Wednesday 30th November - Marine Roussillon (Worcester College, Oxford)


Usages politiques des récits : raconter le passé médiéval au 17e siècle


Marine Roussillon


17.00-18.30
St John's College, New Seminar Room
(wine, nibbles and Christmas treats provided)

Ex Libris: Denis Salvaing de Boissieu 

Paper and Discussion

Marine Roussillon, Junior Research Fellow at Worcester College, was our guest speaker for this term’s final session. Her paper explored how the Middles Ages was conceived and deployed in seventeenth-century French writing, focusing in particular on the political value of its uses. Using a number of texts (including discourses about the writing of history, descriptions of fêtes organised in honour of Louis XIV and examples of genealogy), Marine analysed notions of plaisir and vérité in relation to the purpose, validity and success of these references to the past—employed, or appropriated, to promote the King’s glory. Marine’s paper met with an enthusiastic response from all present. Questions included queries about her corpus; how narratives conceiving of the Middle Ages relate to the nouvelle historique or histoire secrète; the role of allegory in these récits; and how the Middle Ages might be employed for moral ends, or polemical ones.

Many thanks to Marine for such an inspiring and thought-provoking presentation. It was a really excellent way to end this term’s seminar series. And many thanks to the participants both at this session and all the previous ones for their commitment, engagement and contributions. We look forward to seeing you next term!

Abstract

Y a-t-il un pouvoir des récits ? Cette communication posera la question des usages politiques des lettres au 17e siècle à partir d'exemples de textes racontant le passé médiéval. L'étude d'une généalogie fictive permettra de poser la question de ce qui fait l'efficacité politique des récits : le récit du passé fonctionne-t-il comme une preuve, dans une logique juridique, ou bien suscite-t-il un autre type d'adhésion ? En observant la manière dont la monarchie utilise les récits dans le cadre de la politique de la gloire, on pourra se demander ce qui fait l'efficacité de cette construction narrative du pouvoir. Enfin, les éditions savantes de récits médiévaux qui apparaissent au début du 18e siècle seront l'occasion d'une réflexion sur l'histoire des rapports entre la valeur littéraire des récits et leur efficacité politique.

Marine Roussillon is a Junior Research Fellow and Lecturer in early modern French at Worcester College. She has just finished her Dphil on "Plaisir et Pouvoir. Usages des récits chevaleresques à l'âge classique (1600-1750)", dealing with reception of the Middle Ages in early modern France, and political uses of representation of the past and story-telling, particularly in the context of the restructuring of the nobility.