Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

British satirical poems and cartoons about Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte: Deconstructing authenticity and aura

Martens, Britta

Authors



Abstract

This article draws on opposing cultural concepts of authenticity and imitation, combined with Walter Benjamin’s notion of the aura, to examine the self-promotion of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte as successor of Napoleon I. The article confronts Louis-Napoleon’s strategy of self-promotion with the criticism it attracted in British satirical cartoons and poems. Louis-Napoleon constructs a public image laying claim to the aura of his uncle as Romantic hero; conversely, his critics exploit the same imagery to ridicule him as an inferior imitator. They reject both the idea that aura is transferable and the concept of authenticity based on external authority (via dynastic lineage) in favour of one located in the original, unique self. The article explores the paradox that, while attacking Louis-Napoleon for his inauthenticity, caricatures and parodies are themselves reliant on imitation. It contends that this paradox arises from the genres’ transitional position between historically and culturally divergent ways of perceiving the original and the copy.

Citation

Martens, B. (2021). British satirical poems and cartoons about Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte: Deconstructing authenticity and aura. Nineteenth-Century Contexts, 43(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/08905495.2021.1863109

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 9, 2019
Online Publication Date Jan 20, 2021
Publication Date 2021
Deposit Date Jan 8, 2020
Publicly Available Date Jul 21, 2022
Journal Nineteenth-Century Contexts
Print ISSN 0890-5495
Electronic ISSN 1477-2663
Publisher Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 43
Issue 1
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/08905495.2021.1863109
Keywords aura; authenticity; caricature; imitation; originality; parody; satire.
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/5035275
Publisher URL https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/gncc20/current

Files








You might also like



Downloadable Citations