‘Un mélange perpétuel de biens et de maux’: loss, longing, and narrative in the early modern Huguenot refugee memoir
This thesis examines through a literary lens four early modern French texts that have heretofore largely been treated from a historiographical perspective. It aims to establish that Huguenot refugee memoirs are material objects meant to make specific contributions in the world; as such, the question...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English French |
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2024
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| Summary: | This thesis examines through a literary lens four early modern French texts that have heretofore largely been treated from a historiographical perspective. It aims to establish that Huguenot refugee memoirs are material objects meant to make specific contributions in the world; as such, the question underpinning the study of each of my selected texts is: ‘what does it do?’ The introduction presents the account of Isaac Dumont de Bostaquet (1632–1709) as emblematic of this particular memoir moment: exiled from his homeland, Dumont writes an intentionally exemplary narrative of loss and consolation that delineates micro-communities of readers, even as it seeks to replace lost documentation. Dumont’s relation serves, in my thesis, to illustrate that these Huguenot stories have both rhetorical and practical purposes. Each chapter then offers a counter-example; that is, while each presents a certain model of writing as form of action, the texts explored in Chapters One to Three differ significantly in function. Chapter One further explores the memoir as a set of identification papers by re-evaluating the work of Jean Marteilhe (1684–1777), a Huguenot and one-time galley slave, with particular attention to the significance of paper in his tale. Chapter Two elaborates the significance of family in the Huguenot diaspora through the narrative of Jacques Fontaine (1658–1728), minister and Jack-of-all-trades, who incorporates within his writing a covenantal agreement meant to unite his family despite physical distance. His text serves to highlight the role of the family in the writing, preservation, publication, and dissemination of accounts within the memoir genre. Chapter Three focuses on the construction of the (anglophone) character of the ‘French Refugee’ through the richly literary retelling of the experiences of Durand de Dauphiné (dates unknown). Exploring English- and French-language recruitment literature generated by British colonial landholders, literature of which Durand’s text is both a product and an example, we discover a memoir which constructs a vision of a new world, brimming with opportunities, yet which never quite leaves behind dreams of return to the homeland. My findings lead me to conclude that an understanding of early modern French narrative traditions and innovations, literatures and perspectives is incomplete without an appreciation of Huguenot refugee memoirs. More needs to be done to make these valuable accounts accessible. These important voices deserve to be heard by new audiences: it is a literature for our own times. |
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