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Author Kete, Kathleen

Title Making way for genius : the aspiring self in France from the old regime to the new / Kathleen Kete
Published New Haven : Yale University Press, ©2012

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Description 1 online resource
Contents The aspiring self in France from the old regime to the new -- Genius, Madame de Staël, and the soul of prodigious success -- Vocation, Stendhal, and the art of living ethically -- Destiny, cuvier, and post-revolutionary politics -- Friendship matters; arguments from Egypt; coda on Napoleon -- Ambition in post-revolutionary lives
Summary Examining the lives and works of three iconic personalities --Germaine de Staël, Stendhal, and Georges Cuvier--Kathleen Kete creates a groundbreaking cultural history of ambition in post-Revolutionary France. While in the old regime the traditionalist view of ambition prevailed--that is, ambition as morally wrong unless subsumed into a corporate whole--the new regime was marked by a rising tide of competitive individualism. Greater opportunities for personal advancement, however, were shadowed by lingering doubts about the moral value of ambition. Kete identifies three strategies used to overcome the ethical "burden" of ambition : romantic genius (Staël), secular vocation (Stendhal), and post-mythic destiny (Cuvier). In each case, success would seem to be driven by forces outside one's control. She concludes by examining the still relevant (and still unresolved) conundrum of the relationship of individual desires to community needs, which she identifies as a defining characteristic of the modern worldpages
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Ambition -- Social aspects -- France -- History -- 18th century
Ambition -- Social aspects -- France -- History -- 19th century
Self -- France -- History -- 18th century
Self -- France -- History -- 19th century
Individuality -- France -- History -- 18th century
Individuality -- France -- History -- 19th century
HISTORY -- Europe -- France.
Individuality
Intellectual life
Self
SUBJECT France -- Intellectual life -- 18th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85051440
France -- Intellectual life -- 19th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85051441
Subject France
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780300183436
0300183437