University of Warwick

Graduate Student, French Studies

Thesis Title: Revolutionary Prints as Spectacle

About

This PhD, undertaken at the University of Warwick, aspires to investigate the notion of spectacle and theatricality within the visual culture of the French Revolution. The aim of the thesis is to not reduce prints to simple historical witnesses or illustrations conveniently presented to suit an argument. Instead, it is a study of the metaphors used in the prints, a method that sheds new light on the links that exist between theatre, politics and visual culture during the French Revolution.

My first chapter deals with the notion of performability in prints, and in particular the relationships between lyrics and images, and between the spectator and the print. The second chapter explores the role of the carnivalesque in the construction of the Fête de la Fédération of 1790, as well as in prints employing Commedia dell’Arte characters to comment on politics. It hopes to demonstrate similarities between the carnivalesque in Revolutionary events as well as its use in the imaginary space. The third chapter investigates the spectacle of science and the connection Revolutionary politics had with new inventions. What the prints have in common too is a preoccupation with the idea of illusion, not just as a negative act of deception but as a creative and potentially empowering process, allowing the viewer to see beyond reality into a brighter future.  Finally, the fourth and last chapter uses theories of hauntology to comment on Revolutionary prints and plays depicting deceased characters in heaven, hell, and haunting the living. A term often used in the title of these works, ‘ombre’, suggests that depictions of the afterlife were deeply entrenched with the interplay of light and darkness. I therefore explore how these  depictions of an imaginary world are linked to the fad for shadow plays (introduced by Seraphin to the general public in 1784) as well as the technical advances that allowed for greater subtlety in shading the stage.

The Institution: Part of this PhD involves cataloguing a collection of 500 Revolutionary prints held at Waddesdon Manor in four volumes called Tableaux de la Révolution française. The cataloguing is in collaboration with Paul Davidson, a PhD student from Queen Mary's, University of London. My research is based on these volumes as well as the larger collections held in Parisian libraries. In April 2011, an exhibition, 'A Subversive Art: Prints of the French Revolution', curated by Paul Davidson and I based on these volumes opened to the public. You can book tickets to visit Waddesdon Manor and find out more about the exhibition on their website (http://www.waddesdon.org.uk/plan_your_visit/exhibitions_house_french_revolution.html).

I also write poetry, edit a reviews website and regularly post reviews of contemporary poetry publications online (see papers for some examples).

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