The Memory of the Fronde in the Age of Louis XIV (1653-1715)

一旦战争结束，我们如何看待内战？记忆在向和平过渡和形成国家认同方面的作用是什么？最近许多内战的不确定和麻烦的后果提醒我们今天这些问题是多么重要。随着人们对这类问题的兴趣与日俱增，近年来，记忆研究已经发展成为一个蓬勃发展的研究领域，但到目前为止，人们对早期现代记忆过程的关注很少，我的项目认为，这一过程对我们今天具有智力、文化和社会价值。在这种背景下，我的项目集中在17世纪中期内战的余波，这场内战发生在路易十四统治时期。这是法国大革命前旧政权的最后一次动乱，这些战争使贵族、议会和人民与宫廷对立。毫无疑问，正是为了应对这些麻烦，国王随后建立了一个威权专制君主制，在这个专制君主制中，对前线的记忆受到了严格审查的挑战。然而，国王的决定并没有将冲突从历史中抹去：历史学家、剧作家和小说家继续反映、歪曲和再现前线的事件，从而有助于形成对战争的集体记忆。今天的历史学家压倒性地忽视了前线在麻烦之后被写和重写的方式，似乎是在赋予路易十四这一最后的胜利。因此，我的项目解决了重新评估正面记忆的重要性的必要性。我的研究将着眼于重写前线的历史和小说作品，以及它们与宣传、政治思想和历史哲学的关系。在第一个领域，该项目将探索许多被研究的作者使用的各种策略，以挑战审查制度，传达对政权的批评，并解构路易十四宣传所阐述的伟大统治的形象。此外，该项目将审查所研究的作品中有多少对最佳政府形式提出了激进的思考，从而在文艺复兴时期的政治思想和启蒙运动之间提供了联系，这一联系迄今被忽视。最后，许多被研究的作品也用正面来质疑历史教训我们的能力：它们形成了一个未被充分研究的因素，解释了与法国新古典主义文学相关的怀疑主义。此外，所研究的作品还揭示了历史观的转变，通常反对由古代启发的对政治时间的周期性表示，而反对由基督教启发的线性历史观；然而，在一个日益世俗化的时期，像前线这样的内战越来越被视为仅仅是人类行为的结果，并被当时新兴的利己主义概念解释。通过展示对前线的记忆在政治思想和历史哲学的演变中发挥关键作用，我的项目将对早期现代法国的研究做出原创性的贡献。为了寻求文学史、历史学和记忆研究方法的交叉授粉，该项目还促进了一种原创方法，一种可以应用于法语研究以外的其他领域的方法，正如我的书的结论和一篇讨论该项目所用方法的文章所示。有鉴于此，我将组织一次关于早期现代欧洲冲突后记忆的会议，旨在促进一种跨学科的横向方法，并与今天能够影响冲突后政策的利益攸关方以及与普通公众进行对话。为了吸引学术界以外的更广泛的受众，还将在当地学校组织研讨会，鼓励对内战记忆和历史写作的批判性思考。

What do we make of civil wars once the fighting is over? What is the role of memory in the transition to peace and the shaping of national identity? The uncertain and troubled aftermath of many recent civil wars reminds us today just how important these questions are. In response to a growing interest in such issues, memory studies have developed into a flourishing field of research in recent years, yet little attention has been paid so far to early modern remembering processes, which, my project argues, have intellectual, cultural and social values for us today.In this context, my project concentrates on the aftermath of the mid-seventeenth-century civil wars known as the Fronde ('Sling') (1648-53), which took place during the minority of Louis XIV. The last upheaval of the Ancien Regime before the French Revolution, these wars brought the aristocracy, the parliaments and the people into opposition with the court. There is no doubt that it was in reaction to these troubles that the king subsequently engineered an authoritarian absolute monarchy in which the memory of the Fronde was challenged by strict censorship. Yet, the conflict was not erased from history by decision of the king: historians, playwrights and novelists continued to reflect, distort and re-create the events of the Fronde, thereby contributing to the shaping of a collective memory of the wars. By overwhelmingly ignoring the ways in which the Fronde was written and rewritten after the troubles, today's historians seem to award Louis XIV this final victory. My project thus addresses the need to reassess the significance of the memory of the Fronde. My research will look at works of history and fiction rewriting the Fronde and their relationship to propaganda, political thought and the philosophy of history. In the first area, the project will explore the various strategies used by many of the authors studied to defy censorship, convey criticism of the regime and deconstruct the image of a great reign elaborated by Louis XIV's propaganda. In addition, the project will examine how many of the works studied offer radical reflections on the best form of government, thus providing a link between Renaissance political thought and that of the Enlightenment, a link which has hitherto been overlooked. Finally, many of the works studied also use the Fronde to call into question the capacity of history to teach us lessons: they form an understudied factor accounting for the scepticism associated with neo-classical French literature. Moreover, the works studied also reveal shifting conceptions of history, often opposing a cyclical representation of political time inspired by Antiquity to a linear vision of history inspired by Christianity; however, in a period of increasing secularisation, civil wars like the Fronde are increasingly seen as resulting merely from human actions and explained by the then emerging notion of self-interest. In showing that the memory of the Fronde has a key part to play in the evolution of political thought and the philosophy of history, my project will make an original contribution to the study of early-modern France. Seeking a cross-pollination of approaches developed by literary history, historiography and memory studies, the project also promotes an original methodology, one which can be applied to other areas beyond French studies, as the conclusion to my book and an article discussing the methods used in this project will show. With this in mind, I will organise a conference on post-conflict memory in early modern Europe aimed at fostering a transversal approach across disciplines and a dialogue with stakeholders who can influence post-conflict policies today as well as with members of the general public. In order to engage a wider audience beyond academia, workshops in local schools will also be organised to encourage critical thinking on the remembrance of civil wars and the writing of history.