Le Groupe de Coppet et la réflexion sur les littératures romanes

Abstrakt

The end of the 18^th century and the beginning of the 19^th marked the birth of an interest in European literature in French-speaking intellectual circles. Within the Coppet Group, Germaine de Staël studied mainly German and English literature, but in a short chapter of her theoretical work On Literature (De la littérature, 1800) she also mentioned Italian and Spanish literature. In her novel Corinne (1806), she included a long essay on Italian letters. Another member of the Coppet Group, the Genevan Sismondi, devoted a four-volume work to the literatures of southern Europe (1813), covering nearly all the national literatures of this region, including Portuguese and Provençal. While Sismondi’s work seeks to expand our understanding of lesserknown or poorly known literature, Mme de Staël’s texts offer a novel approach by examining literature within its social context. In the works of both authors, a complex stance emerges: on one hand, they display a keen awareness of the diversity—and the shared characteristics—of Romance literatures; on the other hand, while they value these literatures, they remain inheritors of French classicism, often highlighting French literature through systematic comparison.