Rediscovering the French eighteenth century
pp. 102-123
in: Ceri Crossley, Ian Small (eds), Studies in Anglo-French cultural relations, Berlin, Springer, 1988Abstract
The Introduction to this volume suggested that the manner in which British culture assimilates or uses French culture is a complex process which cannot adequately be accounted for by the use of superficially attractive terms such as "influence' and "source'. A source can take on the dangerous prestige of a founding origin and a general designation of influences may acquire the allure of a controlling principle of explanation. It is more profitable to consider French culture as an external point of reference, as an instrument which allows the writing subject to define where he or she stands in relation to British culture. Awareness of the differentness of French culture can join with a sense of not being fully at home within the British tradition to produce a twofold movement of projection and recognition.1 Since the middle of the nineteenth century a number of different moments in the history of French culture have been presented to the British public as possessing particular value: the France of Villon; the civilization of Provence; Renaissance France; the cultured, aristocratic society of the eighteenth century. My concern in this essay lies with the last of these.2