The Tiers américain, by Catherine McPhee

Catherine McPhee, participant in the October Teachers as Scholars seminar on the French Revolution, contributed a visually powerful collage made of newspaper clippings, magazine photos and headlines broadcasting the hardships currently holding the American people in their grip. She notes that, “I feel the political and economic situation in the United States today is very similar to that of France just prior to the French Revolution. My collage represents three tiers of society: the poor, the middle class, and the wealthy and the serious problems that lie within each tier. Even though there is this separation of class, there still lies the underlying theme of unity our country has for preserving our democracy, so thus the circle of stars. The image of President Obama is included in all of the tiers representing hope that our government can help us move toward a more equitable means of life for all. It is not a socialistic society that I envision, but one where respect and tolerance for all is achieved. Hopefully this happens before we have our own revolution.”
Catherine McPhee, Media Specialist, John J. Young Middle School, Mishawaka, IN

A question of rights, by Cynthia MacWhorter

Cynthia MacWhorter participated in the 2009 Teachers as Scholars program on “The French Revolution: A Cultural Approach” (10/6 & 10/13/09). The creative project she contributed is a painting in grisaille of Marie-Antoinette juxtaposed, over whirling cloud-like brush strokes, against images of Robespierre, the halls of Versailles, the National Assembly, and the guillotine. The text on the painting reads: “October 16, 1793: What was her crime, really? Born, wrong place, wrong time? Totally clueless? Married a guy equally clueless? Not French?”
This commentary accompanies the painting: “Due to the fact that the revolution was all about human rights, I felt I wanted to address the lack of rights granted to the many persons who lost their lives due to who they were by birth. Obviously they were not totally innocent of ignorance, respect for the plight of thousands of deprived individuals and a lack of understanding which they probably could have remedied, but as I am opposed to captital punishment for even the worst criminals in contemporary society, I wanted to draw (with paint) attention to the young Queen and her plight.”
Cynthia MacWhorter, Art teacher, St. Joseph High School, South Bend, IN

Trompe l’œil imagery: Irma, ou les malheurs d’une jeune orpheline

Thanks to the astute detective work of participants in the October 2009 “Teachers as Scholars” seminar on the French Revolution, another tantalizing instance of trompe l’œil imagery has been unveiled. Look carefully at the folds of Irma’s dress, near her right leg, and you will see an angry head jutting forward toward the tomb.
Given that the story ends with a macabre account of Robespierre’s ghost haunting the catacombs in Paris and devouring the remains of his victims, perhaps this furious demonic-looking face is supposed to represent the infamous terrorist himself. It would make sense, as this image captures the final scene of the first edition of Irma, where Irma (anagram of Marie, sole survivor of the royal family) is reunited with her betrothed, the Duc d’Angoulême, and takes a vow to marry him over the tomb of Louis XVI.

This frontispiece is found in Elisabeth Guénard (Méré, madame Brossin de). Irma, ou les malheurs d’une jeune orpheline ; histoire indienne, avec des romances. Publié par la Ce. Gd. A Delhy et se trouve à Paris : Chez l’auteur, An VIII (1799-1800). University of Notre Dame: Rare Books Small PQ 1987.G45.I7.1799z. vol. 1.

News on “What You Must Know About the French Revolution: Literary Round Table / Les Must de la Révolution française: Table ronde littéraire”

Speakers and titles for session on Friday March 19, 2010, 8am – 9:30 am, in the Hotel Albuquerque, at ASECS Annual Meeting on “Les Must/ What You Must Know about the French Revolution”:
Pamela Cheek (Univ. of New Mexico): Isabelle de Charrière, Trois femmes (1798)
Nanette Le Coat (Trinity Univ., San Antonio, TX): Pauline Guizot, Les Contradictions (1799) et La Chapelle d’Ayton (1800)
Catriona Seth (Université de Nancy 2 and Visiting Indiana Univ.): François Vernes, Adélaïde de Clarencé ou les Malheurs et les Délices du sentiment (1795)
Antoinette Sol (Univ. of Texas at Arlington): Elisabeth Guénard, Irma ou les malheurs d’une jeune orpheline (An VIII)
James Steintrager (Univ. of California Irvine) : Marquis de Sade, La Philosophie dans le boudoir (1795)
Jennifer Tamas (Stanford Univ.): Olympe de Gouges, La Déclaration des droits de la femme (1791)
Format: Round Table. Speakers will present position papers 5-7 minutes in length on the one book that people “must” read to understand the French Revolution. Longer versions of the papers will be posted in advance on a website to encourage optimal discussion during the session. For information, contact jdouthwa@nd.edu

