Monuments, Mourning and Masculinity in France after World War I

Gender and History

Volumn 8, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 82-107

  Sherman, Daniel J ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0037946622     PISSN: 09535233     EISSN: 14680424     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0424.1996.tb00225.x     Document Type: Article

References (102)

1. M. Perrot, 'PrCfacé, in Francoise ThPbaud, La femme au temps de la guerre de 14 (StocWLaurence Pernoud, Paris, 1986).
2. See Daniel J. Sherman, 'Art, Commerce, and the Production of Memory in France after World War 1', in Commémorations: The Politics of National Identity, ed. John Cillis (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1994), p. 199 and notes 48-9
3. Antoine Prost, Les anciens combattants et la soci6t6 frangaise 1914-1939, 3 vols (Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Paris, 1977), vol. 3, p. 42.
4. For some examples, see Annette Becker, Les monuments aux morts: Patrimoine et memoire de la Grande Guerre (Errance, Paris, n.d. I1 9881), pp. 59-64, 73-7.
5. 'Mourning and Melancholia', in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological WoRés of Sigmund Freud, tr. James Strachey, vol. 14 (Hogarth Press, London, 1957). p. 243.
6. For some instances of the recurrence of memory in French political discourse in this period, see D. J. Sherman, 'The Nation: In What Community? The Politics of Commemoration in Interwar Francé, in ldeas and Ideals: Essays on Politics in Honor of Stanley Hoffman, ed. Linda 6. Miller and Michael Joseph Smith (Westview Press, Boulder, 1993), pp. 279-80.
7. Joan W. Scott, 'The Evidence of Experiencé, in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, ed. Henry Abelove, MichPle Aina Barale, and David M. Halperin (Routledge, New YoRé, 1993), pp. 397-415.
8. This is a paraphrase of Henry Rousso's observation that even at the social level, 'la mernoire se révèle souvent comme une organisation de I'oubli'. See his Le syndrome de Vichy, 1944-198 .. (Seuil, Paris, 1987), p. 21
9. Philippe Contamine, 'Mourir pour la patrié, in Les lieux de memoire, ed. Pierre Nora, 3 vols, vol. 2: La nation (Gallimard, Paris, 1986), book 2, pp. 34-41.
10. Elaine Showalter, 'Rivers and Sassoon: The Inscription of Male Gender Anxieties', pp. 61-9
11. Sandra M. Gilbert, 'Soldier's Heart: Literary Men, Literary Women, and the Great War', pp. 197-226, both in Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars, ed. Margaret R. Higonnet et al. (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1987)
12. Francoise Thebaud, 'La grande guerre: La triornphe de la division sexuellé, in Histoire des femmes en Occident, vol. 5: Le XXe siecle, ed. Thebaud (Plon, Paris, 1992), p. 45.
13. Mathilde Dubesset, Francoise Thebaud and Catherine Vincent, 'The Female Munitions WoRéers of the Seiné, in The French Home Front 14/4-1918, ed. Patrick Fridenson (Berg, Providence, 1992
14. see also Charles Rearick, 'Madelon and the Men-in War and Memory', French Historical Studies, 17 (1 991 -92), p. 101 5.
15. Mary Louise Roberts, Civilization without Sexes: Reconstructing Gender in Postwar France, 1917-3923 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1994), pp. 19-45, citation from p. 24.
16. See also Gilbert, 'Soldier's Heart', and Susan Kingsley Kent, Making Peace: The Reconstruction of Gender in Interwar Britain (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1993).
17. Roland Dorgeles, Les Croix de Bois (1 91 9), Le Livre de Poche ed. (Albin Michel, Paris, n.d.), pp. 112, 2814.
18. On male bonding and nostalgia, see, for example, Eric J. Leed, No Man's Land: Combat and Identity in World War I (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979), pp. 193-204
19. Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau, 74-18: Les combattants des tranch6es, Chistoire par la presse (Armand Colin, Paris, 1986), pp. 47-56
20. Prost, Les ancien cornbattants, vol. 3, pp. 24-33. On the homoerotic dimensions of the war, see George L. Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality: Respectability and Abnormal Sexuality in Modern Europe (Howard Fertig, New YoRé, 19851, pp. 1 14-32
21. see George L. Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality: Respectability and Abnormal Sexuality in Modern Europe (Howard Fertig, New YoRé, 19851, pp. 1 14-32
22. for the term 'homosocial' see Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire (Columbia University Press, New YoRé, 1985).
