War and the child’s gaze in revolutionary and Napoleonic literature and culture

ABSTRACT

This article considers how the child’s gaze in Napoleonic culture functions as a multifaceted tool in the moral and political history of the Napoleonic Wars. Drawing from Stahl’s framework of the ‘weaponized gaze’ and, at points, multimodal discourse, I track how the youthful gaze has become an emblem of power and ethics in art and literature of the period. In the first two sections of the article, I explore how this gaze has been mediated and manipulated by adult narratives, used for a variety of purposes ranging from personal introspection to political broadcast. The first section considers the gaze within the context of children within war art, and the second moves to literature, forming new critical readings of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables and Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace in relation to the history of childhood. The final section of the article attempts to reclaim the child’s gaze through self-awareness and internalization, introducing examples of child authors of the Napoleonic period – Felicia Hemans (Browne), Marjory Fleming, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and the Brontës – and considering how their writings, varying from patriotism to protest, imitation to epiphanic moments, create a parallel military history, useful for readers and critics of childhood, war and emotion in that they challenge our understandings of children’s agency and involvement. Overall, this article offers new ways of approaching children’s participation in war, demonstrating how their roles as muses, consumers and producers are intimately bound with the moral and emotional fallout of conflict.

KEYWORDS:

• War
• childhood
• juvenilia
• literature
• art
• gaze

Disclosure statement

In accordance with Taylor & Francis policy and my ethical obligation as a researcher, I am reporting that I have nothing to disclose.

Notes

1. Two portraits in particular are brought to mind. For example, Robert Peake the Elder’s portrait of ‘Henry, Prince of Wales (1594–1612) with Robert Devereux, 3^rd Earl of Essex (1591–1646) in the Hunting Field, c.1605ʹ, painted when Henry was around eleven-years-old, depicts a dramatic display of military performativity. As Robert kneels, Henry stands over the dead carcase of a deer, preparing to re-sheath his sword, his gaze directly locked on to the viewer. His status is determined by the elaborate gold embroidery stitched to his green hunting clothes, and his angelic face is juxtaposed with his dominant, masculine stance, anticipating his role as the country’s future ruler. Another later portrait by Sir Anthony Van Dyck, ‘The Five Eldest Children of Charles I, 1637ʹ, depicts, front and centre, the seven-year-old Prince Charles, confidently mastering a large mastiff, his hand splayed across the dog’s head whilst the boy’s eyes fix on the spectator of the portrait. This exertion of power and control predestines his future autonomy as king, and, due to its wide dissemination through mass-produced copies, this message was broadcast loud and clear to the British people.

2. The interest in soldiers’ interior lives extended to the literary market, with, as Neil Ramsey observes, ‘nearly 200 titles by British soldiers who served in all theatres of war’ published between 1792 – 1835 (2011, 1).

3. Jacques Louis David’s ‘The Death of Barra’ (1794) depicts a naked youth at the point of death. His body is reminiscent of Greek sculpture, a kouros figure and the colours of neutral browns and yellows, mixed with subtle reddish outlines, indicate Barra’s youth and divinity whilst hinting at the nature of his violent death.

4. For this particular reference, in the first French edition, ‘regarda du’ is used, directly translating to ‘looked at’ rather than ‘gaze’. The concept of Gavroche’s vision/gaze being ended by a bullet still holds true here, yet there is less intensity awarded to Gavroche’s final act of vision-based weaponry, perhaps affecting individual readings of the scene.

5. The French name given to a child in Napoleon’s army who was adopted and incorporated into their parent’s regiment and, on the event of their father’s death, became a ward of the nation.

6. Each girl was awarded a reasonable education in some capacity: Felicia Hemans was tutored in classical and poetical studies as well as numerous languages, Elizabeth Barratt Browning was education and tutored at home by her oldest brother, Marjory was taught from a young age by her cousin, Isabella, and Charlotte Brontë was encouraged to read widely by her father and attended schools in her local Yorkshire area.

7. Hemans is best known for her work, ‘The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck’ or ‘Casabianca’, which immortalized the child sailor’s plight by utilizing the tragic story of the young Cassa Bianca, a boy of ten years old on the French ship L’Orient during the Battle of the Nile. The boy failed to leave the ship whilst waiting for his dead father’s orders, and perished in the flames.

8. An autobiography of and collection of Hemans’ poetry published in the 1890s laments: ‘But our little heroine was exposed to the lash of a public critic – a useful animal enough, but one whom the superstitious infallibility of print exalts to a divinity.’ (xiii).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Leverhulme Trust [ECF-2017-213].