Une écriture militante: la critique littéraire et la royauté dans le Journal des débats (1830–48)

The literary critics Alfred-Auguste Cuvillier-Fleury (1802–87) and Jules Janin (1804–74) were enthusiastic Orleanists. The papers they wrote for the Journal des débats were activist writings in support of King Louis-Philippe under the July Monarchy. These texts are important illustrations of the connection between literary criticism and political involvement, when the “kings of criticism” were the critics of kings: dreaming up an original figure of royalty that was both mirror of the constitutional monarchy and projection of their political desire. The July regency was portrayed as the embodiment of the nation, as if it summarized all political experiments in the history of France. Through their attempts to royalize public opinion, the two critics confirmed that royalty reinvented itself during the century of revolutions. (In French)