life writing. Through the lens of (literary) disability studies, we argue that Consolation offers a radical critique of the treatment of people with disabilities in his period. Nevertheless, due to the internalization of popular images and notions of disability, Consolation also makes use of stereotypical disability narratives and metaphors. The article analyzes the ambivalent nature of Feydeau's text and rejects previous interpretations of his writing as mere self-pity or sensationalism. Instead, it shows how Consolation sheds new light on nineteenth-century discourses of disability.
This article examines two physiologies by Eug & egrave;ne de Monglave and B.T. Duverger on Paris's primary garbage dump, Montfaucon, to illuminate underexplored connections between literary form and hygienist thought in July Monarchy Paris. To this end, these sketches are read alongside Claude Lachaise's medical topography of Paris and Alexandre Parent-Duch & acirc;telet's administrative reports to reveal how these physiologies recycle and refashion scientific concepts for a broader readership. de Monglave and Duverger's texts on Montfaucon reflect a moralising, sanitary judgment towards the dump's workers and urban space more generally, treating Montfaucon's workers as members of a race apart who threaten the public's health.
This article examines the theatrical and grotesque aesthetics of Les Chants de Maldoror, arguing that Lautr & eacute;amont constructs readerly complicity through spectacle, apostrophe and syntactic violence. Drawing on Gothic criticism, narratology and psychoanalysis, it situates Maldoror's grotesque tableaux within nineteenth-century theatrical culture, particularly the Grand Guignol. The analysis engages theories of abjection (Kristeva), ungrammaticality (Riffaterre), hypotyposis (Metzidakis and Sureau) and spectacle (Samuels, Schwartz), showing how the poem transforms reading into a kind of staged suffering. Ultimately, it defines a specifically Ducassian theatricality that collapses boundaries between reader, stage and monstrosity in a poetics of ethical disorientation.
In November 1891, the most famous abortion case of nineteenth-century France made the headlines: the Affaire Thomas. One hundred and fifty suspects were initially investigated by the police, of which 118 were then investigated by the prosecutor, before fifty defendants were brought to court, including the abortionist Constance Thomas, 'La Mort aux gosses'. This faiseuse d'anges captured the public imagination, with help from extended coverage like Maurice Talmeyr's daily series 'Les Avorteuses de Paris' in Gil Blas. In 1900, Le Journal published a story among its faits divers under the title 'Les Meres coupables', which was to be the first of 221 issues to include at least one story featuring this headline between 1900 and 1911. Among the accounts of infanticide and abandonment, the series featured a handful of abortions. At the height of the column's popularity, yet another faiseuse d'anges gained notoriety on the front pages. Leonie Charretier, 'L'ogresse de la rue Tiquetonne', was arrested on the 26 December 1906 and faced trial in August the following year, accused of performing 1500 abortions. This story, among other faits divers, inspired journalist Gaston Tournier's novel, La Fabrique d'anges, which he completed in April 1907, the same year that satirical illustrated newspaper L'Assiette au Beurre released an issue on Les Faiseuses d'anges. This article raises questions of culpability and moral contagion, how abortion provided fertile ground for these writers, who condemned the act while profiting from the public's growing hunger for criminal scandals. It likewise problematises the consumption of these accounts and their potential impact on the female reader.
This article examines the intersecting histories of disability, medicine and education through a study of the deaf institute at Asni & egrave;res. Founded in 1893, this school reacted to the Ferry Laws of 1881-1882, which mandated universal, secular primary instruction without provisioning for specialized education. In redressing this oversight for deaf children in the department of the Seine, the Institut d'Asni & egrave;res' design reflected Third Republic debates about la & iuml;cit & eacute;, social hygiene, and educational standardization. Through its architectural focus, this study enriches existing scholarship on public schools and national identity formation by foregrounding an institution that exposed the limits and contradictions of republican universalism.
How did Belgian Catholics' views on hypnotism and earlier forms of animal magnetism change over the nineteenth century, and how did spiritism shape this evolution? From the 1850s onward, the growing influence of spiritism, which co-opted magnetism as a healing method, deepened Catholic suspicion of magnetism and informed investigations such as the 1870s inquiries into the stigmatic Louise Lateau. By the century's end, however, rising academic interest in hypnotism and the successful dismissal of magnetism as unscientific allowed Catholic physicians to embrace hypnotism as a therapeutic tool.
