On Thursday, December 20, 2018, Rémi MOGENET, a doctoral candidate in literature and the arts specializing in general and comparative literature at the Languages, Literatures, Societies, Transborder and International Studies (LLSETI) laboratory, will defend his dissertation, “Romanticism and Mythology in Savoyard Literature: From Xavier de Maistre to Maurice Dantand (1794–1914).”
The defense will take place at 2:00 p.m. in Room 10011 on the Jacob-Bellecombette campus.
Thesis summary
The Sardinian Restoration of 1815 gave rise to a body of literature that, initially devoted to the Savoy dynasty, sought to restore its sacred character. This tended to forge a mythology, the question being whether it is purely conventional or whether it has a deeper foundation in individual sentiment. The objective conditions of Savoy’s cultural life at the time reveal a constant search for identity in the feudal past. Unlike what occurred in France, the legacy of the Revolution was, for a time, completely renounced in order to return to the old mindset. The Academy of Savoy was founded within this dynamic, and by establishing a poetry prize, it contributed to the revival of medieval enchantment. Education, for its part, was entrusted to bishops eager to instruct the people in a religious sense. However, despite Charles-Albert’s romantic temperament, the edifice would begin to crack under the pressures of social change. Savoy remained a deeply Catholic region until the early 1900s (benefiting, for a time, from provisions in the Treaty of Annexation that allowed its clergy to retain their specific prerogatives); as its taste for the marvelous shifted toward local traditions, it long nurtured a distinct and vibrant imagination. In this regard, it drew upon a literary tradition already rich before 1792, dominated by the works of François de Sales, but also marked by dynastic chronicles and courtly or, more generally, patriotic poetry, which emerged as early as the Renaissance. Blending Baroque art with the veneration 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, too, would be felt among those nostalgic for an idealized Savoy, conceived as closer to the divine than the cities of the French plains. The landscape is transformed by nascent Romantic poetry, and the individual sees himself as a distillation of humanity’s religious history. Consequently, the hero becomes more imbued with humanity, without losing his connection to the divine. The supernatural creatures of pagan or Christian folklore—whether popular or scholarly—are also infused with a life of their own, linking to the mountains, lakes, princes, the people, and the ordinary realities experienced by the authors. Far from being confined to abstract, purely 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 Savoyard land, which is but a hair’s breadth away from being a fully-fledged thinking soul. In fact, natural phenomena themselves are viewed as imbued with divine wisdom and considered within their overall harmony; an intermediate sphere is established, situated between the physical world and the divine world, in which Providence can precisely manifest and exert itself. A form of Romantic science, modeled on the German tradition, thus develops. Better yet, attempts were made to fathom the designs of the divine in present-day history—for humanity as a whole, for Europe, but also for the individual, whose own enigmas were touched upon. Thus a true mythology, living and evolving, was created in Savoy. Given the richness of this inspiration, which is conventional only in appearance, the question arises as to why these works are today neglected by critics. Several possibilities are suggested, including the incompatibility of the Savoyard tradition—influenced by Italy and Germany—with the categories of the French academic establishment.