Pillière, Rebecca M. (2020) The constructs of a rebel city : the development of La Rochelle's (self-)identification in print during the French wars of religion (1563-1635). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis is the first comprehensive study of the development of La Rochelle’s (self-)identification during the French Wars of Religion (1562-1629). Previous research so far has largely relied on archives to explore the city’s conversion to Protestantism in the early modern period and to analyze its conflictual relationship with the French Crown. Yet, both bibliographical and historical studies have overlooked the significance of La Rochelle’s print, especially cheap print, in the development of the city’s identity as a Huguenot bastion.

This research explores the extent to which print influenced La Rochelle’s identification through two different, yet complimentary, approaches. Firstly, it features a quantitative analysis using a corpus of printed materials published between 1563 and 1635, which foregrounds La Rochelle’s identity in symbolic terms and reveals the development of various identity traits. For ease of reference and consultation, I have added this appendix as a separate file.

Secondly, it employs an interdisciplinary methodology to examine the printed materials by drawing on identity theory (namely, Sheldon Stryker’s structural symbolic interactionism and Peter Burke’s perceptual control emphasis). These dynamic models provide a framework to examine La Rochelle’s fluctuating identity and identification within its socio-historical context.

Through chronologically ordered chapters, this thesis uncovers how the development of print affected La Rochelle’s (self-)identification at a time when political publications were seeking to introduce a homogenous ‘national consciousness’. It offers a comprehensive analysis of how the identity of La Rochelle was fashioned in print through text and paratext in conjunction with the city’s most eminent social actors and her interaction with the outside world. The analysis highlights a largely unexplored territory: that these features of La Rochelle’s identity were reappropriated by external communities, either for their own personal agenda or used later against the city. This research thus reveals that La Rochelle’s print was central to the development of the city’s identity from c. 1563 onwards and –– perhaps more importantly –– that the fight over its identification continued right up to the Second Siege of La Rochelle (1629) and, indeed, lay at the heart of it.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BX Christian Denominations D History General and Old World > DC France
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	France -- History -- Wars of the Huguenots, 1562-1598, La Rochelle (France) -- History -- 16th century, La Rochelle (France) -- History -- 17th century, La Rochelle (France) -- Politics and government -- 16th century, La Rochelle (France) -- Politics and government -- 17th century, Counter-Reformation -- France -- History
Official Date:	May 2020
Dates:	Date Event May 2020 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	School of Modern Languages and Cultures
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	De Smet, Ingrid ; Roberts, Penny ; Lines, David A. ; Greengrass, Mark, 1949- ; Racaut, Luc
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	2 volumes (xx, 432 leaves; 277 leaves)) : illustrations (some colour), maps (some colour)
Language:	eng

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