Lit As Social Knowldg

Assignment 8

Chapter 6 ‘France and Bourgeois France: Form Teleocracy to Autonomy’ of the book ‘Modernity and Bourgeois Life, Society, Politics, and Culture in England, France, and Germany since 1750’, written by Jerrold Steigel, is written in a time when France had political and social unrest, ultimately leading to the French Revolution. It looks at France as a Nation of change. During these times, words such as ‘Bourgeois’ were developed and spread around the world, adding it to the global lexicon of phenomena. What modernity did not get to, namely societal change, was however triggered by The French Revolution, although it left some important things in society intact.

Centralization caused for 19th-century France to shift all the power to Paris, which was somewhat located in the center of the country. It was a in a time where ties between towns and provinces was not really existent and where life was determined by agricultural planning, with having somewhat of a high season when the harvest was there. Social stability was accounted for the fact that people continued with their traditional ways of living, implying the existence of a small gap between rich and poor.

The material and cultural tradition is captured in the notion ‘Nostalgie de Terre’. This ties into the fact that the construction of railways was put to a halt since people felt the dangers of Capitalism and there was no centralization for a big country such as France. Industrialization thus only occurred and developed at a local level.

France changed in the second half of the 19th century due to economic crises in Europe. These crises developed and resulted from failed harvests, English overproduction, scarcity and over immigration in Paris. Under the Third Republ...

... middle of paper ...

...ion of social power.

Stories about Anti-heroes, as opposed to heroes were what 20th century literature transformed into. The old Europe was in decline and new institutions arose as religious structures diminished. Welfare states reorganised and improved alongside with a growing consumption. These changes called for European societies to be less secure. However, education became all the more relevant to people, making the works of the Nobel Prize winners of literature almost impossible to be subjected to the models of Moretti, McCloskey and Williams. To have a fitting conclusion I must say that literature reflects that literature itself and the way people looked at literature became subjected to these transformations.

Anass el Kaddouri 772281

Portfolio Part II (assignment 8-12)

U1255131

Prof. Dr. O. Heynders

Literature as Social Knowledge