I am a specialist of 19th-century France and cinema. My work has focused on urban culture in late 19th-century Paris, ruins, popular fiction, as well as crime genres in film.
ABSTRACT Criticism of Au Bonheur des Dames has traditionally framed the novel’s Darwinian dynamic... more ABSTRACT Criticism of Au Bonheur des Dames has traditionally framed the novel’s Darwinian dynamics in terms of socioeconomic natural selection. We explore another facet of Darwinism in the novel: sexual selection. The urban modernity of Au Bonheur des Dames belies Zola’s concern with deep time. We consider courtship and seduction in the novel in the context of nineteenth-century theories of evolution. Darwin’s The Descent of Man revised the theory of natural selection to account for aesthetics in mate selection. With its focus on fashion and mating, Au Bonheur is a laboratory for Zola’s ideas about competition and display in human coupling.
Inspired by a 1901 article in La Presse titled "Cyclisme Communard,&... more Inspired by a 1901 article in La Presse titled "Cyclisme Communard," we explore the significance of the velocipede and its cultural and historical connections to the Commune. The embodiment of freedom and mobility before the war, the velocipede came to be seen as out of place during the siege when riding could be considered an informal act of treason. We argue that the many journalistic, literary, and artistic representations of the velocipede mirror the cultural shifts brought about by the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune: from the enthusiasm of the late 1860s, to the fear at the beginning of the war, the despair of the siege, the sorrow during the aftermath, and the hope of a slow "rebirth."
Dans le cadre d’une analyse de l’image de Paris détruit, qui revient au cours de la Troisième Rép... more Dans le cadre d’une analyse de l’image de Paris détruit, qui revient au cours de la Troisième République, j’ai dû suivre des repères critiques qui ont façonné la ville du xixe siècle comme objet d’analyse. Walter Benjamin et Roger Caillois, entre autres, devaient servir de modèles critiques, m’aider à comprendre l’origine et le sens du mythe de Paris. Mais après un certain temps, des questions se sont imposées. Pourquoi l’idée de Paris au xixe siècle s’annonce-t-elle en tant que catégorie d’e..
The bitter memory of the Prussian siege of Paris in 1870 and the Commune of 1871 underwrite sever... more The bitter memory of the Prussian siege of Paris in 1870 and the Commune of 1871 underwrite several late nineteenth-century French novels. In the domain of popular literature, Jules Verne's Les 500 millions de la Be´gum of 1879 pits two opposing citiesone French and utopian, the other German and dystopian-against each other. Less than a simple representation of a French revenge against their Prussian enemies, however, the cities stand in for the troubling tendencies of urban modernity above and beyond nationalism. Moreover, the figure of Pompei, a model of urban catastrophe linked to the specter of the Paris Commune, lurks underneath the novel's progressive and hopeful surface.
Inspired by a 1901 article in La Presse titled "Cyclisme Communard," we explore... more Inspired by a 1901 article in La Presse titled "Cyclisme Communard," we explore the significance of the velocipede and its cultural and historical connections to the Commune. The embodiment of freedom and mobility before the war, the velocipede came to be seen as out of place during the siege when riding could be considered an informal act of treason. We argue that the many journalistic, literary, and artistic representations of the velocipede mirror the cultural shifts brought about by the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune: from the enthusiasm of the late 1860s, to the fear at the beginning of the war, the despair of the siege, the sorrow during the aftermath, and the hope of a slow "rebirth."
References to "picturesque ruins" and scenes frequently appear in accounts describing t... more References to "picturesque ruins" and scenes frequently appear in accounts describing the condition of Paris in 1871 in the aftermath of the civil conflict known as the Commune. Though ruins have often evoked poignancy for the way they trace the passage of time, the picturesque in this context frames the image of the devastated capital in a way that strips these ruined spaces of their immediate political resonance. The conservative recourse to the picturesque aesthetic is primarily ideological and not aesthetic in motivation, so that it encourages one to forget the violence that produced the ruins and the brutal reprisals against the Communards, while drowning itself in scenic pleasures and furthering the image of Paris as one of the great ruined capitals of history. ********** Pittoresque, adj. B.--Painting capable of producing a grand effect, by means of the contrast, the richness of the coloring. C.--1. Worthy of being painted, of providing subject matter to a painter, an engraver; by ext. that which pleases, charms or is striking by its beauty, color, originality. 2. Having an original aspect, a markedly colorful, exotic character. 