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Jean-Stanislas Mittié, a medical doctor from the Paris region, develops and attempts to gain approval for a vegetal cure to syphilis between 1777 and 1795. The present memoir proposes an analysis of the various textual documents surrounding his endeavours in order to assess the impact of the end of the Ancien Régime and the French Revolution on his medical practice. His individual story reveals the important transformations of institutional, political and cultural power structures regulating medicine at the end of the 18th century.

Ce mémoire a pour objectif d’analyser et de répertorier les productions historiographiques sur la race et le racisme dans l’Atlantique français au XVIIIe siècle. À travers nos lectures, nous avons pu constater que l’historiographie sur les colonies françaises, de plus en plus abondante, et l’approche privilégiant l’espace atlantique ont pris beaucoup d’importance depuis les vingt dernières années et cela a grandement influencé notre choix de diviser les productions historiographiques en trois catégories qui seront les trois chapitres de ce mémoire. Dans un premier temps, nous traiterons des travaux portant plus spécifiquement sur la race et le racisme où nous présenterons le débat quant à l’origine temporelle du racisme. Par la suite, nous présenterons certains travaux en histoire de l’esclavage dans l’Atlantique français qui relient le développement de l’esclavage et celui de la pensée raciale. Finalement, nous aborderons la question du racisme dans la métropole française au XVIIIe siècle en analysant les études qui ont été faites sur les questions des minorités noires et juives en France ainsi que les études sur la question coloniale à l’heure de la Révolution française. Par ailleurs, nous allons aussi présenter le désaccord qu’il y a entre les historiens quant à l’authenticité de la croyance des philosophes des Lumières en leur idéologie prônant la tolérance. Avec les nouvelles productions en histoire atlantique, il est évident que la conception de la race en France est le résultat d’une multitude de facteurs : culturels, scientifiques, économiques et politiques.

In 1814, an ending that no one could have anticipated brought back a dynasty swept by the winds of history twenty-five years ago. Returning to France, Louis XVIII restores their titles to the old nobility of the Ancien Régime, but "grants" a Charter which was intended to guarantee the liberal principles inherited from the Revolution. The « Restoration », the name given to the reestablishment on the throne of France of the former Bourbon dynasty, nevertheless raised many questions. What would happen to this new France that had emerged with the Revolution since 1789? Between 1814 and 1820, a period during which a liberal political program was established, the Royalists invoked the Revolution and the threats it put on the monarchy in order to fight it. The Liberals, on the other hand, saw in their royalist adversaries an old and embittered nobility, emerging once more from a distant past, and who badly conceals its secret desire to abolish the Charter and claim her former rights. This master’s thesis will discuss the divide that existed between two elites competing for political and social dominance. In the light of the debates of the time, we will see how Royalists and Liberals, the two major political groups of the period, articulated their speech. One theme appears particularly prominent: the Revolution. After two decades, it divides again. Worse, it was still relevant and its memory never ceased to occupy the political space.

This dissertation focusses on the Breve storia, a medical biography published in September 1744 by physician and anatomist Giovanni Bianchi. This novella recounts the life and autopsy of a young Roman servant, Giovanni Bordoni, known in many villages in Tuscany as an enthusiastic seducer and womanizer, until his death on June 28th, 1743. At this point, when the body is stripped for the autopsy, the physician notes female reproductive organs. In fact, even though Bordoni led his adult life under a male identity, his biological sex becomes a subject of discussions and writings after his death, immortalizing him as a woman with same-sex desires, cross-dressed as a man. However, by delving into sexuality and gender as they were understood in early modern Europe, this dissertation deconstructs two main claims: first, that female same-sex desires were intrinsically linked to clitoral hypertrophy, second, that gender existed only in a strict normative link to the biological sex. Thus, by analyzing the Breve storia and Bianchi’s correspondence with his readers, it is possible to shed light on the diverse ways of naming and understanding female homoeroticism in the 18th century, linking it for example with genital anatomy, psychology, and emotions. This master’s thesis highlights that, while the early moderns considered that gender’s essence is found in sex, they could understand it as sometimes fluid, but also as not fully masculine or feminine.

Ce mémoire explore les modalités culturelles de la participation politique de la salonnière parisienne et célèbre écrivaine Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, baronne de Staël-Holstein (1766-1817), au cours de la Révolution française (1789-1799). Sur le plan des représentations, il souligne chez Germaine de Staël l’appropriation et la reformulation des normes de genre pour élaborer un rôle politique convenable à une femme d’esprit dans le contexte révolutionnaire. Ce rôle se fondait notamment sur une éthique de l’amitié et un idéal de vertu acquise par la sensibilité et la raison. Son projet constitutionnel, à la fois libéral et élitiste, cherchait à intégrer la contribution des femmes au processus politique à travers la sociabilité polie et la production littéraire. Sur le plan des pratiques, ce mémoire montre comment les outils de réseautage et de communication qu’étaient le salon, la correspondance et la publication fonctionnaient ensemble pour permettre à Staël de se positionner dans un espace sociopolitique et d’y déployer une action. Il considère ces forums comme des éléments constitutifs d’une culture politique révolutionnaire dont Staël sut faire un usage créatif et constructif pour promouvoir ses idées et son parti.

George Sand, born Aurore Dupin (1804-1876), was one of the most prolific writers of the July Monarchy (1830-1848). Her monumental work focuses on a myriad of subjects, which are often studied from the perspective of the ideal. Among other things, Sand was interested in the notion of the poet-artist, which refers to an ideal artist. This notion, specific to this period, is distinguished from the other poet, which is a writer. While the meaning of the notion of poet-writer is well determined, that of poet-artist is subject to a vague and subjective definition. For her part, Sand considers that the poet-artist designates both an artist and a philosopher. This proposition, which is clearly stated, constitutes a central axis to all the artistic thought that she develops. This is what is explored in the present work, through three themes of George Sand's artistic thought. Each chapter is devoted to one of these themes, with an attempt to organize the artistic thought of Sand. The theme of the brotherhood of the arts will be studied first. This typically romantic theme, omnipresent in Sand's writings, perceives the different disciplines as forming a whole. Then, the hierarchy of arts will be reviewed: George Sand considers that music is the superior discipline, compared to some of her contemporaries who believe that poetry is the superior discipline. Finally, George Sand perceives a figure of genius in her writings, which comes close to the ideal artist. All these themes are studied in close relation to the usual visions found under the July Monarchy.

As Jules Ferry’s Laws (1881-1882) rendered French primary education secular, mandatory and free, most republican pedagogues designed educational lessons developed on the principle of emulation. By promoting national historical figures and heroes, they mostly sought to provide moral and patriotic models, embodying republican values, to all young boys and girls. Many examples offered in classrooms illustrated and perpetuated a vision of French society based on the sexual division of labor: masculine icons expressed public, military, and political roles while feminine icons revealed private, domestic, and maternal attributes or responsibilities. Previous academic studies on the subject explored almost exclusively the content of primary official textbooks. Meanwhile, feminine models presented in children’s literature, especially within popular collective biographies, have not yet been the object of extensive historical research. Although this literary genre was consumed in great numbers by the public in fin-de-siècle France, it has until recently always been sidelined in academic studies. However, it can be argued that collective biographies showed a significant diversity of role models to French youth. Thereby, this Master’s thesis proposes an analysis of moral, civic, and patriotic icons, which schoolgirls were meant to emulate, included in three collective feminine biographies published during the years following Ferry’s school system reforms (between 1886 and 1893). This study attempts to define the « feminine » and « French » identity shaped by the authors of these books, which recommended less conventional and alternative models, different from traditional examples usually seen in official textbooks of the period.