Between celebrity and glory? Textual after-image in late eighteenth-century France

Abstract

Eighteenth-century France had a particular interest in identifying and celebrating its 'great men', the model individuals through whom it defined its national identity. Across the century, authors, statesmen, scientists and artists were celebrated by the state, in a cult of glory that culminated in the creation of the secular temple of the Panthéon in 1791. Yet the eighteenth century is also acknowledged as the starting point of a very different sort of recognition: the widespread curiosity in a public figure's private life that lies at the heart of modern celebrity culture. The relationship between these two is complex, and is not yet well understood. Rousseau and Voltaire incarnated these two burgeoning forms of fame. Undisputed celebrities in their lifetimes, they were also early occupants of the Panthéon, surviving the political turmoil that saw revolutionary politicians ceremonially buried and subsequently ejected from the monument with shocking speed. This article examines the literary discourse that surrounded their deaths in 1778 and their later inclusion in the Panthéon, analysing the use that was made of their textual remains and considering how far their glorious posthumous status related to their public image in life. Using these brief case studies, I suggest that authors occupy a privileged place in the conversion of lifetime celebrity into enduring posthumous fame, not only-as has traditionally been argued-thanks to the durability of the text, but also because of its flexibility and a created intimacy that mimics the process by which literary celebrity is created in life.

Beyond celebrity history: towards the consolidation of fame studies

“…This is how Lilti (2017, p. 4-5) treats it, admitting that 'there are many kinds of fame', but operationalising only celebrity, glory, and reputation. There is a similar trend of drawing a contrast between ante-mortem celebrity with post-mortem glory, where fame is understood as synonymous for each of these terms or as encompassing both of them (Goodman 2016). If this distinction seems sound and clear, consider the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a glorification of celebrity, described as a means to 'maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamour and excitement in the four corners of the world' [italics by A.D. Wesołowski].…”