23. On the mutinies see Leonard V. Smith, Between Mutiny and Obedience: The Case of the French Fifth Infantry Division during World War l (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1994), pp. 189-90.
24. Jane Tompkins, Sensational Designs: The Cultural WoRé of American Fiction, 1790-1860 (Oxford University Press, New YoRé, 19861, p. xi, xvii, 135, 200.
25. Steven C. Hause with Anne R. Kenney, Women's Suffrage and Social Politics in the French Third Republic (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1984), pp. 191 -254
26. James F. McMillan, Housewife or Harlot: The Place of Women in French Society 1870-1940 (St. Martin's, New YoRé, 1981 ), pp. 101 -92
27. Thebaud, 'La grande guerré, pp. 31 -56; Roberts, Civilization without Sexes.
28. Mary Poovey, Uneven Developments: The ideological WoRé of Gender in Mid- Victorian England (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1988), p. 2.
29. The original five volumes were Sous Verdun (1916), Nuits de guerre (1917), Au seuil des guitounes (1918), La Boue (1921), and Les Eparges (1923). The title Au seuil des guitounes was suppressed from the definitive one-volume edition of Ceux de 74 (Hammarion, Paris, 1950) and the material it contained redistributed among the other four novels. On the accuracy of Genevoix's woRé see Jean Norton Cru, Ternoins: Essai danalyse et de critique des souvenirs de combattants edites en franpise de 1975 à 7928 (Les Etincelles, Paris, 1929; reprint ed. Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 1993), pp. 144-54.
30. Maurice Genevoix, La joie (Hammarion, Paris, 1924).
31. Genevoix writes of the two opposing veterans' groups in the village, the 'Combattants' and the 'Mutilés' (p. 159): 'Adrianne etait des deux sociétés, et pour cette raison "ma1 vu" de I'une et de I'autre. L'aurait-il essayé, iI n'aurait pu choisir: malgre les durs combats ou i I avait risque sa vie, i I Ctait un mauvais "combattant" d'Aprés-guerre; rnalgre son pied broye, il n'était pas un vrai "mutile".' (Andrianne belonged to both associations, and for that reason was in good odor in neither. Even had he tried, he would not have been able to choose: despite the fierce battles in which he had risked his life, he was a poor post-war 'Combatant'; despite his smashed foot, he was not truly one of the 'disabled'.) Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from the French are the author's.
32. See Prost, Les anciens combattants, vol. 3, pp. 124-51.
33. Annelise Maugue, L'identite masculine en crise au tournant du siPcle, 1877-1974 (Rivages, Paris, 1987).
34. Genevoix, Lajoie, pp. 237, 250.
35. Genevoix, La joie, p. 265.
36. Genevoix, La joie, pp. 222, 207.
37. Roberts, Civilization without Sexes, pp. 37-8.
38. Genevoix, La joie, p. 186.
39. Genevoix, La joie, p. 282.
40. Genevoix, La joie, pp. 171, 271-2.
41. On lirninality, see Leed, No Man's Land, pp. 12-33.
42. On the importance of this theme in war literature, see Roberts, Civilization without Sexes, p. 3 1 .
43. 'Le jardin des Arnes', Petit echo de la mode, 2 February 191 9, p. 2
44. 'Le jardin des Ames: Bonheur nouveau', Petit echo de la mode, 23 March 1919, p. 2
45. 'Leur retour au foyer', La mode illustree, 15 June 191 9, p. 1.
46. 'Le jardin des Arnes: Aux foyers dkvastes', Petit echo de la mode, 26 January 191 9, p. 2
47. 'Pour ceux qui ont cornbattu', La mode illustree, 4 May 191 9, p. 155
48. 'Le jardin des Ames: Mariage des mutiles', Pefit echo de la mode, 6 April 191 9, p. 2.