This article studies how contested medical authority in the late nineteenth century is represented in Proust's & Agrave; la recherche du temps perdu (1913-1927). Medical discourse and the authority of doctors regarding childhood diseases and disorders are challenged by the narrator/protagonist's mother and grandmother, in situations which articulate tensions between maternal and patriarchal authority over children's health and hygiene. Informed by the work of Michael R. Finn, Donald Wright, and Joan Tronto, this article traces the politics of care in Proust's work to show how intersections of class and gender inform the experiences of those living with illness, with ideas of care and scepticism towards medical expertise transcending class divisions.
In Les Anges de Paris (1856), Cl & eacute;mence Robert articulates her philosophy of the street, proclaiming it to be a space that is diverse in its usage and its users. Robert's idealized vision, however, is contradicted by numerous historical accounts and by her own writing, which shows the marked and inferior experience of the poor and working classes, even in theoretically egalitarian spaces. Whereas Les Mendiants de Paris (1848) is reflective of a prevailing distrust towards the working classes, La Mis & egrave;re (1860) acts as a corrective of, and apology for, this earlier work and for certain forms of spatial nostalgia.
Depuis le 17 & egrave;me si & egrave;cle, la litt & eacute;rature fran & ccedil;aise, aussi bien que l'histoire qui en est faite en France, manifeste un v & eacute;ritable nationalisme litt & eacute;raire, qui a & eacute;t & eacute; paradoxalement r & eacute;activ & eacute; avec le romantisme, dont les origines europ & eacute;ennes, anglaises et & eacute;cossaises en particulier, sont aussi & eacute;videntes que sous-estim & eacute;es en France. L'objet de cet article est d'abord d'interroger ce mythe d'une sup & eacute;riorit & eacute; litt & eacute;raire fran & ccedil;aise, qui constitue au 19 & egrave;me si & egrave;cle un lieu commun id & eacute;ologique tr & egrave;s g & eacute;n & eacute;ralement partag & eacute;, ensuite d'examiner, au-del & agrave; des repr & eacute;sentations culturelles et scolaires, sur quelles singularit & eacute;s litt & eacute;raires effectives elle se fonde. Since the seventeenth century, French literature and literary history have been characterized by a striking cultural nationalism, based on a feeling of singularity and superiority. This cultural nationalism was paradoxically strengthened with the emergence of Romanticism, whose European origins, in England and in Scotland in particular, are yet as obvious as they are underestimated in France. The purpose of this article is firstly to question this myth of French literary superiority, which is widely shared in France during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the point that it constitutes an ideological clich & eacute;, secondly to examine, cultural and academic representations apart, on what genuine literary singularities it was based.
This article explores the relationship between advertising, decorative art, and late nineteenth-century artistic movements. Influenced by Pre-Raphaelitism and Symbolism, posters and advertisements often emphasized the link between nature and humanity. To suit Belle & Eacute;poque tastes, artists such as Eug & egrave;ne Grasset and Alphonse Mucha created compositions imbued with reverie and melancholy, frequently featuring allegorical 'flower-women.' Focusing on their poster work, this study examines how ideals of feminine beauty shaped visual culture at the fin de si & egrave;cle and considers the origins and popularity of these images in light of contemporary aesthetic theories. Cet article analyse les rapports entre la publicit & eacute;, l'art d & eacute;coratif et les mouvements artistiques de la fin du XIXe si & egrave;cle. Nourries par le pr & eacute;rapha & eacute;lisme et le symbolisme, les affiches et publicit & eacute;s soulignaient souvent le lien intime entre nature et humanit & eacute;. Afin de r & eacute;pondre au go & ucirc;t raffin & eacute; de la soci & eacute;t & eacute; de la Belle & Eacute;poque, Eug & egrave;ne Grasset et Alphonse Mucha ont cr & eacute;& eacute; des compositions empreintes de r & ecirc;verie et de m & eacute;lancolie, domin & eacute;es par la figure all & eacute;gorique de la << femme-fleur >>. Cette & eacute;tude interroge l'origine de ces repr & eacute;sentations, ainsi que les raisons de leur succ & egrave;s, & agrave; la lumi & egrave;re des th & eacute;ories esth & eacute;tiques contemporaines.
When ballerina Fanny Elssler broke her contract with the Paris Opera in 1841 to extend her tour in the US, she made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic. Parisian critics argued that an uncultured American public could not appreciate her art. Their American counterparts responded by saying that Elssler benefited from her popularity with the crowd as opposed to elite tastemakers. This paper analyses the way commentators used Elssler to both critique and idealise models of cultural democracy. Her 'election' by American fans staged both cultural and political self-representation, while affording her greater autonomy.
