French Emigrants in Revolutionised Europe

Connected Histories and Memories

Laure Philip, Juliette Reboul, Laure Philip, Juliette Reboul

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9783030274344
• eBook ISBN: 9783030274351
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

The French emigration was an exilic movement triggered by the 1789 French Revolution with long-lasting social, cultural, and political impacts that continued well into the nineteenth century. At times paradoxical, the political and legal implications of being an émigré are detangled in this edited collection, thus bringing to light unexpected processes of tensions and compromises between the exiles and their host societies. The refugee/host contact points also fostered a series of cultural transfers. This book argues that the French emigration ought to be seen within the broader context of an 'Age of Exile', a notion that better encompasses the dynamics of migration that forced many to re-imagine their relation to a nation and define their displaced identities. Revisiting the historiography of the last twenty years from an interdisciplinary perspective, this volume challenges pre-existing beliefs on the journeys and re-settlements – in Europe and beyond – of the French émigré community.

© The Author(s) 2019

L. Philip, J. Reboul (eds.)French Emigrants in Revolutionised EuropeWar, Culture and Society, 1750 –1850https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27435-1_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Laure Philip¹ and Juliette Reboul²

(1)

Independent Scholar, Sydney, NSW, Australia

(2)

Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Gelderland, The Netherlands

Laure Philip (Corresponding author)

Juliette Reboul

Email: [email protected]

End Abstract

‘They have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing’: the chevalier de Panat’s barbed witticism has become a sort of cliché and self-fulfilling prophecy in scholarship on the French emigration.¹ This is partly due to the fact that the phenomenon has long been analysed within the narrow confines of counter-revolutionary political agendas (whether ultramontains , legitimist, or monarchiens ) or the émigrés’ nostalgia for their homeland. By contrast, the present volume aims to highlight the multiple connections and interdependencies between the French emigrants, their hosts, and the revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries who never left France. It argues that all participated to differing degrees in the production of cultural objects and the generation of political decisions and symbols surrounding the emigration, as well as the evolution of feelings and ideologies. Indeed, the impact of the roughly 150,000² French emigrants on their host countries and their homeland upon their return remains a subject that warrants much analysis, as does the question of the influence of the host societies on the French emigrants themselves.

To the editors’ knowledge, there are no recent synoptic studies of the manifold repercussions of emigration across Europe, much less on the world beyond.³ In the past, however, there have been only a few genuine and serious attempts to further an international agenda (though rather Western European). This was mostly influenced by Baldensperger’s 1924 comparative analysis of the ideological changes and renewal of sensibilities in the literature of emigration, which he described as depending upon cultural aspects specific to each host country.⁴ The historiographical and epistemological conditions to further these efforts were not yet in place and, unfortunately, the study of emigration seems to have subsequently stagnated. At least until the 1990s.⁵ In the past couple of decades, a multitude of micro-studies of French emigrant communities in a few specific locations, as well as several biographies of émigrés of varied backgrounds, were published or undertaken in academic circles.⁶ This resurgence was made possible by a combination of factors. Scholars in the field of emigration have been slowly filling several archival and literary gaps and absences: physical,⁷ historiographical, and especially epistemological. To complement the research undertaken in major national archives and libraries, as well as on émigré literary successes, many scholars are now investigating smaller libraries and archival repositories throughout Europe and even beyond. By unearthing documents previously unseen, they allow for the cross-referencing of various ancillary sources containing snippets of emigrant experiences. This had the direct consequence of filling some historiographical voids when direct records had not been kept. Louis XVIII, Calonne, and Chateaubriand are now sharing centre stage with lesser-known and sometimes anonymous ideologues, soldiers, clergymen, women, children, and even domestic servants. Though not as publicly influential as the political and literary leaders of the emigration and counter-revolution,⁸ their unassuming but powerful role in shifting private thoughts and mores is slowly being revealed.⁹ Since many epistemological conditions permitting scholarly renewal are now established and the methodologies of connected histories and cultural transfers have been well defined, we now have the ability to think what was unthinkable a few decades ago.¹⁰ Thus it is now possible to turn our focus away from elites to the masses, whilst simultaneously moving from the impact of emigration in European capital cities to its influence on geographical fringes. We can discuss the émigré public sphere dominated by male figures while recognising the French emigration as the heterogeneous migratory movement it was: the experiences and writings of women and other minorities are finally perceived as meaningful. Therefore, rather than replacing studies of public émigré figures and those on the legislative, political, and social impact of emigration on France and major European exile hubs such as London or Coblenz, the new and sustained focus on geographical margins and lesser-known or anonymous actors in the movement allows us to complete and fill many gaps in the narration of the emigration.

In the editors’ opinion, the recourse to theories and concepts used in different disciplines in combination with a collaborative approach will be crucial in the renewal of the scholarship on emigration and to the analysis of connections between migrants and hosts in general. It is hoped that this collection exemplifies the aforementioned shift in sources, methods, and interests. The volume itself is the result of an international conference held in the Netherlands in the summer of 2017.¹¹ It is not very often that scholars studying the topic of emigration come together to share their findings and discuss the future of their research topic: in fact, it had been almost 20 years since the publication of the last collective volume in English, which focused solely on the topic of the French emigration and was edited by Kirsty Carpenter and Philip Mansel.¹² The 2017 conference and ensuing volume aimed to encourage research projects that transcend traditional conceptions of the French emigration via active collaboration and interdisciplinary approaches. We can only regret that the editors were not able to include other analyses and studies by many talented researchers focusing on different geographical locations, different sources, and different concepts.¹³ However, this volume offers an invaluable collection of chapters that will be used as a starting point for further historical and critical research on the French emigration, as well as the literary innovations it generated.

1 Historiographical and Epistemological Revolutions on the Topic of the French Emigration

It could be argued that renewed scholarship on the emigration has grown out of attempts to expand its traditional chronological boundaries, which are usually set between the flight of Louis XVI’s brothers in summer 1789 and their final return in 1815. The end date has sometimes been prolonged to 1825, with the legislation on the milliard des émigrés . As for the phenomenon’s inception, some see Calonne as the first émigré malgré lui (reluctant) when he departed for London in 1787 after being accused of despotism.¹⁴ This is however highly contested. Taking into account the organic relation between emigration, counter-revolution, and counter-Enlightenment, we could even theorise that emigration, as an ideological phenomenon, predates the Revolution. Counter-revolution and counter-Enlightenment can be seen as ‘polysemous’ words,¹⁵ determined by a variety of discourses and personal agendas. Exiles and European counter-revolutionaries recuperated many of the counter-Enlightenment arguments, moderate and vindictive, while using enlightened rhetoric to their advantage. Most obviously, Edmund Burke’s Reflections was praised as a counter-revolutionary work by French counter-revolutionary advocates because it echoed counter-Enlightenment themes, whilst championing the idea that, unlike France, Britain had successfully ended its revolution and kept its monarch and ancestral traditions alive.¹⁶ Yet, the idea of an ‘Ancient constitution’, common to many counter-revolutionary discourses, can be associated to a will to reform. In that, counter-revolutionary declarations by émigrés should be seen in the continuation of previous discourses, enlightened and counter-enlightened.

The contestation of the chronology of emigration influenced (and was influenced by) a renewed perception of its geography. The hist...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• Part I. The Regional and National Challenges of the Emigration
• Part II. Reading the Emigration, Learning in Emigration and the Émigré Theatre
• Part III. Global Entanglements of Exile
• Part IV. The Return
• Back Matter