Nadine Kuperty - Political Thought in Early Modern France of the 16th and 17th centuries
- il y a 8 ans
The Renaissance saw an increasing number of authors using a variety of literary genres to express new political visions. What set these authors apart was that they were associated with positions of power, as chancellors, parliamentarians and above all secretaries of state ministers. Their writings became evidence of an emerging political thought. At the crossroads of praxis and theory, the authors, as political “insiders,” criticized the political system, while suggesting improvements or even reforms based on an ethics newly acquired from Humanism.
In France, the arrival of the Valois dynasty with François I, the fragility of power under each of Catherine de Medici's sons, and thirty years of religious wars had led to the need for arbitration. The new generation of state administrators had been trained in the best law schools of Europe. They were supporters of the humanist movement and held the belief that the state’s interests could no longer be determined by the personal ambitions of a handful of families or even a dynasty whose policies were the subject of severe criticism. Beyond the religious divide and often because of the turmoil resulting from the Wars of Religion, political reflections on the organization of power, methods of checking and regulating state spending and the decisions made by the royal family regarding diplomacy and war made their way into many texts. By encouraging these reflections on the political system, religious and political crises determined the birth of the new European political awareness on the threshold of modernity. But these political and religious upheavals were in fact the consequences of a deeper change taking place – a change in the understanding of the world by a new elite, originally hailing from the bourgeoisie to which the authors comprising the focus of the proposed research were drawn. Carrying out the duties of their offices defined their status and their identities, but also the authority of their writings. They often found themselves in conflicting situations as they were expected to control finances and implement the laws of the state, which were jeopardized by the demands of the nobility and of various parties.
On the basis of these lines of investigation, this study proposes to systematically analyze French Renaissance political writing, focusing on discourses, pamphlets, treatises and memoirs as the dominant forms of writing expressing political ideas. As such, the research should provide a comprehensive understanding of both the nature and contents of the political thought in the Renaissance, showing that it relied upon people’s growing ability to conceive of the world through abstract notions and that the new political thought deriving from this ability can express itself in various genres using different modes – ranging from serious political treatises to satirical pamphlets.
In France, the arrival of the Valois dynasty with François I, the fragility of power under each of Catherine de Medici's sons, and thirty years of religious wars had led to the need for arbitration. The new generation of state administrators had been trained in the best law schools of Europe. They were supporters of the humanist movement and held the belief that the state’s interests could no longer be determined by the personal ambitions of a handful of families or even a dynasty whose policies were the subject of severe criticism. Beyond the religious divide and often because of the turmoil resulting from the Wars of Religion, political reflections on the organization of power, methods of checking and regulating state spending and the decisions made by the royal family regarding diplomacy and war made their way into many texts. By encouraging these reflections on the political system, religious and political crises determined the birth of the new European political awareness on the threshold of modernity. But these political and religious upheavals were in fact the consequences of a deeper change taking place – a change in the understanding of the world by a new elite, originally hailing from the bourgeoisie to which the authors comprising the focus of the proposed research were drawn. Carrying out the duties of their offices defined their status and their identities, but also the authority of their writings. They often found themselves in conflicting situations as they were expected to control finances and implement the laws of the state, which were jeopardized by the demands of the nobility and of various parties.
On the basis of these lines of investigation, this study proposes to systematically analyze French Renaissance political writing, focusing on discourses, pamphlets, treatises and memoirs as the dominant forms of writing expressing political ideas. As such, the research should provide a comprehensive understanding of both the nature and contents of the political thought in the Renaissance, showing that it relied upon people’s growing ability to conceive of the world through abstract notions and that the new political thought deriving from this ability can express itself in various genres using different modes – ranging from serious political treatises to satirical pamphlets.