On Thursday December 20, 2018, Rémi MOGENET, doctoral student in letters and arts specializing in general and comparative literature at the Langages, Littératures, Sociétés, Études Transfrontalières et Internationales (LLSETI) laboratory, will submit his thesis " Romantisme et mythologie dans la littérature savoisienne. From Xavier de Maistre to Maurice Dantand (1794-1914)".
The defense will be held at 2pm, in room 10011, on the Jacob-bellecombette campus.
Summary of the thesis
The Sardinian Restoration of 1815 created a literature which, initially devoted to the Savoy dynasty, sought to re-establish its sanctity. This tended to forge a mythology, the question of which is whether it is purely conventional, or has a deeper foundation in individual feeling. The objective conditions of cultural life in Savoy at the time reveal a constant search for identity in the feudal past. Unlike in France, for a time the legacy of the Revolution was completely renounced, in favor of a return to the old state of mind. The Académie de Savoie was created in this spirit and, by instituting a poetry prize, helped restore the medieval marvellous. Education, for its part, was handed over to bishops anxious to instruct the people in a religious sense. However, despite Charles-Albert's romantic temperament, the edifice cracked under the pressure of social change. Savoy remained a deeply Catholic region until the early 1900s (benefiting, for a time, from the provisions of the Annexation Treaty to preserve its clergy's prerogatives); its taste for the marvellous shifting to local traditions, it has long nurtured a specific and shimmering imagination. In this respect, it drew on a literary tradition that was already rich before 1792, dominated by the works of François de Sales, but also marked by dynastic chronicles and court poetry, or more generally patriotic poetry, that had appeared since the Renaissance. Combining Baroque art and the cult of local princes and saints, it gave rise to the beginnings of a mythology as early as the 16th and 17th centuries. Rousseau's influence was also felt by those nostalgic for an idealized Savoy, closer to divinity than the towns of the French plains. The landscape is transfigured by nascent Romantic poetry, and the individual is seen as a summary of the religious history of mankind. The hero, in turn, becomes more imbued with humanity, without losing his link with divinity. The supernatural creatures of pagan or Christian wonder, popular or erudite, are also imbued with a life of their own, linking up with mountains, lakes, princes, people and the ordinary realities experienced by the authors. Far from being left to abstract, conventional spheres, they are embedded in local life, and seem to be the expression of a national genius conceived as a secret life of the Savoy soil, which lacks little to be a thinking soul in its own right. In fact, natural phenomena themselves are seen as inhabited by divine wisdom, and considered in their overall harmony; the existence of an intermediate sphere, situated between the physical and divine worlds, is established, in which Providence can manifest itself and exercise its power. A form of Romantic science, based on the German model, was thus developed. Better still, it attempted to fathom the divinity's designs in present-day history, for humanity as a whole, for Europe, but also for the individual, whose own enigmas were touched upon. In this way, Savoie has created a veritable mythology, alive and kicking. Given the richness of this inspiration, which is only superficially conventional, the question arises as to why its works are neglected by critics today. A number of clues are put forward, including the fact that the Savoyard tradition, influenced by Italy and Germany, does not fit into the categories of French academia.