49. 'Le jardin des Ames', Petit echo de la Mode, 9 February 1919, p. 2
50. 'Faut-il donner une carriPre i nos filles', La mode illustrée, 16 March 191 9, p. 91
51. 'Le jardin des Ames: Les remplaqants', Petit echo de la mode, 19 October 191 9, p. 3.
52. 'Le jardin des Ames', Petit echo de la mode, 16 February 191 9, p. 2
53. 'Le jardin des Ames: Vers la paix', Petit echo de la mode, 13 April 1919, p. 2.
54. 'Le jardin des Ames: Comme eux', Petit echo de la mode, 13 July 191 9, p. 3
55. 'Le jardin des Ames: Le sourire aux lévres', Petit echo de la mode, 30 November 191 9.
56. 'Transformation d'une Capote d'lnfanterie en un Manteau pour Damé, Petit echo de la mode, 25 January 1920, supplement p. 3; on hairstyles, see Mary Louise Roberts, 'Samson and Delilah Revisited: The Politics of Women's Fashion in 1920s Francé, American Historical Review, 98 (1 993), pp. 657-84, citation of 'coiffure au poilu', p. 664.
57. see Mary Louise Roberts, 'Samson and Delilah Revisited: The Politics of Women's Fashion in 1920s Francé, American Historical Review, 98 (1 993), pp. 657-84, citation of 'coiffure au poilu', p. 664.
58. Simone de Beauvoir, Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée (Gallimard, Paris, 1958), p. 90; in English, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, tr. James KiRéup (Harper and Row, New YoRé, 1974), p. 65.
59. On anxieties about female employment, see Roberts, Civilization without Sexes, p. 25.
60. De Beauvoir, Mémoires, pp. 3940; English tr., pp. 27-8.
61. Colette, Les heures longues (Fayard, Paris, 191 7), pp. 69-75: see also Roberts, Civilization without Sexes, p. 30.
62. see also Roberts, Civilization without Sexes, p. 30.
63. On inaugurations, see the articles by Yves Pilven-le-Sevellec, Daniel Sherman, and Olivier Pelletier in Monuments de memoire: Les monuments aux morts de la Premiere Guerre Mondiale, ed. Philippe Rivé et al. (Mission Permanente aux Commémorations et i I'lnformation Historique, Paris, 1991 1, pp. 271-85.
64. Genevoix, La joie, pp. 170-3.
65. References to 'mere communé: Courrier de la Sologne, 21 May 1922, inauguration of the monument in Selles-St. Denis (Loir-et-Cher); Le Républicain de l'Est, 22 October 1921, inauguration of the monument in Sorcy (Meuse; the French as 'enfants d'une m6me meré); La Meuse, 24 October 1925, inauguration of the monument in Heudicourt (also reference to a 'belle manifestation de mPre reconnaissanté).
66. For example La Meuse, 23 October 1920, account of a commemorative ceremony (not an inauguration) in Comrnercy (a speech was 'tour i tour mile et emu'); La Meuse, 22 October 1921, account of the inauguration in St. Maurice-sous-les-C6tes ('une mile consolation').
67. Journal de Pontivy, 15 April 1923 and 18 November 1923.
68. On commercial monuments, see Sherman, 'Art, Commerce, and the Production of Memory', pp. 186-2 1 1.
69. Maurice Rieuneau, Guerre et révolution dans le roman francais de 1979 à 1939 (Klinicksieck, Paris, 1974), pp. 21-2; on types, see also Leed, No Man's Land, pp. 36-7.
