Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Colson Gantt and I am a sophomore majoring in International Affairs and French. I am from Tampa, Florida. I am academically interested in research about French literature, French culture, international relations, political topics, and human rights issues. I am currently involved in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program where I have gotten the opportunity to conduct research. I hope to continue to gain research experience during my time as an undergraduate at Florida State.

Culture, Conversations, and Social Networks in 18th & 19th century Italy: Madame de Staël's Italian Influence

Abstract

Salons and salonnières of the 18th century can teach us a lot about our world today when examined through the lens of social network theory. Salons were a place where people could gather to discuss political, social, and intellectual knowledge with peers. This project examines how Parisian salons of the second half of the 18th century had an influence on the arts, literature, and culture of Italian salons. Salons were born in Renaissance Italian courts but many of the most influential ones of the 18th century were found in Paris. Madame de Staël was one of the most well-known French salonnières and writers of the period, as she paved the way for women to have a voice in society through her formidable example. This project explores how her travel diaries, letters, and books she wrote described Italian culture from an outsider's perspective as she examined that society with the (sometimes biased) lens of a French/Parisian woman looking at a foreign culture. Novels such as Corrine ou Italie, and Delphine, and some of her accounts of her travels across Europe reveal a shifting mode of understanding women’s agency and their position in society. The impact of Madame de Staël’s fame and works, and Parisian salons on Italian culture offers an explanation of certain Enlightenment and pre-Romantic literary and political ideas that developed in Italy during the last part of the 18th century.

Keywords: Literary salons, Italian Culture, French Influence, Romanticism