\n
Vincenzo de Santis<\/b>,\u00a0\u00ab\u202fUtopian thought and scientific poetry in Lemercier\u2019s Atlantiade, ou la Th\u00e9ogonie newtonienne <\/i>(1812)\u202f\u00bb \u2013 Published in 1812 after a long period of gestation and preparation, L\u2019Atlantiade, ou la Th\u00e9ogonie newtonienne <\/i>was conceived by Lemercier in 1783, when the author assisted to the flight of Charles\u2019 balloon, and perceived this scientific experience as an authentic dramatic performance. In this \u00ab\u202fepic poem\u202f\u00bb \u2013 in which utopian thought mixes with scientific poetry \u2013 Atlantis becomes the \u00ab\u202ftheatre\u202f\u00bb where a war between the virtuous Symphytes and the corrupted and superstitious Atlantes eventually takes place. Lemercier writes a poem using scientific vulgarization to introduce a critical enquiry on the political transformations of its time.<\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Damien Zanone<\/strong>, \u202f<\/span>\u00ab\u202fPedagogy by Utopia. About Les Battu\u00e9cas<\/i> by F\u00e9licit\u00e9 de Genlis (1816)\u202f\u00bb \u2013 The novel Les Battu\u00e9cas<\/i> by F\u00e9licit\u00e9 de Genlis (1816) is based on a cultural legend \u2013 deeply ingrained since Lope de Vega \u2013 about a lost valley in Spain where the inhabitants, having no contact with the surrounding world, preserved their primitive innocence. The plot follows the main character\u2019s personal journey\u202f: a \u00ab\u202fBattuecas\u202f\u00bb discovers Spain and finds out about contemporary history and its great violence (Terror in France and later on the \u00ab\u202fdisasters of the war\u202f\u00bb as the Napoleonic troops enter Spain). Is it possible to read this work, like George Sand who praises it in Histoire de ma vie<\/i>, as an utopian novel\u202f? The article nuances her position: if the novel Les Battu\u00e9cas<\/i> does not actually describe a utopia, Genlis uses the utopian model for educational purposes.<\/p>\nAnnamaria Laserra<\/strong>,\u00a0\u00ab\u202fCharles Nodier and the fate of the \u201csad vertical quatruped\u201d<\/i>\u202f\u00bb \u2013 This study follows Nodier\u2019s intellectual itinerary through his opposition to the scientist and utopian theses of his time. Basing his view on the notion of stability (fixism), Nodier opposed Saint-Simon\u2019s socialism which aimed at replacing theology by a \u00ab\u202fcivil religion\u202f\u00bb founded on scientific knowledge. At one point, Nodier felt unsettled by Lamarck\u2019s transformism and Cuvier\u2019s catastrophism. The latter proved the possible disappearance of the human species, which he asserted had already happened earlier \u2013 the current species being an improved form of the previous one. Lamarck and Cuvier\u2019s theories were confirming the notion of perfectibility and the Saint-Simonians\u2019 faith in science. Nodier retaliated by trying to assimilate Cuvier\u2019s ideas into his own approach, but did not renounce his own anti-progressivism. Once his ideas were rejected by science, Nodier transposed them in the D\u00e9riseur sens\u00e9<\/i> in which, as a writer rather than a scientist, he ridiculed, on a farfetched mode, the notion of perfectibility.<\/p>\nAgnese Silvestri<\/strong>, \u00ab\u202fUtopia Restoring the Fault and the Contradictions of the Novelistic Narrative\u202f: Balzac\u2019s Le Cur\u00e9 de Village\u202f\u00bb \u2013 While considering the Revolution as a historical fault with harmful consequences, Balzac rethinks this traumatic experience by imagining ideal social organisations adapting to its effects and even exploiting them for the opportunities of social mobility and dynamisation unleashed by the Revolution itself. In Le Cur\u00e9 de village<\/i> (1841), however, the convergence between utopia and the demands for realistic representation of the historical future, with its failures and imperfections, troubles and transforms the paradigms of the utopian genre. Concerns about the perpetuation of the collective project are thus raised, while the problem of the use of popular endowments and energies in society complicates the recurring structures in the narrative utopia.