70. La Republique de Loir-et-Cher, 3 December 1922.
71. Ouest Républicain, 23 April 1922; La Meuse, 2 May 1925.
72. Journal de Pontivy, 3 June 1923; Ouest Républicain, 8 April 1923.
73. Le Carillon de Vendhe, 17 November 192 1.
74. Le Reveil de la Meuse, 22 May 1921, account of the inauguration in Louppy-le-Chzteau; Le Républicain de l'Est, 4 June 1921 ; Journal de Pontivy, 15 October 1922
75. Henriette Colombet, 'Aprés la victoiré, Petit echo de /J mode, 2 February 191 9,
76. Le Reveil de la Meuse, 22 May 1921.
77. On trench newspapers, see Audoin-Rouzeau, 14-18, pp. 150-1. For a fictional example, see Dorgeles, Les Croix de Bois, pp. 208-1 0, in which a soldier's death agony i s also an agony of indecision over whether to send an accusatory or a forgiving last message to his unfaithful wife, and Roberts, Civilization without Sexes, pp. 38-9.
78. For a fictional example, see Dorgeles, Les Croix de Bois, pp. 208-1 0, in which a soldier's death agony i s also an agony of indecision over whether to send an accusatory or a forgiving last message to his unfaithful wife, and Roberts, Civilization without Sexes, pp. 38-9.
79. See, for example, Nancy Huston, 'The Matrix of War: Mothers and Heroes', in The Female Body in Western Culture: Contemporary Perspectives, ed. Susan Rubin Suleiman (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1985), pp. 127-9.
80. See Thomas A. Kselman, Death and the Afterlife in Modern France (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1993), pp. 21 7-21.
81. La Meuse, 7 February 1925, quoting from L'fst Républicain, 5 February 1925.
82. On the female body as a repository for allegorical representations of human qualities, political systems, and places, see Marina Warner, Monuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1985), pp. xix-xxi, 28.
83. Le Réveil de la Meuse, 22 February 1925 (statement of the artist), and 2 April 1925, containing the mayor's explanation of the monument at its inauguration.
84. La Meuse, 14 November 1925.
85. From a photograph taken by the author, July 1992.
86. Le Réveil de la Meuse, 12 February 1925.
87. Leed, No Man's Land, pp. 208-9. On writing during the war
88. see Audoin-Rouzeau, 14-78; on veterans
89. see Prost, Les anciens combattants, vol. 3, p. 60.
90. Le Républicain de I'Est, 30 July 1921.
91. Le Républicain de I'Est, 30 July 1921, account of the inaugration in Chalaines (Meuse), where the assistant mayor declines to speak; La R6publique de Loir-et-Cher, 11 December 1921, account of the inauguration in Coulanges, where the mayor has trouble continuing his speech; Le Ploermelais, 1 October 1922, account of the inauguration in Serent.
92. 'Le jardin des Ames: Retour au foyer', Petit echo de la mode, 23 November 191 9, p. 2; Le Reveil de la Meuse, 18 December 1 92 1, p. 3.
93. Le Réveil de la Meuse, 18 December 1 92 1, p. 3.
94. L'Avenir de Verdun, 24 August 1922.
95. Le Républicain de l'Est, 4 June 1921; Dorgelés, Les Croix de Bois, p. 197. Jean Norton Cru, in Témoins, pp. 590-1, dates this section of the novel to September 191 5. Norton Cru writes scathingly of the many inaccuracies in the novel; obviously I do not mean to suggest that tropes such as the female tribute accurately reproduce some verifiable war 'experiencé.
96. La République de Loir-et-Cher, 28 October 1923 (Lamotte-Beuvron); Courrier de la Sologne, 4 November 1923 (Romorantin).
97. For additional examples, see Becker, Les monuments aux morts, pp. 70-2; Rive et al., Monuments de mgmoire, pp. 184, 186-7, 191.
98. Rive et al., Monuments de mémoire, pp. 184, 186-7, 191.
99. Genevoix, La joie, p. 272.
100. The bas-relief actually appears to conflate two different incidents involving women defending their towns, one at Péronne in 1536, the other at Beauvais in 1477. See Guide de Tourisme Michelin: Flandres, Artois, Picardie, 3rd ed. (Michelin, Paris, 1991 1, pp. 55, 142. Rouzeau, 14-78; on veterans, see Prost, Les anciens combattants, vol. 3, p. 60.
101. La République de Loir-et-Cher, 19 August 1923.
102. Leed, No Man's Land, p. 204.