Charris De Smet

• Doctoral defence: 10 December 2024, 3 p.m.
• FelixArchief
• Supervisors: Ilja Van Damme, Marnix Beyen (UAntwerpen) and Natacha Coquery (Université Lumière Lyon 2)
• ​Register through charris.desmet@uantwerpen.be

Abstract

This dissertation has reconstructed and comparatively investigated French parliamentary politics of luxury consumption in three revolutionary years, i.e. 1789, 1830 and 1848. Drawing the idea that consumption became depoliticized in this period into question, it has demonstrated that consumption was an important topic of discussion under different modern French political regimes. The close reading of the parliamentary debates has revealed that the contemporary development of consumerism in France was seen as inextricably tied to broader issues of citizenship, representation, political identity and national belonging between 1789 and 1848. Therefore, these topics constituted important political questions that warranted debate in the national legislative bodies on how to harness, encourage or remodel existing consumer behaviour and commodity culture for the sake of the wellbeing of the state and its citizens.

Based upon this study’s computer-assisted discourse analysis of published parliamentary transcripts and selected press articles, three “consumption regimes” can be distinguished among the three case studies characterized by differing policy decisions, shifting hierarchies between public and private consumption, fluctuating notions of consumer citizenship and alternating interpretations of the nation’s history and the French Revolution’s heritage. In 1789, debates were, overall, characterized by a sense of civic democratic consumer morality, in 1830, the discussion revolved predominantly around notions of bourgeois consumer rationality, and in 1848, ideas related to republican consumer equality became much more present in parliamentary discourses.

Far from constituting monolithic systems of thought, these discourses about consumption were just like early-nineteenth-century parliamentary life, fraught with conflict and tensions. Under all three regimes, counterhegemonic ideological elements could be observed within the parliamentary speeches, reflecting the unstable and polarized political realities created in the wake of revolutionary upheaval. Rather than being marginalized, the opposition’s arguments were often somehow accommodated within the political majority’s discourses: in 1789 monarchical supporters left their mark by steering the debate towards an attack on clerical luxury consumption. In 1830, the July monarchy’s liberal establishment integrated republican notions of simplicity, virtue and popular sovereignty into government discourses to underpin royal privileges. In 1848, even during the heydays of the Provisional Government, pressing concerns about economic crisis and the treat of capital drain which risked to jeopardize both the development of a democratic and social republic and France’s colonial expansion ultimately tampered with discourses of consumer austerity and wealth redistribution. Ultimately, these parliamentary conceptualizations of consumption and consumers shed light on the complex history of the pre-1850 genealogy of the consumer.

Melina Ghassemi Nejad

• Doctoral defence: 13 December 2024, 11 a.m.
  
• F. De Tassiszaal, Hof van Liere
• Supervisors: Luc Herman (UAntwerp), Maria-Ángeles Martínez (Universidad de Alcalá) and Anneke M. Sools (Twente University)
• ​Register through this form

Abstract

Academics and the general public often find themselves speaking about engagement when discussing narratives. As readers, we talk about being transported to the storyworld, immersed in the narrative and getting lost in the book. Sometimes, our engagement with narratives evokes a childlike wonder. We recognise ourselves in the characters, sympathise with their struggles and experience various emotions alongside them. Moreover, research has shown that these effects are stronger when people read fictional novels as opposed to non-fictional texts.

This presents an exciting avenue of research: does the perception of fictionality affect narrative engagement? In other words, if two different readers are given an identical text, but one is told that the text is fictional and the other non-fictional, will that change their responses and affect their narrative engagement?

To explore this question of perceived fictionality, I designed an experiment in which actual readers were interviewed to establish whether their perception of a narrative as fictional or non-fictional influenced its reception. To this purpose, Storyworld Possible Selves (SPSs) Theory was used as a framework with James Frey’s book A Million Little Pieces serving as the text material.

The experiment involved interviews with twenty-four participants divided into three equal groups, each assigned to one of three conditions: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Control. Before reading excerpts from the book, participants in the Fiction group were told that the text they were given was fiction, the Non-Fiction group was told the text was non-fiction, and the Control group was given no such information. In short, this dissertation focused on people’s responses and perceptions when reading a narrative.

The results indicate that the readers in the study who read the provided narrative as fiction displayed the emergence of a larger number of SPSs and, thus, exhibited higher levels of narrative engagement. Furthermore, the results show a strong connection between individuals’ self-concepts – or who they believe to be – and their narrative engagement, suggesting that familiarity with the text’s topic enhances narrative engagement.

