The Unheimliche Hameau: Nationality and Culture in The Moberly/Jourdain Affair

The Moberly-Jourdain affair involved two female Oxford dons who, in 1901 on a visit to the palace and grounds of Versailles, believed that they had encountered the ghosts of Marie- Antoinette and some of her retinue in the Hameau she had had built there to play shepherdess games. The two women'...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAustralian journal of French studies Vol. 57; no. 1; pp. 93 - 102
Main Author Reader, Keith
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Liverpool Liverpool University Press 01.04.2020
Subjects
Baroque era
Culture
Women
France
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Summary:The Moberly-Jourdain affair involved two female Oxford dons who, in 1901 on a visit to the palace and grounds of Versailles, believed that they had encountered the ghosts of Marie- Antoinette and some of her retinue in the Hameau she had had built there to play shepherdess games. The two women's report of their experience attracted much attention at the time, though it seems all but certain that they had simply overinterpreted everyday personages and events. My article reads their account of their "adventure" and subsequent commentaries and glosses of it through the lens of the Freudian unheimlich or uncanny.
ISSN:0004-9468
2046-2913
DOI:10.3828/AJFS.2020.10