Throne and Nation. Figurations of France in Early Modern Reports on the Entrée Royale

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Dietrich Scholler
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 571461099

In the present project, configurations of the national in early modern France are being studied, specifically through the example of the entrée royale, the entry of the king into Paris or a provincial city. Up to now, the entrée royale has been examined exclusively from a historical perspective, focusing on the precise reconstruction of the historical processes. What is missing in this necessary but not sufficient approach is the aesthetic-literary dimension of the reports on the entrée, which were published post festum by poets or court writers. From the newly chosen literary studies perspective, it is postulated that in such literary accounts of the entrée, an imagined kingdom of the king took shape—manifesting less in conceptual thinking than in the aesthetic portrayal of narrated body images. Whether the symbol of France as dancing Gallia, Hercules, the nursing alma mater, or the mater dolorosa is expressed, what is crucial for the genesis of an imagined nation is that it is a narrative construct with a performative undertone. The focus of the historical-systematic reconstruction of the narrative and performative macro- and microstructures of entrée reports is on aspects of nation-building that crystallize as relevant figuration in narratives, allegories, metaphors, stories, myths, and images. The aim of the project is, therefore, to analyze the literary and allegorical representations embedded in the genre of the entrée report using tools from narratology, rhetoric, and theories of the performative. Furthermore, the project will consider, as an example, the previously unexplored entry of Queen Elisabeth of Austria—a pilot study that will undoubtedly inspire follow-up projects. An important gap is the study of comic-grotesque depictions of princely entries, which emerge parallel to the official reports and parasitically draw on them. These are counter-discourses that will be analyzed based on recent theories of the comic, grotesque, and satirical writing—another sub-goal that will also trigger further research, especially concerning intertextually oriented literary texts in modernity.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Lisa Zeller