Valois

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani approaches the Valois through a close reading of Nerval's Angélique over the course of the 2017-2018 year. He first presents it as the homeland of Nerval's mother. The name Longueval connects it to the abbé de Bucquoy, and this region gives the text its unity of place, under the sign of autumn and decline1. Map in hand, he follows the narrator's "local displacement" from Senlis to Ermenonville to show that this route owes nothing to chance. He places the Valois between the fertile Pays de France and the forests on sandy soil, and points out the play on the names Sylvain, Sylvie and Sylvanectes2. Rousseau's tomb acts as a centre of gravity that bends space. As soon as one moves away from it, the landscape resists the walk, and the vertical dimension of tombs, demolished towers and vaults invades the horizontal3. He also reads in the region's place names an opposition between Germanic peoples and natives. Finally, he links Ermenonville to the Illuminati who were preparing the Revolution23.

1. 1#4.2 Angélique (de Nerval)12 Nov 2017
2. 2#4.5 Angélique (de Nerval)12 Feb 2018
3. 3#4.7 Angélique (de Nerval)12 Apr 2018

Introduction produced automatically from the 3 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.