New translations of Persian literature into French, the invention of the Aryan myth, increased travel between France and Iran, and the unveiling of artefacts from ancient Susa at the Louvre Museum are among the factors that radically altered France's perception of Iran during the long nineteenth century. And this is reflected in the literary culture of the period. In an ambitious study spanning poetry, historiography, fiction, travel-writing, ballet, opera, and marionette theatre, Julia Hartley reveals the unique place that Iran held in the French literary imagination between 1829 and 1912. Iran's history and culture remained a constant source of inspiration across different generations and artistic movements, from the 'Oriental' poems of Victor Hugo to those of Anna de Noailles and Theophile Gautier's strategic citation of Persian poetry to his daughter Judith Gautier's full-blown rewriting of a Persian epic. Writing about Iran could also serve to articulate new visions of world history and religion, as was the case in the intellectual debates that took place between Michelet, Renan, and Al-Afghani. Alternatively joyous, as in Felicien David's opera Lalla Roukh, and ominous, as in Massenet's Le Mage, Iran elicited a multiplicity of treatments. This is most obvious in the travelogues of Flandin, Gobineau, Loti, Jane Dieulafoy, and Marthe Bibesco, which describe the same cities and cultural practices in altogether different ways. Under these writers' pens, Iran emerges as both an Oriental other and an alter ego, its culture elevated above that of all other Muslim nations. At times this led French writers to critique notions of European superiority. But at others, they appropriated Iran as proto-European through racialist narratives that reinforced Orientalist stereotypes. Drawing on theories of Orientalism and cultural difference, this book navigates both sides of this fascinating and complex literary history. It is the first major study on the subject.
Show moreNew translations of Persian literature into French, the invention of the Aryan myth, increased travel between France and Iran, and the unveiling of artefacts from ancient Susa at the Louvre Museum are among the factors that radically altered France's perception of Iran during the long nineteenth century. And this is reflected in the literary culture of the period. In an ambitious study spanning poetry, historiography, fiction, travel-writing, ballet, opera, and marionette theatre, Julia Hartley reveals the unique place that Iran held in the French literary imagination between 1829 and 1912. Iran's history and culture remained a constant source of inspiration across different generations and artistic movements, from the 'Oriental' poems of Victor Hugo to those of Anna de Noailles and Theophile Gautier's strategic citation of Persian poetry to his daughter Judith Gautier's full-blown rewriting of a Persian epic. Writing about Iran could also serve to articulate new visions of world history and religion, as was the case in the intellectual debates that took place between Michelet, Renan, and Al-Afghani. Alternatively joyous, as in Felicien David's opera Lalla Roukh, and ominous, as in Massenet's Le Mage, Iran elicited a multiplicity of treatments. This is most obvious in the travelogues of Flandin, Gobineau, Loti, Jane Dieulafoy, and Marthe Bibesco, which describe the same cities and cultural practices in altogether different ways. Under these writers' pens, Iran emerges as both an Oriental other and an alter ego, its culture elevated above that of all other Muslim nations. At times this led French writers to critique notions of European superiority. But at others, they appropriated Iran as proto-European through racialist narratives that reinforced Orientalist stereotypes. Drawing on theories of Orientalism and cultural difference, this book navigates both sides of this fascinating and complex literary history. It is the first major study on the subject.
Show moreIntroduction
Iran in Nineteenth-Century France: Competing Narratives
Iran and Orientalism
Beyond the Paradigm of Difference
The Politics of Genre
Chapter 1: Poetry
Translation and Poetic Innovation
From Paris to ‘Persia’ and Back Again (Hugo, Théophile Gautier,
Noailles)
Persian Poems Made in France (Renaud, Lahor/Cazalis)
Intertextuality and Universalism: The Case of ‘Les Roses de Saadi’
(Desbordes-Valmore)
Conclusion
Chapter 2: History and Historical Fiction
Rewriting Human History
‘Nos parents, les Aryas’ (Arthur de Gobineau, Ernest Renan, Jules
Michelet)
The Persian Alexander: Hybridity and Queer (Anti-)Imperialism
(Judith Gautier)
Ancient History? Iran as Mirror for French Feminism (Jane
Dieulafoy)
Conclusion
Chapter 3: Travel-Writing
‘Tout chemin ne conduit pas en Perse’
Defining the Persians
Among Women: Scenes from the Harem
Understanding Shiism
‘Esfahan, Nesf-e Jahan’
Remembering ‘the Great of the Earth’
Plagued by the West
Books versus Reality
Conclusion
Chapter 4: Performing Arts
Orientalism and the Stage
A Tale of Two Peris : Iran, the Imaginary Orient, and Ballet
(Théophile Gautier, Paul Dukas)
Of Poets, Prophets, and Kings: French Opera’s love affair with
Iranian men (Lalla Roukh, Le Mage, and Thamara)
A Puppet Play about Omar Khayyam (Maurice Bouchor)
Rebuilding Susa: Jane Dieulafoy and Camille Saint-Saëns’s
‘Parysatis’ (1902)
Conclusion
Conclusion
The first study of the reception of Iranian culture, history, and literature in 19th -century France, including lyric poetry, history and historical fiction, travel-writing and the performing arts.
Julia Hartley is a Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Glasgow. She was previously Laming Fellow at the Queen’s College Oxford and Edward W. Said Visiting Fellow at Columbia University. She is the author of Reading Dante and Proust by Analogy (2019) and peer-reviewed articles in Iranian Studies and Nineteenth-Century French Studies.
Clever, exciting, timely: Julia Hartley’s wonderful book completely
reinvents the way we think about Iran and France. By revealing the
vast array of devices, ideas, styles, and writing that are all too
often dismissed as mere “Orientalism “, she demonstrates Iran’s
exemplary place at the heart of nineteenth century literary,
historical, musical, and cultural production. She takes us on
marvelous trajectories that show how Oriental themes are good to
think with in the strong literary sense, and that figures as varied
as Hugo, Gautier, Michelet, Dieulafoy, Dukas, and Bibesco aren’t
just responding to or participating in imperialism; they are also
reckoning with Iran’s rich literary heritage and each other.
*Ziad Elmarsafy, Professor, University of St Andrews, UK*
Hartley’s new book makes a resounding case for the specificity of
Iran as perceived and instrumentalised within nineteenth-century
French discourse. Written in an elegantly lucid style, this is an
important contribution to French transcultural studies that
significantly nuances any notion of a monolithic Orientalism.
*Jennifer Yee, Professor, University of Oxford, UK*
[The] work is a thought-provoking read with a lot of important
material and does much to open up the study of Orientalism to new
sources and perspectives.
*French Studies Journal*
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