Romantic Renaissance. Ideological representations of the 16th Century (1814-1848)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Daniele Maira
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2016 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 327700721

If the Romantic veneration for the Christian Middle Ages has never ceased to keep the attention of literary scholarship, the Renaissance and the 16th century have never aroused a similar interest among scholars. However, the 16th century was far from being ignored in Romantic historiography: There are many romans and drames historiques set in the Valois period and allusions to this time are equally numerous. Maybe this negligence resides in the fact that French historiography first considered the Renaissance as part of the Middle Ages before it was seen as a period influenced and corrupted by Italy, in constant competition with a notion of national Middle Ages. Later again it was considered a transition period between the Middle Ages and the Grand Slide. Hence, the French Renaissance was thought to be a period that did not ask for specific scholarly attention, but which rather seemed to be in search of its own historical identity, especially within French history. Yet these literary works can also enable us to better grasp Romantic understandings of the Renaissance and of Modernity. This essay explores the construction of the 16th century in French literature from the Restauration and the Monardue de Juillev, in a period that is, in which « tout prend la forme de I¿histoire : le theatre, le roman, la poesie » according to Chateaubriand {Etudes historiques, 1831). How did Romantics think about the 16th century? How did they write about it and how did they represent the period when they did write about it? The Valois century played host to the guerres de religion', something which had allowed Voltaire to talk about « une robe d'or et de sole ensanglant^e » {Essai sur les mceurs) when he thought about the period. In so doing he reunited the splendours of the renaissance des arts el des lettres with the bloody massacres of the Civil Wars. Romantic visions of the Renaissance take over Voltaire¿s metaphor but it still needs to be analysed how this image is used and how it is reflected in both 19th century literature and historiography. The thesis of this essay is that the representation of the 16th century in the first half of the 19th century is accompanied by ideological implications and political instrumentalisations. These contribute to the construction of a controversial period as it is considered the birthplace of the French Revolution.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants