Artykuły w czasopismach na temat „Chevalier d’Eon”

Abstract: This article studies the portraits of two gender-ambiguous individuals, the seventeenth-century Spanish soldier Antonio (née Catalina) de Erauso and the eighteenth-century French diplomat the Chevalier (Chevalière) d’Eon, as they offer a window into early modern debates on the representation of nature through its wonders. Making sense of the representations of Erauso and d’Eon requires viewing them as depictions of nature that belonged to the genre of the cabinet of curiosities. When seen as part of the cabinet of curiosities, their paintings appear as part of the artistic and scientific explorations that negotiated changing concepts of nature in early modern Europe. While Erauso’s portrait belonged to a tradition that embraced the sitter’s gender ambiguities, d’Eon’s portrait appears instead as a transitional object between two ways of organizing knowledge of nature. D’Eon’s portrait reflected a grown interest in the eighteenth century of representing nature in an objective way with a clear separation between the genders.

A review of the book by S. A. Mezin and the publication of an interesting historical source written in 1757 by Chevalier d’Eon, a diplomat and adventurer is presented. The manuscript “Secret Anecdotes about the Court of the All-Russian Empress” is published for the first time both in French and in Russian. In the peer-reviewed book the source characteristic and the analysis of the manuscript, scientific comments, the detailed essay on French studies of Russia in 1725–1762 were qualitatively made.

For the past several decades, scholars have examined the queer identities and sexual practices in eighteenth-century materials. However, queer and non-normative gender has been less frequently researched, even within the body of scholarship devoted to queer eighteenth-century studies. Scholars often take at face value the period’s gender norms, thereby suppressing the fact of a transgender eighteenth century. In this essay, I offer examples, from the Chevalier d’Eon to Lord Byron, that foreground the transgender qualities present in many materials of that time. I call on scholars to recognize the ways our field has inherited the period’s own normative views on queer gender expressions.

"Charles-Geneviève, the knight Éon de Beaumont, famous transvestite in the history of France, remains an enigma. The rumor will evoke the hermaphroditism of this knight, devoid of attraction to either sex. The eccentric D’Eon shatters genres and forces us to think about the masculine-feminine border and its flexibility. The androgynous knight refers to the tension between imagination and reality, to the emergence in the 18th century of medical and philosophical questioning on gendered indeterminacy."

In October 1775 two hoaxes, perpetrated for separate reasons by John Wilkes and his friend, the Chevalier d’Eon, briefly collided. Wilkes’s hoax, the ‘Sayre plot’, was probably intended to provoke a test of the constitutionality of the recent ‘King’s Proclamation’, which encroached upon the statutory definition of treason. The hoax involved creating the impression that a conspiracy existed to resolve the deepening American crisis by overthrowing George III. D’Eon’s hoax involved spreading the rumour that he himself was a woman in order to embarrass the French king into recalling him from exile on d’Eon’s terms, including a generous financial package. For Wilkes, although neither George III’s overthrow nor the modification of his colonial policy were likely expectations, either result would have been a bonus. And although d’Eon was unquestionably a man, he did actually (if inexplicably) desire to be perceived as a woman living the life of an heroic man. When d’Eon’s hoax suddenly progressed too far – trapping him into agreeing to dress as a woman, which, at first, he seemed unwilling to do – he delayed signing the deal for a month, until he saw that the ‘Sayre plot’ (whose success could have strengthened d’Eon’s negotiating position) had utterly failed.

Dans une trilogie entamée en 1846 et terminée en 1853, les Mémoires d’un médecin (Joseph Balsamo, Le Collier de la reine, Ange Pitou / La Comtesse de Charny), Dumas fait le roman de la Révolution, qui est en même temps celui de l’émergence du sujet contemporain de l’Histoire, porté par les personnages fictifs dans leur rapport avec les personnages et les événements historiques. Pourtant cette histoire s’arrête avant Thermidor. Qu’advient-il donc du sujet contemporain et de l’Histoire sous le Directoire, le Consulat et l’Empire ? C’est l’objet d’une seconde trilogie, que Dumas ne publiera qu’en 1857 (Les Compagnons de Jéhu) et 1867-1869 (Les Blancs et les Bleus, Le Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine), de manière discontinue, et sous une forme bien différente. L’objet de cet article est d’analyser les différences entre ces deux trilogies et d’en dégager les raisons et les effets.

Lorsqu’on tente de dégager la « conception » qu’un romancier du xviiie siècle propose du roman, trois différents objets s’offrent à l’analyse. Au-delà du discours critique plus ou moins explicite que l’écrivain articule sur le genre, il faut s’intéresser à sa manière d’en thématiser la lecture et les effets, ainsi qu’à sa pratique elle-même : on ne s’occupe plus alors de ce qu’on dit du roman, ou de ce qu’on lui fait faire dans les seuls termes de la fiction, mais bel et bien de ce qu’on en fait. Le présent article cherche à vérifier cette hypothèse des « trois romans du romancier » à partir de l’oeuvre du chevalier de Mouhy, contemporain relativement marginal de Marivaux et de Prévost. Sur la valeur morale du roman, sur son rôle dans l’éducation des jeunes lecteurs, sur ses conséquences psychologiques à court ou plus long termes, sur les rapports du genre à l’histoire et à la réalité, comme sur sa propre place dans la littérature de son temps, l’auteur de La mouche et de La paysanne parvenue adopte des positions multiples et paradoxales ; on peinerait à dégager un Mouhy adversaire ou apologiste du roman, si ce n’était de l’évidence pléthorique de sa production, qu’on peut assimiler à une vaste et inconditionnelle affirmation romanesque.

Abstract Hypogenic caves develop by recharge from below, not directly influenced by seepage from the overlying land surface. Several processes of speleogenesis are combined, involving CO2 or H2S produced at depth. If the recharge from depth remains uniform, the growth of selected fissures is prevented, giving rise to maze cave systems with an upward development trend, which is defined as “transverse speleogenesis” [Klimchouk, 2003]. Hypogenic caves are much fewer than epigenic caves (i.e. developed downwards by meteoric water with aggressivity derived from soil). In France, as in the rest of the world, hypogenic caves were poorly recognized until recently because of their lower frequency, subsequent epigenic imprint often hiding the true origin, and the absence of a global conceptual model. However, about a hundred of hypogenic caves have been identified recently in France. The extreme diversity of hypogenic cave patterns and features is due to the variety of geological and topographic settings and types of flow. Thermal caves are a sub-set of hypogenic caves. Active thermal caves are few and small (Mas d’En Caraman, Vallon du Salut). Often, thermal influences only occur as point thermal infeeders into epigenic caves (Mescla, Estramar). In addition to the higher temperature, they may be characterized by CO2 (Madeleine) or H2S degassing, by warm water flowing in ceiling channels, or by manganese deposits. The Giant Phreatic Shafts locate along regional active faultlines. They combine all characteristics (thermal, CO2, H2S), due to the fast rising of deep water. The Salins Spring has been explored by scuba diving down to −70 m. Such a hyperkarstification is responsible for the development of the deepest phreatic shafts of the world: pozzo del Merro, Italy (−392 in). Inactive hypogenic caves may be recognized by their specific mineralization or by the presence of large calcite spar. Metallic deposits are due to the rising of deep waters that are warm, aggressive, and low in oxidation potential. Mixing with meteoric water generates Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) sulfidic ores. Iron deposits as massive bodies (Lagnes) or onto microbial media (Iboussières, Malacoste) making specific facies, such as “black tubes”, iron flakes, and iron pool fingers. Other frequent minerals are Mn oxides and Pb sulfur. In such low thermal conditions, calcite deposits occur as large spar in geodes or as passage linings. Other inactive hypogenic caves may also be recognized by characteristic patterns, such as mazes. The relatively constant recharge into confined karst aquifers suppresses fissure competition, so they enlarge at similar rates, producing a maze pattern. In horizontal beds, mazes extend centrifugally around the upwelling feeder. The juxtaposition of multiple discrete vertical feeders produces extended horizontal mazes. In gently tilted structures, 2D mazes extend below aquitards, or along bedding or more porous beds (Saint-Sébastien). In thick folded limestone the rising hypogenic flow alternatively follows joints and bedding planes, producing a 3D maze cave in a staircase pattern (Pigette). Isolated chambers are large cupola-like chambers fed by thermal slots. Thermal convection of air in a CO2-rich atmosphere causes condensation-corrosion that quickly produces voids above the water table (Champignons Cave). Sulfuric acid caves with replacement gypsum are produced by H2S degassing in the cave atmosphere. H2S oxidizes to H2SO4, which corrodes the carbonate rock and replaces it with gypsum. The strongest corrosion occurs above the water table, where sulfide degassing and thermal convection produce strong condensation-corrosion. Caves develop headward from springs and from thermo-sulfuric slots upward (Chevalley-Serpents System). The low-gradient main drains record base-level positions and even the slightest stages of water-table lowering (Chat Cave). Hypogenic speleogenesis provides better understanding of the distribution of karst voids responsible for subsidence hazards and the emplacement of minerals and hydrocarbons.

