The Shaping of French National Identity
Narrating the Nation's Past, 1715–1830

Casts new light on of the 'official' French nineteenth-century narrative by examining how historians and philosophers conceived of the country's past.

Matthew D'Auria (Author)

9781107128095, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 December 2020

325 pages
16 x 23.5 x 3 cm, 0.84 kg

'The Shaping of French National Identity thus sheds light on a chapter of intellectual history never before investigated with such thoroughness, that of the battles between competing visions of national identity that coexisted over the course of the long eighteenth century; the focus of is the respective contributions of Gauls, Romans and Franks in French history, and the reflection on the role of the king, the nobles, and the rest of the population in creating the national imaginary… The volume unveils possible alternative images to that established in the second half of the nineteenth century and illuminates the paths and reasons for the affirmation of the hegemonic narrative. It is an approach to the question of national identity that can be innovative even within a vast and prestigious bibliography. Focusing on the idea of 'national narrative', this approach corrects some of the assumptions implicit in the so-called 'modernist' approaches.' Studi Francesi

The Shaping of French National Identity casts new light on the intellectual origins of the dominant and 'official' French nineteenth-century national narrative. Focussing on the historical debates taking place throughout the eighteenth century and during the Restoration, Matthew D'Auria evokes a time when the nation's origins were being questioned and discussed and when they acquired the meaning later enshrined in the official rhetoric of the Third Republic. He examines how French writers and scholars reshaped the myths, symbols, and memories of pre-modern communities. Engaging with the myth of 'our ancestors the Gauls' and its ideological triumph over the competing myth of 'our ancestors the Franks', this study explores the ways in which the struggle developed, and the values that the two discourses enshrined, the collective actors they portrayed, and the memories they evoked. D'Auria draws attention to the continuity between ethnic discourses and national narratives and to the competition between various groups in their claims to represent the nation and to define their past as the 'true' history of France.

Introduction. Narrating the Nation: From the Nineteenth to the Eighteenth Century
Part I: 1. Race, Blood, and Lineage: The Nobility's National Narrative and the History of France
2. History and Race: The Subject of Boulainvilliers's National Narrative
3. Debating the Nation's History: From Royal(ist) to Ethnic Origins
Part II: 4. Thinking the Nation's Character: At the Crossroads of Literature, Anthropology, and History
5. Moral and Physical Causes: Montesquieu's History of Nations
6. Discussing the Nation's History: Franks, Gauls, and the French Character
Part III: 7. Classifying the Nation: The Past(s) of 'Social Classes' Before and After the Revolution
8. A Bourgeois National Narrative: On Augustin Thierry's Réforme Historique
9. Debating the Nation's Past(s): Giving the Bourgeoisie its History
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], European history [HBJD]