Literature and the big (economic) picture, or Advice to Wall Street’s Math Wizards: Get Real, Read Lit

Oh, what a difference a year makes. From September 2008 to September 2009, the financial world imploded: Lehman Brothers folded, Morgan Stanley hemorrhaged, and Citigroup fell flat. The tales of woe from these former titans of Wall Street have now become a genre, as captured in the New York Times’ commemorative edition: “Financial Crisis: One Year Later” (9/13/09). And still no one knows exactly what went wrong.
Yet some signs of hope are emerging. A new theme is surfacing in the recondite world of econometrics, as once-arrogant “quants” begin to realize the cost of their indifference to the “real world” of human behavior. Suddenly, economists are reaching out to psychology, securing multi-million dollar grants to combine insights from cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary biology to create new perspectives on how financial markets—and their buyers—work. But the most elusive factor they will face, and the most relevant force in the “real world” is panic.
Although researchers will doubtless devise ever-more sophisticated models to understand just went wrong, they may be better advised to read great works of fiction. Edgar Allan Poe is particularly expert in describing the psychological phenomena unleashed by fear. Poe’s works provide harrowing case studies of how otherwise lucid, decent men descend into panic and dread. And once there, they rarely emerge unscathed.
Readers and scholars of fiction are often scolded for our divorce from the “real world.” But perhaps our world—the world of careful probing among the human psyche, using language as our guide–may ultimately be more reliable than econometric modeling.

NB: A shorter version of this commentary was published in the New York Times Business section (9/20/09): BU, 7.

On Labor Day 2009

On this Labor Day 2009, it is fitting to reflect on the lot of working people in the USA. Those of us fortunate enough to be employed are working harder than ever. A recent labor report announced that in the second quarter of 2009, the American work force produced the largest increase in output since 2003. As Walter Kirn notes in his 9/06/09 New York Times editorial, “What caused the jump is open to speculation, but I imagine it was partly because of nervousness. … Anxiety is nature’s most plentiful stimulant. Under its influence, trembling fingers fly.”
How sad it is, then, that a vast cross-section of our work force remains on the job today, on this rare holiday designed to honor labor. From department stores and restaurants to gas stations and universities, millions of people went to work today. My institution gave the administrative staff a holiday, but it was work as usual for the 12,000+ faculty and students on campus. Might we remind the powers-that-be that charity is supposed to start at home? As Jean-Jacques Rousseau noted in 1762: “L’essentiel est d’être bon aux yeux des gens avec qui l’on vit. Défiez-vous de ces cosmopolites qui vont chercher loin dans leurs livres des devoirs qu’ils dédaignent de remplir autour d’eux. Tel philosophe aime les Tartares, pour être dispensé d’aimer ses voisins » (Emile, Livre 1).
If Labor Day is, as we hope, to have lasting significance for the American people, may all employers heed Rousseau’s advice and take care of their own. One last day of respite to enjoy summer’s bounty will not make us less productive. Who knows, it may be just the boost we need to out-produce the competition in the hectic months ahead.

Marie-Antoinette the Cake-eater, in perpetuity

Poor Marie-Antoinette. Will those wretched words never go away? Apparently not, if our popular culture is any indication. Check out the now famous, deliciously indulgent clip from Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film, and the New York Times Crossword puzzle of 7/14/09.