The review is devoted to a book by S. Mezin and the publication of an interesting historical source. Mezin is a well-known specialist in the history of modern Russo-French relations in various spheres. He consistently focuses on eighteenth-century French Rossica in his works. Now he has presented an unknown essay about the court of Empress Elizabeth to the scholarly community. It was written in 1757 by Chevalier d’Éon in the genre of historical anecdote, very popular at the time. The essay has been published both in French and in Russian, with Mezin doing the translation himself. The reviewed book includes the text Secret Anecdotes about the Court of the All-Russian Empress by the French diplomat and spy, along with comments, study, and substantive analysis. The publication and accompanying materials are preceded by a detailed essay by Mezin entitled “French Russia in the Mid‑18th Century (1725–1762)”. This is not only used to provide a historical background for the source, but also to study an important but insufficiently examined topic. The reviewer considers Mezin’s book a valuable contribution to the historiography of the less explored period in the eighteenth century between the reigns of Peter I and Catherine II and to the source studies of this period in Russian history. At the same time, the reviewer clarifies some chronological and thematic characteristics of the historical anecdote as a specific genre, linking its emergence and formation with French historiography and literature in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

V 18. stoletju je Ruski imperij videl Rim kot model, ki ga je treba posnemati, Osmansko cesarstvo pa kot sovražnika, ki ga je treba uničiti. Francoski in francosko govoreči avtorji, kot so Voltaire, Friedrich Melchior Grimm, Chevalier d’Éon, Jean Sylvain Bailly, Volney, Prince de Ligne, Jean Potocki in drugi, so v svojih delih in v korespondenci s Katarino II. prikazovali Rusijo kot dedinjo antične civilizacije, ki naj bi oživila Grčijo. Vojne proti Turčiji so spodbujale politično in vojaško mitologijo, ki se je razvila v Rusiji in Evropi. Uradni cilj je bila osvoboditev pravoslavnih ljudstev izpod muslimanskega jarma, tj. napad na Krim, Moldavijo in Vlaško ter grške otoke. Nadaljnji cilji so bili zavzetje Istanbula, osvojitev Sirije in Palestine, krepitev ruske prisotnosti na Kavkazu in napad na Perzijo. Nazadnje naj bi si Poljsko razdelili s Prusijo in Avstrijo ter priključili ukrajinska in beloruska ozemlja. Teritorialna širitev in ustanovitev novih mest na jugu države sta Rusom omogočila, da so se predstavili kot potomci Skitov, Sarmatov in Amazonk ter kot zakoniti dediči kijevskih knezov, ki so napadli Konstantinopel in uvedli pravoslavno vero. Francoski glasniki Katarine II. in ruskih zmag so razglasili državo za zibelko ljudstev, ki so osvojila in civilizirala Evropo. Takšna mitologija je spodbujala vojne med Rusijo in Turčijo v 19. stoletju in žal spodbuja tudi sedanjo vojno.