<\/p>\nBrigitte Diaz<\/strong>, \u00ab\u202fDreaming society, reinventing the couple. Figures of Utopia in three George Sand\u2019s novels (Le Meunier d\u2019Angibault, Le P\u00e9ch\u00e9 de Monsieur Antoine<\/i>, La Ville noire<\/i>)\u202f\u00bb \u2013 <\/i>The year 1840 marks a new orientation in George Sand\u2019s fictional world. From that moment on, she experiences in her fictions new types of social relations that her ideological opponents denounce as utopias. Utopia \u2013\u202fwhat Sand calls a \u00ab\u202fholy madness\u202f\u00bb\u202f\u2013 plays an increasingly important role in her literary production. Le Compagnon du Tour de France<\/i> (1840), Horace<\/i> (1841), and Le Meunier d\u2019Angibault<\/i> (1844) plots are largerly focused on the search for new modes of social organization, that may be described as utopian. But this trend goes on in later novels, such as La Ville noire<\/i> (1860) and Nanon<\/i> (1872). How are George Sand\u2019s novels different from the contemporary abundant production in this genre\u202f? In the novels that we analyze social utopia is part of a sentimental plot which proves not anecdotal since the sentimental relationship is actually the most important catalyst of the social reorganization. The question is how Sand subordinates any possibility of social equity and harmony to an overhaul of the couple and to the aim of gender balance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nChantal Bri\u00e8re, Florence Naugrette<\/b>, \u00ab\u202fGardens as social Utopias in Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/i>\u202f\u00bb \u2013 By claiming a \u00ab\u202fmilitant\u202f\u00bb nature for the novel, hence its usefulness in the fight against social oppression, the preface of Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/i> opens up utopian perspectives intended to substitute good for evil and light for darkness. It is the duty of the characters to incarnate them and that of the settings to symbolize them, as gardeners and gardens do in large part. Cultivating and arranging the natural space of the latter, the former work for themselves as well, and for the future they are sowing. In the garden, contemplation meets action, exclusion is no bar to generosity, nor does loss of class status preclude dignity. In the garden, man builds his Eden, a possible but ambiguous model for a germinating society. Created to nourish or to beautify, private or public, retreat or meeting place, the garden bears witness to the bond between man and nature as well as to the social bond. Robert Harrison\u2019s book Gardens<\/i>\u202f: An Essay on the Human Condition<\/i> (2007) serves as an accompaniment to our reading of Hugo\u2019s novel.<\/p>\n
Julie Anselmini<\/strong>, \u00ab\u202fWriting the Revolution and Utopia\u202f<\/i>: Cr\u00e9ation et R\u00e9demption <\/i>by Alexandre Dumas Father\u202f<\/i>\u00bb \u2013 This article examines the representation of utopia and its questioning in Cr\u00e9ation et R\u00e9demption<\/i>, <\/i>the very last great novel by Dumas Father. The author studies first the singular figure of the utopist embodied by Jacques M\u00e9rey, the hero of the novel\u202f; she then looks at the representation and analysis of the revolutionary utopia and of its drifts proposed by the novelist. She finally examines what happens to this utopia in the eyes of Dumas after 1793, and questions more directly the functions of Dumas\u2019 writing in the light of the aspirations of the \u00ab\u202falmost utopian republicanism of the heart\u202f\u00bb characterizing the writer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBoris Lyon-Caen<\/b>, \u00ab\u202fSpecies of Utopians. A zolian itinerary\u202f\u00bb \u2013 Within the Rougon-Macquart series, Zola assigns his most idealist creations the task of embodying the Socialism of 1848. This is chiefly the case in four of his novels\u202f: La Fortune des Rougon<\/i> (1871), Le Ventre de Paris<\/i> (1873), Germinal<\/i> (1885) and L\u2019Argent<\/i> (1891). These amount to four observation points which allow us to witness and grasp the shape, the making, and the uses of utopian discourse. Zola\u2019s judgement seems to be final\u202f: such discourses seem detachable and almost \u00ab\u202ffrozen\u202f\u00bb\u202f; they are radically discredited, both by the judgment of History itself, and by the pragmatic vision of a writer who has experienced and overcome \u2013 so it seems \u2013 all forms of dogmatism.<\/p>\n