3. Astonishing, surprising by its unusual and strange character; not lacking in flavor and piquancy. (1) Tresor de la langue francaise: dictionnaire de la langue du XIXe et du XXe siecle, 1789-1960 As soon as one could take stock of the disaster, as soon as it was possible to circulate freely in the streets and to see with one's own eyes how extensive the damages were, hearts were stopped, the imagination dumbfounded. Crowds of foreigners rushed to visit the ruins of Paris; it was a spectacle like any other.... From a picturesque point of view, nothing will be said of the strange and marvelous beauty that the work of [Communard] arsonists produced in certain places. Georges Bell, Paris incendie (138). This study assesses the meaning of the picturesque in nonfiction prose accounts of Paris after the 1871 revolution known as the Commune. In the wake of conflict that saw so much human and material loss in such a fiercely contested urban space, the capital could not have appeared further from the "picturesque" landscapes imagined by William Gilpin a century before. Nevertheless, despite Georges Bell's claim that "nothing [would] be said of the strange and marvelous beauty that the work of [Communard] arsonists produced in certain places," a ruinist picturesque had ubiquitous currency in the months after the Commune. On the one hand, I will try to show how recourse to the picturesque as a frame for imagining Paris in ruins diverted attention from the politics of the moment and thus became a strategy for bourgeois consciousness to reclaim the city from the radicalism of the Commune and to resituate the city's place in an historical continuum. Likewise, I underscore how the Commune ruins aesthetic pressured the picturesque to connote something other than scenes of tranquil nature. In finding itself in another context--urban, revolutionary, Baudelarian modernity--the picturesque not only maintained a strange etymological connection to painting and color, but also shifted in meaning, and the Commune ruin is the index for registering this differentiated usage. In order to provide their readers with a descriptive frame for understanding the ruins, writers used the picturesque to hark back to an inherited romantic discourse of ruins not entirely in alignment with the spirit and space of the times. Moreover, the particular urban pleasure the public located in the picturesque of Commune ruins in the midst of this political catastrophe is fraught with contradiction. To praise local color, to identify rustic or quaint features of a site of bloodshed, would clash with the immediate history. Two problematic ambivalences emerge from the analysis of the Commune ruins picturesque. (2) First, that it violated a pleasure principle central to the ruinist aesthetic in France in that it could not properly negotiate the relation between the violence committed against the urban entity during the Commune, the violent reprisals against the Communards, and the subsequent pleasure sought in the ruins--the picturesque tenuously depoliticizes the ruins. …
In the last few years, literary history and criticism have recognized the importance of the tradi... more In the last few years, literary history and criticism have recognized the importance of the tradition of galanterie in France during the seven-teenth century. The research first accounted for galanterie as a form of amorous sentiment, ' then it acknowledged that its scope as a literary ...
ABSTRACT Criticism of Au Bonheur des Dames has traditionally framed the novel’s Darwinian dynamic... more ABSTRACT Criticism of Au Bonheur des Dames has traditionally framed the novel’s Darwinian dynamics in terms of socioeconomic natural selection. We explore another facet of Darwinism in the novel: sexual selection. The urban modernity of Au Bonheur des Dames belies Zola’s concern with deep time. We consider courtship and seduction in the novel in the context of nineteenth-century theories of evolution. Darwin’s The Descent of Man revised the theory of natural selection to account for aesthetics in mate selection. With its focus on fashion and mating, Au Bonheur is a laboratory for Zola’s ideas about competition and display in human coupling.
Inspired by a 1901 article in La Presse titled "Cyclisme Communard,&... more Inspired by a 1901 article in La Presse titled "Cyclisme Communard," we explore the significance of the velocipede and its cultural and historical connections to the Commune. The embodiment of freedom and mobility before the war, the velocipede came to be seen as out of place during the siege when riding could be considered an informal act of treason. We argue that the many journalistic, literary, and artistic representations of the velocipede mirror the cultural shifts brought about by the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune: from the enthusiasm of the late 1860s, to the fear at the beginning of the war, the despair of the siege, the sorrow during the aftermath, and the hope of a slow "rebirth."
Dans le cadre d’une analyse de l’image de Paris détruit, qui revient au cours de la Troisième Rép... more Dans le cadre d’une analyse de l’image de Paris détruit, qui revient au cours de la Troisième République, j’ai dû suivre des repères critiques qui ont façonné la ville du xixe siècle comme objet d’analyse. Walter Benjamin et Roger Caillois, entre autres, devaient servir de modèles critiques, m’aider à comprendre l’origine et le sens du mythe de Paris. Mais après un certain temps, des questions se sont imposées. Pourquoi l’idée de Paris au xixe siècle s’annonce-t-elle en tant que catégorie d’e..
The bitter memory of the Prussian siege of Paris in 1870 and the Commune of 1871 underwrite sever... more The bitter memory of the Prussian siege of Paris in 1870 and the Commune of 1871 underwrite several late nineteenth-century French novels. In the domain of popular literature, Jules Verne's Les 500 millions de la Be´gum of 1879 pits two opposing citiesone French and utopian, the other German and dystopian-against each other. Less than a simple representation of a French revenge against their Prussian enemies, however, the cities stand in for the troubling tendencies of urban modernity above and beyond nationalism. Moreover, the figure of Pompei, a model of urban catastrophe linked to the specter of the Paris Commune, lurks underneath the novel's progressive and hopeful surface.
