“Napoleon Theme” in French Poetry of 1810-1840-ies: Attitudes, Genres, Motives

Abstract

The works devoted to Napoleon I, as well as the works of French poetry, created in the era of Restoration and subsequent decades (up to the middle of the 19th century), which touched upon his personality, are considered. Along with the analysis of the image of the Emperor, special attention is paid to the poetics of the “Napoleonic theme” texts which has not yet been studied within the boundaries of the declared theme. The author of the article pursues two goals: firstly, he observes and describes how French poetry coped with the task of free understanding of Napoleon I’s personality (in the Imperial era there was an ideological task in describing the Emperor), and secondly, he shows that the poetological parameters, regardless of the author’s aspirations, have a partial influence on the existing in the national consciousness ideas about the ruler of the First Empire. It is noted that a deliberate (ambivalent) assessment of the activities of Napoleon was carried out within the boundaries of elegiac-odic discourse, and the first of these elements was represented mainly by a sad elegy, and in the odic part the preference was given to such genre as philosophical ode. The most representative texts of the theme belonging both to the greatest poets of the era (Casimir Delavigne, Alphonse de Lamartine, Victor Hugo) and little-known poets, including anonymous ones, are presented.

Keywords

• french poetry
• poetic genres of “napoleon theme”
• ode of praise
• philosophical ode
• sad elegy
• philippic