‘Le Néant de ce qu’on appelle gloire’: Post-Revolutionary Cultural Memory and the<i>Dialogue des Morts</i>

Goodman, Jessica

doi:10.1080/02639904.2015.1124215

Cited by 1 publication

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“…These texts belong to the genre of the 'dialogue of the dead': a classical form, revived in seventeenth-century France, which to some extent reflects the Panthéon in bringing together famous souls in conversation in the afterlife. It is traditionally read as a critical, satirical genre, but though the early modern French examples often did fulfil this purpose (Egilsrud 1934, Pujol 2005, p. 231-247, Andries 2013, the explosion of dialogues produced around the creation of the Panthéon indicates how in this period they also became a form of commemoration; another expression of the cult of great men (Goodman 2015).…”

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confidence: 99%

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

Goodman¹

2016

Celebrity Studies

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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.

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Section: **mentioning

confidence: 99%