Inspired by a 1901 article in La Presse titled "Cyclisme Communard," we explore... more Inspired by a 1901 article in La Presse titled "Cyclisme Communard," we explore the significance of the velocipede and its cultural and historical connections to the Commune. The embodiment of freedom and mobility before the war, the velocipede came to be seen as out of place during the siege when riding could be considered an informal act of treason. We argue that the many journalistic, literary, and artistic representations of the velocipede mirror the cultural shifts brought about by the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune: from the enthusiasm of the late 1860s, to the fear at the beginning of the war, the despair of the siege, the sorrow during the aftermath, and the hope of a slow "rebirth."
References to "picturesque ruins" and scenes frequently appear in accounts describing t... more References to "picturesque ruins" and scenes frequently appear in accounts describing the condition of Paris in 1871 in the aftermath of the civil conflict known as the Commune. Though ruins have often evoked poignancy for the way they trace the passage of time, the picturesque in this context frames the image of the devastated capital in a way that strips these ruined spaces of their immediate political resonance. The conservative recourse to the picturesque aesthetic is primarily ideological and not aesthetic in motivation, so that it encourages one to forget the violence that produced the ruins and the brutal reprisals against the Communards, while drowning itself in scenic pleasures and furthering the image of Paris as one of the great ruined capitals of history. ********** Pittoresque, adj. B.--Painting capable of producing a grand effect, by means of the contrast, the richness of the coloring. C.--1. Worthy of being painted, of providing subject matter to a painter, an engraver; by ext. that which pleases, charms or is striking by its beauty, color, originality. 2. Having an original aspect, a markedly colorful, exotic character. 3. Astonishing, surprising by its unusual and strange character; not lacking in flavor and piquancy. (1) Tresor de la langue francaise: dictionnaire de la langue du XIXe et du XXe siecle, 1789-1960 As soon as one could take stock of the disaster, as soon as it was possible to circulate freely in the streets and to see with one's own eyes how extensive the damages were, hearts were stopped, the imagination dumbfounded. Crowds of foreigners rushed to visit the ruins of Paris; it was a spectacle like any other.... From a picturesque point of view, nothing will be said of the strange and marvelous beauty that the work of [Communard] arsonists produced in certain places. Georges Bell, Paris incendie (138). This study assesses the meaning of the picturesque in nonfiction prose accounts of Paris after the 1871 revolution known as the Commune. In the wake of conflict that saw so much human and material loss in such a fiercely contested urban space, the capital could not have appeared further from the "picturesque" landscapes imagined by William Gilpin a century before. Nevertheless, despite Georges Bell's claim that "nothing [would] be said of the strange and marvelous beauty that the work of [Communard] arsonists produced in certain places," a ruinist picturesque had ubiquitous currency in the months after the Commune. On the one hand, I will try to show how recourse to the picturesque as a frame for imagining Paris in ruins diverted attention from the politics of the moment and thus became a strategy for bourgeois consciousness to reclaim the city from the radicalism of the Commune and to resituate the city's place in an historical continuum. Likewise, I underscore how the Commune ruins aesthetic pressured the picturesque to connote something other than scenes of tranquil nature. In finding itself in another context--urban, revolutionary, Baudelarian modernity--the picturesque not only maintained a strange etymological connection to painting and color, but also shifted in meaning, and the Commune ruin is the index for registering this differentiated usage. In order to provide their readers with a descriptive frame for understanding the ruins, writers used the picturesque to hark back to an inherited romantic discourse of ruins not entirely in alignment with the spirit and space of the times. Moreover, the particular urban pleasure the public located in the picturesque of Commune ruins in the midst of this political catastrophe is fraught with contradiction. To praise local color, to identify rustic or quaint features of a site of bloodshed, would clash with the immediate history. Two problematic ambivalences emerge from the analysis of the Commune ruins picturesque. (2) First, that it violated a pleasure principle central to the ruinist aesthetic in France in that it could not properly negotiate the relation between the violence committed against the urban entity during the Commune, the violent reprisals against the Communards, and the subsequent pleasure sought in the ruins--the picturesque tenuously depoliticizes the ruins. …
In the last few years, literary history and criticism have recognized the importance of the tradi... more In the last few years, literary history and criticism have recognized the importance of the tradition of galanterie in France during the seven-teenth century. The research first accounted for galanterie as a form of amorous sentiment, ' then it acknowledged that its scope as a literary ...
Marianne Meets the Mormons: Representations of Mormonism in Nineteenth-Century France, 2022
In the nineteenth century, a fascination with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mad... more In the nineteenth century, a fascination with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made Mormons and Mormonism a common trope in French journalism, art, literature, politics, and popular culture. Heather Belnap, Corry Cropper, and Daryl Lee bring to light French representations of Mormonism from the 1830s to 1914, arguing that these portrayals often critiqued and parodied French society. Mormonism became a pretext for reconsidering issues such as gender, colonialism, the family, and church-state relations while providing artists and authors with a means for working through the possibilities of their own evolving national identity.
Surprising and innovative, Marianne Meets the Mormons looks at how nineteenth-century French observers engaged with the idea of Mormonism in order to reframe their own cultural preoccupations.
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Papers by Daryl Lee
Surprising and innovative, Marianne Meets the Mormons looks at how nineteenth-century French observers engaged with the idea of Mormonism in order to reframe their own cultural preoccupations.