Staël’s Cosmopolitan Enthusiasm

While Germaine de Staël was raised in an environment of constant dialogue and interchange and while this conversational acumen is transplanted into her literature, there is another dimension to her work that instead emphasizes a more ineffable form of expression, which she integrates with her conception of enthusiasm, and into a cosmopolitan vision. The French Revolution’s early dreams for increased equality seemed to have dissipated for women amidst the authoritarian nature of the Napoleonic period, but within the silence that remained, Staël saw hope for ongoing fulfillment of the seeds of the Enlightenment. Staël and Napoleon are frequently juxtaposed as two rival voices struggling over the soul of revolutionary France and Europe, with their antagonistic relationship oftentimes exemplified with the saying, “Bonaparte had so persecuted her that in Europe one had to count three Great Powers: England, Russia, and Madame de Staël.” At stake between Staël and Napoleon are two different silences and separate conceptions of the nation, a militaristic and oppressive view characterized by Napoleon’s silence of reason, and the passionate ineffability of enthusiasm with which Staël’s writing is profoundly imbued. Enthusiasm for Staël is a form of exaltation, a luminous force that inspires a love of beauty and underlies great ideas, revealing a touch of the divine. In De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales (1799), Staël defines successful literature by its ability to enthuse, which is closely related to its Greek origins of en and theos, or “having God within.” She describes how literature produces a sort of movement in readers that disposes them to moral action, one aligned with the ancient Greek lawgivers’ belief in the power of music, eloquence, and poetry to initiate an ébranlement, a “shocking” or “shaking,” with both physical and internal impact that inspires reflection and enthusiasm. The pre-eighteenth century sense of enthusiasm held a connotation of religious rapture or ecstasy, and even delusion or possession, but its generalized meaning signifies more of a fervour or zeal. Staël’s employment of enthusiasm is in certain ways related to earlier political history in which it is associated with a divine immediacy that claims authority from God over the law, and is therefore linked to rebellion or revolution where it also serves as a critical, pathological category, as in antinomianism or religious civil war. Although Staël channels this earlier and rebellious sense of the term, she invests it with a new pacific sentiment, a cosmopolitan force that she employs to animate her literature. I will demonstrate how Staël channels this silent force into the mute landscapes of her novel Corinneou l’Italie (1807) and her earlier short story “Mirza ou Lettre d’un voyageur” (1795) with powerful ineffable moments that underscore the cosmopolitan influence of enthusiasm. While Staël is condemned into exile by Napoleon for the political message that he reads in her literature, this essay argues that she depicts the dual-faceted nature of exile as an experience of isolation but also as a source of inspiration, which I consider in scenes of solitude and moments of enthusiasm to illustrate how they might inaugurate new forms of cosmopolitan political community. Silence, and its political import, serves in Staël as one among other media of enthusiasm, which include music, nature, literature, and oratory poetic improvisation, all of which also spark enthusiasm or represent manifestations of it. While silence plays a fundamental role in these different modes of enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is an affective force emanating from within, voice is equally central to Staël’s work. Silence is often inscribed within moments of poetry, improvisation, or song, and thus operates alongside voice to …