Introduction

Lethbridge, J. B.

doi:10.7765/9781847791764.00005

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“…Robert Lethbridge has cogently explained how 'ascribing military defeat to decadent values rather than inferior generalship, poorer artillery, and anachronistic tactics' is a 'moral thesis rather than a political' one, but as 'problematic' as this may be, it is in this convergence of subject matter and literary-historical events that Naturalism launches its only collective publication. 49 Naturally, some critics did engage with the subject matter of the collection. Maxime Gaucher, for instance, commented that its philosophy 'n'est pas celle qui réveille dans les coeurs le patriotisme, les sentiments chevaleresques, les idées de sacrifice et de dévouement au pays' ('is not one that fills the heart with patriotism, feelings of chivalry, or ideas of sacrifice and devotion to one's country').…”

Section: IIImentioning

confidence: 99%

Les Soirées de Médan, the Franco-Prussian War and Naturalist Group Identity

Ashley

2022

Literature & History

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The Franco-Prussian War was not only a watershed in the history of Europe, it also inspired a watershed moment in French literary history: the publication of Les Soirées de Médan in 1880. The short story collection was a central text in framing a Naturalist group identity, but each of its six stories is also a scathing attack on the Franco-Prussian War and on the catastrophic French defeat. It has been argued that the myth surrounding the volume quickly eclipsed the stories themselves, but the volume's publication history shows that some of the contributors wrote their stories before a collective volume was proposed, suggesting that the critique of the war was initially as important as forming literary allegiances. This article examines the book from both angles, as a literary-historical event and as an anti-war tract. The uncomfortable relationship between the two is underscored by the many paratextual and textual absences in Les Soirées de Médan, which simultaneously conceal and draw attention to the war. It will show that the critique of the war of 1870–1871 is a necessary aspect of the public fashioning of Naturalist group identity, but that this public position-taking complicates our understanding of Naturalism as a cohesive literary movement.

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Section: IIImentioning

confidence: 99%

Les Soirées de Médan, the Franco-Prussian War and Naturalist Group Identity

Ashley

2022

Literature & History

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Introduction

Cited by 1 publication

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Les Soirées de Médan, the Franco-Prussian War and Naturalist Group Identity

Les Soirées de Médan, the Franco-Prussian War and Naturalist Group Identity

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