Remembering why literature and scholarship matter: The little matter of duration

After spending the summer months free of school, many students (and, let’s be honest, some teachers) face the new academic year with dread. People who are involved—by requirement or employment—in pursuits that are not immediately recognized in today’s economy, with its unique investment in science and technology, may blanch at the thought of spending their precious time studying literature. Putting aside the issue of how one studies, and the babbling alarm/enthusiasm for Kindles and other new “content providers,” I have three reasons to proffer for why literature, and the scholarship that we are producing, matter.
1. Culture leaves a trace. Assuming that we are all intelligent people, and that we care about the state of our world and the direction that society is taking in our times, culture should matter to us. Culture—the shared field of expression of a people—leaves a trace. If the past three millennia can teach us anything, it should warn us of that. Although we cannot predict which ones will endure, some of our books, art, buildings, and music will live on and profoundly touch future publics.
2. Some cultural traces are more important than others. Let us recall the short duration of most of the chatter produced today. The culture that we will leave to posterity is not the ephemera that enjoys such influence today—podcasts, blogs, cell-phoned conversations, and twitters. Other ephemera were produced before us, and they too have lost luster over time. (Anyone up for a magic lantern show?) Ephemera are forgotten, when the long duration assured by books, art, buildings, and music endures.
3. Scholarship allows people to connect the dots between ephemera and long duration. By studying literature (architecture, art or music) of the past, we are able to “get it”: we get the anxieties felt by peoples in a different time and place, their lack of confidence about government, their curiosity about scientific advances, and their worries about the future. Moreover, we may share in some of the humor, the gossip, and the political jockeying that surrounded famous events and personages of their day, and maybe even gain some wisdom.
4. An illustrative example from the French Revolution.
In an article currently under review, I analyze three novels of the Revolution that undermined the political potency of the famous “Festival of the Federation” (July 14, 1790; see two title pages above). By comparing the literary works, which are preserved to us in libraries worldwide, with the ephemeral cultural traces found in popular culture of the time–newspaper articles, caricatures, and songs–I discovered how writers used strategies still operative among political satirists today: undermining through ridicule, co-optation, and resistance. Writers tried and, judging from contemporary book reviews, apparently succeeded in producing a competing field of performance where the political repressed found full expression. The Festival of the Federation projected an image of unity, but the cultural traces left by literature debunked its legitimacy. By studying these fascinating texts, we are able to relive French social life during summer 1790, and see that their pundits, soothsayers, and officials were not so different from our own.
Future publics will understand us, God willing, not by watching morons like Howard Stern (seen above in one of his more glorious moments) mouth off on TV talk shows, or reading the Huffington blog. Instead, they will most likely stumble upon our trace by reading our poets and novelists, admiring our paintings and sculptures, living in our buildings, listening to our songs and symphonies. The ephemera of popular culture are fun, irritating, and timely, and do much to enrich the cultural echo, but their trace will fade quicker, and dissolve sooner, than the time-honored forms of cultural memory we’ve inherited from the past.
On this eve of the new academic year, I find that fact reassuring.

Second thoughts on “Eve of Bastille Day” posting

Now that the effervescence–of Obama’s regime, of optimism, and hope–is starting to wear off, faced with the ugly realities of political infighting in Washington, grim economics, and the ongoing dominance of the NRA and other non-governmental groups, we’re starting to wonder if the graffiti noted on the wall of the bathroom of Revolution Books, NY, might be true: “If voting could really change things, it would be illegal.”

Robot models: a new bride for Frankenstein?

Thanks to Daniel Richter for contributing this great link about Mimu, the robot model recently unveiled in Japan. She is designed to look as life-like as possible, and the designer admitted being “as nervous as a father of the bride” at the fashion show in Tokyo where the cyber-bride walked the runway alongside flesh-and-blood women (or what passes for flesh-and-blood in fashion’s very thin universe). Is the Japanese bride-of-Frankenstein Mimu breaking down barriers between cybernetics and humanoid standards of beauty? Will this android lead the way to a paradigm shift, just as Nogaret’s automatons and Shelley’s creature did some 200 years ago? The models interviewed in Japan are anxiously waiting to see what will transpire. For our part, it seems like a humane intervention. Maybe automizing the process of selling clothes will help real-life women see through the beauty myth.