In mid-nineteenth-century Paris, theatres and railway stations had become popular gathering places for urban crowds seeking leisure or transport. While the interiors were strictly segregated according to economic and social status, the mixed queues outside served as spaces of human contact and negotiation. I argue that queuing became an everyday spectacle that reflected the contemporary mass society. Architects and authorities imposed functional regulations on queues. The public developed a variety of habits of collective waiting. Artists depicted them in paintings, caricatures and panoramic literature. All three contributed to the queuing phenomenon by producing stereotypes related to class, gender, profession, and custom.
On 18 April 1866, L'Univers illustr & eacute; featured an elaborate illustration of the Paris Catacombs after a photograph by F & eacute;lix Nadar. Similar illustrations claiming to have been made after Nadar's catacombs series appeared in print throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, each with varying degrees of visual proximity to supposed originals. This article explores how the illustrated press, using Nadar's reputation to emphasize the faithfulness of their images, contributed to the popularization of the Paris Catacombs. In doing so, the public was given unprecedented access to a site that had previously been experienced only by a privileged few.
This essay investigates the discursive intersection of various iron objects in fin-de-si & egrave;cle France: the Eiffel Tower, the metal-boned corset, the anaemia tonic Fer Bravais, and the cannons on display at the 1889 Exposition Universelle. The confluence of these objects occurs in the contemporary discourse about d & eacute;natalit & eacute; - the demographic disaster of France's depressed birth rate after the Franco-Prussian War. Dress reformers and medical experts claimed that the corset was the culprit behind depopulation because it compressed and compromised the maternal belly. The iron objects here thus form a matrix that connects the discourses of fashion, medicine, and national security.
Les objets des litt & eacute;ratures de l'imaginaire cristallisent souvent la travers & eacute;e fantastique de l'espace-temps, comme le faisaient les tapis volants ou bottes de sept lieues des contes traditionnels, & agrave; ceci pr & egrave;s que ces v & eacute;hicules incarnent la technosph & egrave;re et en cristallisent une part de l & eacute;gendaire. Dans les r & eacute;cits de science-fiction, c'est & agrave; une travers & eacute;e vers l'inconnu que nous invitent ces v & eacute;hicules qui allient technique et technologie que sont les sous-marins ou vaisseaux spatiaux, incarn & eacute;s par les deux plus c & eacute;l & egrave;bres d'entre eux, le Nautilus et le Faucon Millenium. Ils d & eacute;clinent en de multiples objets d & eacute;riv & eacute;s la vanit & eacute; de l'homo scientificus devenu technit & egrave;s-d & eacute;miurge, capable/coupable de cr & eacute;er des machines qu'il croit aptes & agrave; le d & eacute;sali & eacute;ner des contraintes du corps, pour finalement admettre que seul son propre imaginaire a cette capacit & eacute;.
St & eacute;phanie Boulard et Marta Caraion interrogent la notion d'objet dans les oe uvres litt & eacute;raires du XIXe si & egrave;cle & agrave; partir du livre de Marta Caraion Comment la litt & eacute;rature pense les objets (2020). Leur dialogue explore la place de l'objet dans la fiction romanesque, sa charge utilitaire, sa d & eacute;termination fonctionnelle, son r & ocirc;le de 'r & eacute;sonateur' du r & eacute;el ou des & eacute;motions. Sont & eacute;voqu & eacute;es en particulier les oe uvres de Flaubert, Hugo, Proust, Stendhal et Villiers de L'Isle-Adam. Cet & eacute;change, men & eacute; par courrier & eacute;lectronique sur une p & eacute;riode d'un an, entre 2022 et 2023, est pr & eacute;sent & eacute; ici dans l'ordre de leur discussion.
This paper examines the phenomenon of 'Hugolatry' and how, in the French popular imagination and through numerous objects bearing his name, Hugo increasingly came to be identified with the nineteenth century as a whole. Exploring Hugo's strategic dissemination of his name, image and representation as an exile in staunch opposition to the Second French Empire, I argue that his careful 'image management' is largely responsible for crafting the legendary figure whose 'brand' would, by the turn of the century, infiltrate millions of homes, effecting a kind of transubstantiation of the exiled deity into an object of republican civic communion and worship around the family hearth.
