The Duchesse d'Elbeuf's Letters to a Friend, 1788-94

埃尔伯夫公爵夫人给朋友的信，1788-94 年

• 批准号: AH/R013292/1
• 负责人: Colin Jones
• 金额: $ 34.05万
• 依托单位: Queen Mary University of London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FR013292%2F1
• 关键词: Duchesse; Elbeuf; Letters; Friend; 1788

The French Revolution has always occupied a place of choice within general anglophone culture as well as among the historical community. From Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution (1837), Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities (1859) and the Baroness d'Orczy's Scarlet Pimpernel series (from 1903) through, more recently, to TV, film and other media - such as the controversial 2015 Assassin's Creed video-game - particular interest has focussed on the personal experience of the Revolution by ordinary people. This Project introduces into discussions and debates a character who could have walked straight out of a Dickens or d'Orczy novel: the dowager duchesse d'Elbeuf (1707-94). A completely unknown set of six notebooks in her hand in the form of letters to a friend, discovered by Colin Jones in the Archives Nationales in Paris, provide a running commentary on France's Revolution from late 1788 through to the violent turmoil of the Terror of 1793-94. They are remarkable not only for being written from the perspective of a woman of high aristocratic status articulating overtly Counter-Revolutionary views, but also for having been composed largely at her Parisian home, the Hôtel d'Elbeuf, situated a matter of yards from the authorities running France from the Tuileries Palace complex. Above all, they are of interest as a unique critical commentary from the heart of Revolutionary Paris on the daily development of the Revolution, and especially the Terror, written at a period when politically unorthodox or Counter-Revolutionary views were increasingly being silenced - and when such statements could lead their authors to the guillotine. The project aims to bring this extraordinary document into scholarly discussion of the Revolution and making it widely known among the general public. The first task is to provide a full transcription of the Letters: they will be published in entirety in French as a scholarly edition and select passages will also made available in English translation on an open-access online site. This effort will combine an investigation of the circumstances in which the Letters were composed, and how the manuscripts survived, with reconstructing the author's biography, and a study of the authorial voice and commentary which emerges from the text. The Project team will then seek to diffuse knowledge of the Letters as broadly as possible so as to stimulate interest in their content and what they reveal about the French Revolution. The scholarly community will be targeted via seminars, lectures, conference talks and articles in peer-reviewed journals (besides making the Letters readily available for the first time). The team will also hope to stimulate interdisciplinary reflection on the Letters and on the Revolution more generally, notably by an international conference on the theme, 'Historical Witnessing', targeted at a literary as well as a historical audience. In addition, the Project will seek to stimulate interest in and discussion of the French Revolution among the general public and in particular among trainee historians, undergraduates and A-Level students. This will be achieved notably through an exhibition to be co-curated with the Art Museum at University College London; by making a selection of letters in English translation available on the Project website; by an H-France 'Webinar' aimed at graduate students; and by a conference aimed at A-Level teachers and students. The Blog will facilitate conversations spanning all audiences and provide a hub for promoting Project outputs. Articles placed in history trade journals such as History Today as a starting point for developing wider impact through the media. Finally, the project will enhance the development of two scholars of the French Revolution - the Co-Investigator and the Postdoctoral Research Assistant attached to the project - both at an early stage in their careers.

法国大革命在英语文化和历史共同体中一直占有一席之地。从托马斯卡莱尔的《法国大革命》（1837年）、查尔斯狄更斯的《双城记》（1859年）和奥奇男爵夫人的《红花侠》系列（1903年），到最近的电视、电影和其他媒体--比如备受争议的2015年《刺客信条》视频游戏--人们的兴趣都集中在普通人对革命的亲身体验上。这个项目在讨论和辩论中引入了一个人物，这个人物可能直接从狄更斯或德奥奇的小说中走出来：埃尔伯夫公爵夫人（1707- 1794）。科林·琼斯（Colin Jones）在巴黎的国家档案馆（Archives Nationales）中发现了一套完全不为人知的笔记本，共六本，以给朋友的信件的形式出现在她手中，提供了从1788年末到1793-94年恐怖时期暴力动荡的法国革命的连续评论。这两部小说的非凡之处不仅在于它是从一个拥有崇高贵族地位的女性的角度写出来的，她公开表达了反革命的观点，而且还在于它主要是在她位于巴黎的家中--埃尔伯夫酒店（Hôtel d 'Elbeuf）--创作的，这家酒店距离杜伊勒里宫（Tuileries Palace）建筑群所在的法国政府只有几码之遥。最重要的是，这是一部来自革命巴黎中心的独特评论，对革命的日常发展，特别是恐怖时期的评论，写在一个政治上非正统或反革命的观点越来越被压制的时期--当这种言论可能导致作者被送上断头台的时候。该项目旨在将这份非凡的文件纳入对革命的学术讨论，并使其在公众中广为人知。第一项任务是提供《信函》的全文誊本：《信函》全文将以法文作为学术版出版，部分段落还将在一个开放的在线网站上提供英文译本。这一努力将联合收割机调查的情况下组成的信件，以及如何保存下来的手稿，重建作者的传记，并研究作者的声音和评论，其中出现的文本。然后，项目团队将尽可能广泛地传播这些信件的知识，以激发人们对它们的内容以及它们所揭示的法国大革命的兴趣。学术界将通过研讨会、讲座、会议演讲和同行评审期刊上的文章（除了首次提供这些信件）成为目标。该小组还希望激发对信件和更广泛的革命的跨学科思考，特别是通过主题为“历史见证”的国际会议，针对文学和历史观众。此外，该项目将寻求激发公众对法国大革命的兴趣和讨论，特别是在实习历史学家，本科生和A-Level学生中。这将通过与伦敦大学学院艺术博物馆联合策划的展览来实现;通过在项目网站上提供精选的英文翻译信件;通过H-France针对研究生的“网络研讨会”;以及针对A-Level教师和学生的会议。该博客将促进所有受众之间的对话，并为促进项目产出提供一个中心。发表在历史行业期刊上的文章，如《今日历史》，作为通过媒体产生更广泛影响的起点。最后，该项目将促进两位法国大革命学者的发展-该项目的共同研究员和博士后研究助理-他们都处于职业生涯的早期阶段。