Claire Barel-Moisan<\/strong>,<\/p>\n\u00ab\u202fGetting married in Utopia in the 19th<\/sup> century\u202f\u00bb \u2013 What alternative societies did people dream of in the second half of the 19th<\/sup> century\u202f? The issue of marriage raises multiple tensions that prove crucial for the utopian project, tensions both concerning the relationship between the community and the individual, and promoting or dissolving family as a unit. Through fiction, novelists experimented with the reinvention of social roles, notably in the field of relationships between men and women. Both in utopias and in dystopias, authors criticized the concept of marriage as a financial operation, incorporated darwinian theories to question the effects of marriage on natural selection, and imagined new forms of conjugality favoring either bodily freedom or imprisonment.<\/p>\nCatherine Mariette<\/strong>,<\/p>\n\u00ab\u202fUtopia and dystopia in Louise Michel\u2019s La Mis\u00e8re<\/i>\u202f\u00bb \u2013 Two months after her return from the French penal colony of New Caledonia, Louise Michel started writing her first novel. Wishing to speak about the society of her time, while simultaneously hoping to abolish it and convert it into a renewed world, she chose to write a roman-fleuve<\/i> in which her political ideals would be embodied by fictional characters using her experience left over from the penal colony and jail. Renouncing the mystical sentimentalism which inhabited her previous way of writing, she decided to realistically describe people\u2019s and especially women\u2019s \u00ab\u202fmis\u00e8re\u202f\u00bb in a realistic way. We will see how social utopia \u2013\u202fshaped around the author\u2019s dreams\u202f\u2013 and realistic dystopia create a teeming novel where a fertile imagination goes hand in hand with the most accurate observation, so as to condemn the late XIXth<\/sup> century world and to hope for a more human society.<\/p>\nJos\u00e9-Luis Diaz<\/strong>,<\/p>\n\u00ab\u202fThe literature of the future according to three 19th<\/sup> century dystopic novels: \u00c9mile Souvestre, Le Monde tel qu\u2019il sera,<\/i> 1846. Jules Verne, Paris in the 20th<\/sup> century<\/i>, 1863. Albert Robida, The Twentieth Century<\/i>, 1883\u202f\u00bb \u2013 How is the future of literature, and more generally of culture and its institutions, represented in these three typical 19th<\/sup> century dystopic novels, whose resemblance lies in the fact that the first seems to have inspired the other two? They share a common structural feature\u202f: the discovery of the new world is led in all three cases by young \u00ab\u202fintellectuals\u202f\u00bb, who are soon disappointed by innovations in the cultural field. In all three cases, the picture of literature offers a scenario in the form of a catastrophist diagnosis. The scanning of the cultural field puts into perspective new institutions (libraries, bookstores, academies, high schools, theatres, newspapers) characteriszing the new society. Most of the attention is focused on theatre and press, which were already the two most largely media-centered institutions of the 19th<\/sup> century. Their main flaws, which were already emerging in the previous century, seem to have worsened in\u00a0<\/span>the future, as proven by the mechanization of intellectual work, the development of the periodical press at the expense of literature, the rise of serial forms of literary production, the omnipresence of advertising and the importance given to sensationalism. Thanks to the encounters between the self-centered protagonists and other typical characters, the reader is confronted with the new world\u2019s deceiving literary history, which finally proves a dark caricature of contemporary society.