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English

Deborah Elise White
Associate Professor, English and Comparative Literature, Emory University

My research at the British Library focused on the continental European exiles who came to England in the wake of the failed revolutions of 1848 and, specifically, on how the exile community's anniversary commemorations of past revolutionary events became occasions for the exiles to understand their seemingly failed relation to history. My work gives special attention to the role played by Victor Hugo who delivered several important speeches for these anniversary banquets. The materials I looked at are either unavailable in the United States or scattered in different special collections. These include rare pamphlets reprinting speeches given at anniversary commemorations held in Paris during the 1848 revolution. I also compared detailed accounts of banquets held by the exiles in England during the 1850's as reported in the exile's leading francophone journals, including L'homme (already the subject of important scholarship by Silvie Aprile) as well as in the English Chartist People's Paper. Accounts in the Francophone press suggest how firmly the discourse of the date "itself" as something bearing a quasi-sacred status took hold among the French and Italian exiles in particular. They also clarify to what degree the anniversary banquets were scenes of ritualized mourning as well as political debate. Reports on anniversary banquets were also notable for an emphasis on their international character. In addition to these pamphlets and journals, I also looked at first editions of Hugo's anniversary banquet speeches and eulogies for his fellow exiles—works which were published as independent duodecimo volumes. These include striking reflections on the significance of dates in the experience and conceptualization of history. Though the texts are available in modern scholarly editions, the first editions are of interest for their format as well as for textual variants. I also looked at a first edition of Felix Pyat's Loisirs d'exil which includes several passages meditating in half-mystical, half-ironic fashion on the significance of revolutionary dates. Arguably, such meditations are, like much anniversary rhetoric, an evasion of genuine historical self-understanding, but they may also have provided a point of departure for the invention of new historical and political identities. I drew on this research for a paper I delivered in Montreal this August at the 2005 meeting of the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism.

Deborah Elise White
Associate Professor, English and Comparative Literature, Emory University

The project: I am writing a book that investigates the rhetoric and poetics of dates in discourses of revolution in nineteenth-century Europe. My research in London focused on the continental European exiles who came to England in the wake of the failed revolutions of 1848 and, specifically, on how the exile community's anniversary commemorations of past revolutionary events became occasions for the exiles to understand their seemingly failed relation to history. These "anniversaries" offered a ritualized scene in which the exiles could constitute themselves as an internationally oriented European "opposition" to the political status quo. As a literary scholar, I am especially interested in Victor Hugo (an iconic figure among the exiles) who delivered several important speeches for anniversary banquets. They are (like his better-known literary writings) highly self-conscious about the ways in which dates come to emblematize historical trauma and assume a quasi-sacred status.

Pamphlets and Newspapers: At the British Library I looked at materials that were either unavailable in the U.S. or scattered in a variety of special collections throughout the U.S. These included rare pamphlets printing the speeches delivered at anniversary events held in Paris during the 1848 revolution. One such banquet commemorated the Polish revolution of 1830 and exemplifies how the Polish exile experience supplied the impetus for a full-scale rhetoric of exile that drew part of its identity from anniversary rituals. This rhetoric eventually offered a common discursive terrain (arguably even a template) for the exiles of the 1850s. Another pamphlet reprinted a speech by Ledru-Rollin given at an event commemorating September 22, 1792—making its political point precisely by celebrating the anniversary of the first French Republic (and not, say, the less contested Bastille day). I also compared detailed accounts of anniversaries and anniversary banquets held in England during the 1850's as reported on in the exile's leading francophone journals L'homme and La Voix du Proscrit as well as the English chartist People's Paper. (Speeches and toasts were usually reprinted in their entirety and translated when necessary.) The accounts in the Francophone press suggest how firmly discourse of the date "itself" as something that assumes an almost gravitational force took hold among the French and Italian exiles in particular.

In such texts, one can trace how the anniversary banquet becomes a site of mourning—and, thus, a way of assimilating an incompletely understood historical trauma. In the words of an Italian journal quoted approvingly in L'homme, the exiles took "a religious care" for "all the dates" that represent the "glory" of past revolutions: "It is for us a cult [...] Others adore the present [...] we visit the fields of the dead and the oppressed." (from Italia è Popolo, quoted in L'homme, no. 13, March 8, 1854.) The exile press gives additional attention to other rituals of mourning as well. In L'homme eulogies for the dead were regularly reprinted often alongside articles detailing anniversary toasts.

Reports on anniversary banquets were also notable for their strongly international cast. L'homme reported on anniversary banquets held in New York and Mexico with extreme excitement. These reports necessarily appeared considerably after the reports of anniversary banquets held in Britain, thus perpetuating the "anniversary" discourse well past its actual date. The anniversary speeches themselves reflect a sense of temporal displacement or belatedness. Thus Jules Cahaigne speaking at an event held on the isle of Jersey notes that: "Il y a six ans, le même jour, à pareille heure, toute Paris était dans la joie. La République était proclamée: La Révolution debout [...]" (quoted in L'homme, no. 14; Marche 1, 1854). For Cahaigne the anniversary is uncanny, "le même" (the same) and yet entirely other, and it speaks to an experience of melancholic unease in historical time. The anniversary thus both confirms the singular significance of the original revolutionary event and attenuates it through repetition and ritual (a phenomenon studied by Patrick Hutton in his work on late nineteenth-century French politics. I also note the importance of earlier work done by Silvie Aprile on L'homme)

First editions of literary works: I looked at first editions of Hugo's speeches for the anniversary banquets held on the isle of Jersey, as well as first editions of his eulogies for fellow exiles—all published as independent works—and a first edition of his initial collection of these writings together as Discours de L'exil. These works include a number of striking reflections on the significance of dates in the experience and conceptualization of history. They have been reprinted in modern scholarly collections of Hugo's work, but the first editions remains worth studying for their format and context as well as occasional textual variants. These duodecimo versions were printed to raise money for other exiles, and additional interest lies in the advertising materials printed on their covers offering a further framework for thinking about the development and commodification of Hugo's public persona in exile.

I also examined a first (and, to my knowledge, only) edition of Felix Pyat's Loisirs d'un Exil. Loisirs is a collection of essays published in 1851 when Pyat was in exile from France but had not yet left the continent. It includes several passages meditating in half-mystical, half-ironic fashion on the significance of revolutionary dates. Pyat's open letter to the imprisoned revolutionary Barbes begins by recalling that "Février est le mois des Républiques" and offers a litany of important European emancipatory events that occurred in February. Though absurd as historical analysis, this rhetoric seems to have served a need for mythmaking within the exile community. Arguably, it involved an evasion of genuine historical self-understanding, but it may also have provided a point of departure for the invention of new historical and political identities. (Pyat himself was later involved in the commune.)

Public Presentations: I drew on this research for a paper entitled "Revolutionary Memory in Marx and Hugo" which I delivered in Montreal this August at the 2005 meeting of the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, (The generous contribution that ICIS made to my research was acknowledged at the beginning of my presentation.) The paper forms the basis for a central section of my book manuscript on dates in the discourse of revolution in nineteenth-century Europe.