In summary, the findings suggest that fictionality affects the construction of SPSs to some extent and provides strong support for the enlightening potential of SPSs Theory in studying how fictionality can influence narrative engagement. Additionally, the findings confirm that while perceptions of (non-)fictionality may act as a contributing factor, the reader’s self-concept also plays an essential role in the creation of SPSs and, therefore, in narrative engagement.

Felix Hermans

• Doctoral defence: 13 December 2024, 3 p.m.
  
• F. De Tassiszaal, Hof van Liere
• Supervisors: Dirk Van Hulle and Olga Beloborodova
• ​Register: felix.hermans@uantwerpen.be

Abstract

The digital turn in textual scholarship is rapidly blurring the once solid boundary between archives and editions. Even a cursory glance at some of the projects that aim to present the textual history of literary works in an electronic environment will reveal that these initiatives frequently merge properties traditionally assigned to both. In general, they aspire to be as extensive as physical archives, collecting and presenting facsimile scans of manuscripts, notes, proofs, or even books in an author’s personal library. At the same time, however, it is not uncommon that they also provide additional aids to help users navigate this labyrinth of archival material, such as transcriptions of handwritten passages, reading texts, or a set of tools that facilitate the comparison of documents. Even though the boundary between the archival and editorial acts has become porous in the computer age, they ultimately remain different approaches, both equally valuable and necessary to shed a light on our textual heritage. The present study therefore proposes a model that creates a continuum between digital archives and editions. The central hypothesis is that the effort of highlighting meaningful connections within and across documents is fundamental to turning a digital archive into an edition. In other words, scholarly editors point to the interconnectedness of written materials that are merely collected as isolated artifacts in an archive. The thesis discusses three pivots that mark the shift from archive to edition. These come in the form of tools that enable users to connect (1) source material, notes, drafts, and published texts, (2) the different versions of a literary work, and (3) the concurrent projects of an author. In each case, the tools will visualize a chain of writing events, illuminating part of the genesis of a work and providing a foundation for further investigations into its textual history. Each one of these three tools will be illustrated by using manuscript material by Samuel Beckett. Finally, it considers the impact of these tools on literary criticism.

Joanna Van der Heyden

• Doctoral defence: 16 December 2024, 4 p.m.
  
• F. De Tassiszaal, Hof van Liere
• Supervisor: Hilde Greefs
• ​Register: joanna.vanderheyden@telenet.be

Abstract

Musicologists study musicians, music genres, and musical practices. In recent decades, it has become increasingly clear that not only artistic but also social conditions within the classical music scene have had a significant impact on music perception and the preferences of music lovers. These insights have led to renewed analyses by musicologists and cultural historians of nineteenth-century music journals, with music critics and journalists being brought into sharper focus.

Music journalists played a central role in shaping the performances of musicians and guiding enthusiasts in developing their musical taste. However, their influence extended beyond the musical context. This dissertation thus deviates from a purely musicological approach and examines the socio-cultural dimension that also emerges in the discourse of the authors. On the one hand, it sketches a portrait of the music journalist. It explores who was allowed to speak as a legitimate voice on music between 1830 and 1880. On the other hand, it shows that any socio-cultural theme could be picked up by the music press and subjected to commentary.

The dissertation analyzes how male journalists, between 1830 and 1880 – in a time when female colleagues were barely visible – earned their place in art criticism and what obstacles they overcame in the process. Although their work was likely poorly financially rewarded, they had considerable societal influence. Music was presented by them as a profound means of social regulation, although they were by no means averse to superficial gossip. From a predominantly anticlerical, liberal stance and with an urban perspective that often looked down on rural life, they contributed to the social and political discourse. Their powerful position allowed them to spread certain societal norms and communicate the appreciation – or lack thereof – for Western European music culture. This discourse also fed a nationalist sentiment, which in the 1880s led to tensions between European countries.

Despite their influence, music journalists did not become a driving force of social change. Articles about the position of the musician remained scarce, and the audience of the magazines was composed mainly of affluent readers with possibly little engagement in social reforms. Female artists, including famous divas, and the female audience were judged according to the conventions of bourgeois society. Between 1830 and 1880, there was barely any emancipatory voice in the music press. It primarily reinforced existing structures and upheld the bourgeois identity.