<\/p>\nFran\u00e7oise Sylvos<\/strong>,<\/p>\n\u00ab\u202fBalloon travel over French Utopias and anticipation novels from the 19th<\/sup> century\u202f\u00bb\u00a0<\/span> <\/i>\u2013 This paper takes note of the formal variety of the utopias and the anticipation stories during the 19th<\/sup> century. Every type of utopias and anticipation stories exist before and after the break of 1848\/1851. The utopia is characterized by the melting with poetry, theater and narrative fiction. This paper highlights the significance of the period of the first part of the 19th<\/sup> century, often diminished by modern criticism. The article then analyzes the differences in utopian fiction produced in the first and second part of the century. The subtle mutations in the works throughout the century \u2013 mainly consisting in temporal amplification, increasingly massive integration of science \u2013 announce the shift from utopia to science fiction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>Bio-bibliographies des contributeurs<\/h4><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n
Vincenzo De Santis
\n<\/strong><\/p>\nVincenzo De Santis est professeur associ\u00e9 de Litt\u00e9rature fran\u00e7aise \u00e0 l\u2019Universit\u00e0 di Salerno et docteur de l\u2019Universit\u00e0 di Milano et de Sorbonne-Universit\u00e9. Il a publi\u00e9 sa th\u00e8se sur le th\u00e9\u00e2tre de Lemercier en 2015 aux Classiques Garnier. Ses domaines de recherche sont le th\u00e9\u00e2tre et la litt\u00e9rature du XVIIIe<\/sup> si\u00e8cle et les rapports entre th\u00e9\u00e2tre, litt\u00e9rature et pouvoir pendant la R\u00e9volution et l\u2019Empire. Il a publi\u00e9 avec Mara Fazio une \u00e9dition critique de Za\u00efre<\/i> de Voltaire chez ETS (Pise). Il est membre de l\u2019\u00e9quipe d\u2019\u00e9dition du th\u00e9\u00e2tre complet de Voltaire (Classiques Garnier). <vdesantis@unisa.it><\/p>\nDamien Zanone
\n<\/b><\/p>\n
Damien Zanone est professeur de Litt\u00e9rature fran\u00e7aise \u00e0 l\u2019Universit\u00e9 Paris Est Cr\u00e9teil. Il travaille principalement sur l\u2019\u00e9criture autobiographique et sur le roman au XIXe<\/sup> si\u00e8cle. Sur la question des M\u00e9moires et des liens entre litt\u00e9rature et histoire, il a publi\u00e9 une monographie, \u00c9crire son temps. Les M\u00e9moires en France de 1815 \u00e0 1848 <\/i>(2006) et trois ouvrages issus de travaux collectifs\u202f: Le Moi, l\u2019Histoire. 1789-1848<\/i> (2005), Le Sens du pass\u00e9 <\/i>(2013) et \u00ab\u202fLa Chose de Waterloo\u202f\u00bb. Une bataille en litt\u00e9rature <\/i>(2017). Il est par ailleurs l\u2019auteur de nombreuses \u00e9tudes sur George Sand et d\u2019\u00e9ditions critiques d\u2019\u0153uvres de celle-ci (Histoire de ma vie<\/i>, Consuelo<\/i>, Valentine<\/i>). Il s\u2019occupe plus particuli\u00e8rement, depuis le collectif qu\u2019il a codirig\u00e9 en 2012 sur La Tradition des romans de femmes. XVIIIe<\/sup>-XIXe<\/sup> si\u00e8cles<\/i>, des repr\u00e9sentations qui associent les femmes et le roman au XIXe<\/sup> si\u00e8cle. <damien.zanone@u-pec.fr><\/p>\nAnnamaria Laserra
\n<\/b><\/p>\n
Professeure de litt\u00e9rature fran\u00e7aise \u00e0 l\u2019Universit\u00e0 di Salerno, et auparavant \u00e0 l\u2019Universit\u00e0 di Roma II \u00ab\u202fTor Vergata\u202f\u00bb, Annamaria Laserra a publi\u00e9 de nombreux essais, volumes et \u00e9ditions allant du xviie<\/sup> au xxe<\/sup>\u202fsi\u00e8cle, centr\u00e9s sur les rapports entre la litt\u00e9rature et les arts, le sacr\u00e9, les sciences, la m\u00e9moire historique. Sp\u00e9cialiste de Roger Caillois, elle a traduit en italien quelques-unes de ses \u0153uvres et lui a consacr\u00e9 plusieurs volumes et essais. Concernant ses \u00e9tudes sur le xix