Transcultural biography and spaces of cultural diversity. The biography and the work of Paul-Marc Sauvalle (1857-1920) 2nd phase: A critical and commented scientific edition of selected literary and journalistic writings of Paul-Marc Sauvalle and a complete bibliography of his writings

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies ; Modern and Contemporary History ; Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 398199937

The major aim of this renewal proposal is to prepare a critical and commented scientific edition including a representative choice of literary and journalistic articles which Paul-Marc Sauvalle (Le Havre 1857- Ottawa 1920), one of the leading and most influential French-Canadian journalists around 1900, published in more than 20 newspapers in Louisiana, Mexico and Canada. The journalistic work of Paul-Marc Sauvalle embraces more than 1500 articles which have been identified during the first phase of the project and collected by the applicant in the form of PDF files, photocopies and printed documents. The quantitative dimension, but also the aesthetic and rhetorical qualities and the wide range of genres and themes covered is giving to this impressive work a very unique and significative dimension in literary and cultural history, not only of francophone Canada, but also of other cultural areas like Louisiana, Mexico and France. In the first phase of this project it was not yet possible to evaluate precisely the quantitative dimension of the work of Paul-Marc Sauvalle and the importance of its social and cultural dimensions, in particular in francophone Canada, but also in Mexico and Louisiana. The analysis of Sauvalle’s journalistic work and its reception in the society of his time has clearly shown that he was a pioneer of the promotion of modernity in the different cultural areas where he was active as a journalist, writer and an intellectual, through the defence of religious tolerance, secularity, democracy, cultural diversity and the cosmopolitan opening especially of francophone Canada. Sauvalle was also an important mediator for new political and social ideas, and for the creation of a new style of journalism in Louisiana and Mexico. As a representative of the ‘radical liberalism’ (in the sense of the late 19th century), he chose the direct confrontation with the Catholic Church, with different conservative circles and with the censorship of the clergy. He was committed to the defence of the separation between the State and the Church, to the creation of a non-religious state education system, to the equality between men and women in all areas of the society, and to a reform of capitalism. Following in particular the ideas of the US-American social economist Henry George, he defended a liberal opening of the world market, combined with a social insurance system and a policy of social justice and equality. Sauvalle played also an important role as a mediator for the transmission of political, economic and cultural knowledge between Europe – particularly France –, the United States, South America (Mexico, Cuba) and Canada. With regard to a transnational and transcultural literary and cultural history it would be extremely desirable to make accessible for the first time a selection of commented representative texts of the very rich work of Paul-Marc Sauvalle.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants