A Transprovincial Movement? Provincializing Frenchness in the Nineteenth Century via the Académie Provinciale of Lyon

Abstract

This article sheds light on two key “transprovincial” moments in the history of the Lyon-based Académie Provinciale (1826), a sort of contre-académie and local alternative to the Paris-based Académie française: 1) the admission of Breton poet Élisa Mercœur (1809–1835) as a “membre correspondant” and 2) the publication of the Préludes poétiques by Franc-Comtois Aimé de Loy (1798–1834) as the first volume in the “Bibliothèque de l’Académie Provinciale”. Building on a “transprovincial” framework inspired by non-linear epistemologies, the article highlights the importance of the Académie Provinciale’s transprovincial ambitions, as seen in zigzagging networks of mutual support and collective emancipation. The article argues that these efforts towards a sort of utopian league of provinces underscore the empowering value of provincialism, foster a pluriversal and decentralized view of nineteenth-century French literary culture and thus contribute to a more positive and progressive, rather than conservative and reactionary, provincialization of the idea of “Frenchness”.