Browsing by Subject "Early modern France"

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Pourquoi me persécutes-tu? : martyrdom and religious violence in French literature, 1554-1643
(2019-06-21) Voeks, Ashley Marie; Bizer, Marc; Wojciehowski , Hannah C; Hardwick, Julie; Bilis, Hélène
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, France sustained prolonged periods of religious conflict between Catholics and Reformers that profoundly shaped its culture. My dissertation addresses the relationship between French culture and conflict by examining texts that engage with the subjects of martyrdom and religious violence, from the early years of Reformed persecution to the aftermath of France’s Wars of Religion. Pushing the conventional boundaries of Catholic-Reformed conflict beyond a single event or historical episode, my work shows the continuity of textual representations of the sufferings endured by the religious minority in France. I likewise broaden my focus to include authors and genres that are typically not studied together, thereby offering new perspectives on the complex issue of how French writers and readers navigated sectarian divide. Martyrdom and religious violence form the basis of this continuity and my argument that prominent French writers Jean Crespin, Jean de Léry, Agrippa d’Aubigné, and Pierre Corneille sought to lead their French-speaking audiences toward positive and sympathetic perceptions of the religious other. I begin tracing the narrative thread of martyrdom and religious violence in Chapter One, which considers French martyrologist Jean Crespin’s Histoire des martyrs (1554), the first book of Reformed martyrs published in the French vernacular. I argue that the Histoire des martyrs was the product of Crespin’s desire to gain authority within the Reform movement by producing a work that would be of cultural and symbolic value for sixteenth-century Reformed readers. I first examine Crespin’s career path in printing and his accounts of Reformed martyrdom through the Bourdieusian theoretical lens of cultural production. I explain his successful debut in the competitive printing industry in terms of his initiation into the ‘religious field’, meaning the network of leading Reformers that controlled their church and movement. I then look to the martyrology’s distinct components to show how they would have constituted ‘religious capital’, meaning valuable assets for individuals functioning within the religious field, for Crespin and his Reformed readers. Crespin’s martyrology was an important part of everyday life for Reformers, and the martyrs whose stories filled the pages of the Histoire des martyrs inspired and instructed readers in matters of faith. In Chapter Two, I turn to Reformed explorer and writer Jean de Léry’s firsthand accounts of the hardships that Reformers experienced during the Siege of Sancerre and an expedition in the New World, both momentous events and crushing defeats for the French Reform movement. Léry recounts these experiences in his well-known travelogue and memoire, the Histoire d’un voyage faict en la terre du Brésil (1580) and Histoire mémorable de la ville de Sancerre (1574). In so doing, Léry pays particular attention to the food-related aspects of Reformers’ struggles, from eating uncustomary meals and suffering famine to witnessing the cannibalistic practices of the Tupinambá natives of Brazil. I thus adopt a food studies approach to argue that Léry’s works may be better understood as articulations of Reformed identity, with alimentary choices and eating behaviors serving to underscore the adaptability and resilience of Reformers in times of heightened religious violence and strife. As my readings suggest, Léry intended to shift his sixteenth-century reader’s perception of these events from resounding defeats to courageous and martyr-like displays of self-sacrifice and steadfast belief. I offer a reassessment of the traditional book of Reformed martyrs established by Crespin in Chapter Three, which examines vehement poet and soldier Agrippa d’Aubigné’s accounts of Reformed martyrdom in his epic poem Les Tragiques (1616). Aubigné’s book of martyrs, “Les Feux,” exemplifies what I call an ‘epic martyrology’, meaning a subgenre and style that blends the characteristic elements of the epic and the martyrology. My reading argues that Aubigné creates an ‘epic martyrology’ to revive the emotional impact that accounts of Reformed martyrdom once had on sixteenthcentury readers. To this end, I engage in close readings of Aubigné’s martyrological accounts, highlighting the ways in which their distinctly poetic features rendered them more energetic and would have persuaded seventeenth-century readers to see Reformed martyrs as valiant heroes of the French Reform. Lastly, Chapter Four examines a Catholic appropriation of the theme of martyrdom in leading French playwright Pierre Corneille’s renowned martyr drama Polyeucte martyr (1643). I first consider scenes and character dialogue that emphasize the dangers of martyrdom and religious difference, making the case that Polyeucte was meant to evoke the Catholic-Reformed violence of France’s recent past. My reading suggests that Corneille sought to draw his seventeenth-century audience’s attention to the threat that ongoing sectarian tensions posed to the social and political stability of the state. I then consider theories of religious toleration to demonstrate how Polyeucte embodies the ‘respect conception’ of tolerance, which seeks to foster attitudes of mutual respect between the religious majority and minority. Corneille’s apparent interest in renewing the toleration policies that had been in place since the turn of the century ultimately served to bolster the Catholic crown’s authority and promote civil order.
Reforming children : the pedagogy, commerce, and politics of childhood in the early modern French world
(2015-08) Gossard, Julia Morrow; Hardwick, Julie 1962-; Frazier, Alison; Levack, Brian; Olwell, Robert; Bizer, Marc; Kamil, Neil
“Reforming Children” reconfigures the history of childhood in early modern France by considering children as actors as well as subjects. Using “childhood” as a central category for historical analysis, this dissertation reveals that social reform was not a strictly top-down process mandated by the state. Instead, social reform hinged on children’s compliance and defiance as they passed through educational programs in charity schools, hospital-orphanages, and colonial schools. Embedded in these institutions were complex relationships that intertwined children with commerce, work, subjecthood, state formation, and Catholic morality. Unpacking these networks and relationships, this dissertation asserts that childhood was a formative period of development and that children, especially poor children, played fundamental, active roles in society, politics, and economics. As key sources of labor, as future taxpayers, as potential criminals, as prospective colonial subjects, and as future parents, children were a central focus for civic and religious authorities as well as their own families. Through these educational programs, authorities attempted to create a new generation of loyal, industrious workers, with children’s actions essential to achieving this goal. “Reforming Children” refocuses attention on the importance of childhood experience and the centrality of children to the early modern state, collective community, family and kinship networks, regional commerce, and general social welfare. In addition to examining metropolitan children and educational institutions in cities like Lyon and Paris, “Reforming Children” also looks at children in the wider French world in Louisiana, New France, Siam, and the Ottoman Empire, placing children in a wide early modern global context. With such a large geographical scope, this dissertation argues that whether in the colonies, in the metropolitan cities, in the workshops, in the Church, or in the home, children were cruxes of French imperial strategy.