Écrits politiques (1814–1816) by François-René de Chateaubriand (review)

Abstract

MLR, 99.2, 2004 495 as the savages, 'das Schicksal, in einer "Unterwerfungsgeschichte bei gleichzeitiger Idealisierung" dienendes Substrat der kulturellen Selbstreflexion zu werden' (p. 44). In Chapter 2 Holz looks at images ofgypsies in Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris. They confirm that the Other does not only cause curiosity but also colonial fear,which leads to images justifying their marginalizationand domination. Here too Otherness is portrayed 'um sie [die Andersheit] in einem partriarchal und ethnozentrisch gelenkten Deutungsschema dem fatalen Mechanismus der Selbstbestatigung zu unterwerfen' (p. 74). Aesthetic arrangements and exotic visions in the works of Theophile Gautier are at the core of Chapter 3. Considering Mademoiselle de Maupin, Eldorado, and the more theoretical descriptions in Constantinople and L'Orient, Holz reveals a 'weiblich imaginierten Orientalismus und Asthetizismus' in Gautier's literature (p. 89). In the latter, travelling into an exotic distance is portrayed in such a way that it links up to socio-cultural patterns of male domination over women (p. 101). Merimee's Carmen, analysed in Chapter 4, is a particularly interesting example of the tensions between male fear and desire, which lead to a peculiar and often incoherent portrayal of the gypsy culture. Overall, the cliches of gypsies reconstructed in Merimee's work are not fundamentally differentfrom the stereotypes in Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris (see Chapter 2). However, the strong fatalattraction ofthe female Other, extremely obvious in the case of Carmen and her influence on Don Jose, leads to bizarre constructs ofboth figures as simultaneously characteristic and non-characteristic representatives of their respective cultures. Their fatal encounter reaches a culminating point with Carmen's rejection of Don Jose's plea 'laisse-moi te sauver et me sauver avec toi' (p. 128). The analysis of gypsy portrayals continues with the discussion of George Sand's La Filleule (Chapter 5), and such portrayals are reintegrated into the wider context of European assimilation strategies of the Other via an in-depth interpretation of Pierre Loti's Le Roman d'un spahi (1881) and Madame Chrysantheme (1887) in Chapter 6. Holz adds here a series of new insights but at the same time he confirms once more that the images of cultural differences in nineteenth-century French literature are fundamentally based on images of gender characteristics. Chateaubriand's, Hugo's, Gautier's, Merimee's, Sand's, and Loti's descriptions of gypsies, savages, and exotic foreigners follow implicitly or explicitly popular images and stereotypes of feminin? ity.Within a patriarchal society, this female mise en scene of the Other facilitates its control. It contributessubstantially to justifying, confirming, and stabilizing existing power hierarchies, and it can be used to legitimate a permanent marginalization and suppression of the Other. Zigeuner, Wilde und Exoten clearly confirms this link between gender and ethnocentric power discourse. However, by combining the approaches of gender and culture research Holz also delivers completely new insights into this link and its portrayal within French nineteenth-century literature. His study is also well written and as such highly recommendable not only for a wider academic audience, including students and graduate researchers, but for everyone interested in French nineteenth-century literature, gender discourse, and power discourse. Anglia Polytechnic University Guido Rings Ecrits politiques(i8i4-i8i6). By FRANgois-RENE de Chateaubriand. Ed. by Colin Smethurst. (Les Classiques de la pensee politique, 18) Geneva: Droz. 2002. 586 pp. ?54.10; SwF 79.90. ISBN 2-600-00670-2. The Restoration offereda fascinating field forspeculation to any Frenchman with an interest in politics and great opportunities formaking a name and launching a career. Already in his forties, Chateaubriand leapt at his chance. This generous collection, 496 Reviews which brings together in convenient form all his political writings published in the period, reveals his responses to events. They changed at a bewildering pace, he felt obliged to keep up with them, and advancing straight ahead was not an option that was open to him for long. Besides, denigrating Napoleon, whose reputation for mili? tary genius inevitably appeared tarnished when foreign soldiers were in Paris, was a simpler task than putting the Bourbons back on their pedestal. Evocations of the glorious past of the French monarchy would carry conviction only with those willing to...