DOCSLIB.ORG

A Revolution of Language: Pamphlet Literature and Public Speeches During the French Revolution Lingxiao “Linda” Gao University of Notre Dame

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Revolution of Language: Pamphlet Literature and Public Speeches During the French Revolution Lingxiao “Linda” Gao University of Notre Dame Liberated Arts: A Journal for Undergraduate Research Volume 8, Issue 1 Article 1 2021 A Revolution of Language: Pamphlet Literature and Public Speeches during the French Revolution Lingxiao “Linda” Gao University of Notre Dame Follow this and additional works at: https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/lajur Recommended Citation Gao, Lingxiao (2021) “A Revolution of Language: Pamphlet Literature and Public Speeches during the French Revolution,” Liberated Arts: a journal for undergraduate research: Vol. 8: Iss. 1, Article 1. Liberated Arts is an open access journal, which means that its content is freely available without charge to readers and their institutions. All content published by Liberated Arts is licensed under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Readers are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without seeking prior permission from Liberated Arts or the authors. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Revolution of Language: Pamphlet Literature and Public Speeches during the French Revolution Lingxiao “Linda” Gao, University of Notre Dame Abstract: This essay examines the emergence of new forms of communication during the 1789 French Revolution: pamphlet literature and public speeches. Written and oral, they functioned together to tear down the barriers of gender, class, and social mobility of the French society and facilitated the creation of a revolutionary community that adopted a culturally-defined membership and attracted a broader audience. The use of revolutionary rhetoric created a new political language and a standard of leadership centering around oratory and one’s ability to navigate through dynamics, chaotic circumstances. Being inclusive and democratic, these forms of communication together shaped the course of the French Revolution. Keywords: French Revolution; pamphlet literature; public speeches; rhetoric; revolutionary community “The business going forward at present in the pamphlet shops of Paris is incredible… the coffee-houses in the Palais Royal present yet more singular and astonishing spectacles.”1 Arthur Young, a British traveler, was deeply shocked by the unconventional scenes he observed during his visit to Paris in 1789, a year when widespread economic and social distress finally became unbearable in the French society and triggered various measures of the revolution. The pamphlet shops and coffee-houses that Young saw were the birthplaces of two new forms of communications during the revolutionary period: pamphlet literature and public speeches. Together, they worked to tear down the barriers of gender, class, and social mobility, creating an inclusive revolutionary community that incorporated a broader audience and invited wider participation. Their adoption of revolutionary rhetoric bred a new form of political language and set up a modern standard of leadership based on oratory and the ability to cope with dynamic, chaotic circumstances. The new written and oral communications together played a significant role in shaping the French Revolution. The political environment of the French Revolution produced a new form of written culture: the emergence of pamphlets and journals infused with rhetoric. The sudden explosive expansion of the political scene invited widespread discussions on emerging concepts and new monarchy, generating a flourishing publication industry. As Young remarked, “the business… in the pamphlet shops of Paris [was] incredible… [and] every hour [produced] something new.”2 Young’s amazement at the pamphlet shops reveals the revolutionary newness of this form of communication. Made possible by the invention and development of typographic printing in the 15th and 16th centuries, pamphlet literature became powerful political weapons with the arrival of the French Revolution. Although pamphlet had been used before the revolution began, Harvey Chisick demonstrates the newness of this massive print culture by estimating its unprecedented scale during 1 Arthur Young. Travels in France & Italy during the Years 1787, 1788, and 1789 (London: Dent, 1915), Everyman’s Library, No. 720., 124-125. 2 Young’s Travels, 124. 1 the pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary period3. Surprised by their radical content, Young lashed out at the publications for seducing the people into “sedition and revolt.”4 Young’s insight, despite its biases, sheds light on the inflammatory nature of pamphlets and their effectiveness in stirring radical sensibilities. The pamphlets not only delivered revolutionary ideas, but also provided the audience with various knowledge on related topics; for instance, they commented on the English constitution.5 The pamphlets became people’s primary source of information and knowledge regarding the revolution. Their contents played a weighty role in directing public opinion. The pamphlet industry’s large scale and influential power posed a threat to the declining monarchy. The monarch, Louis XVI, with whom the public were becoming illusioned, appeared incapable to contain the spread of pamphlets and revolutionary sentiments, which further suggested the vitality of this written culture. Young was baffled by the monarch’s lack of action: according to him, the monarch did not restrain these “seditious” publications, and nothing in reply took place to “undeceive the people.”6 Dorset, the British ambassador to France, provided a different story. In his weekly-based reports to the Duke of Leeds, Dorset discussed a specific case where a journal was censored: “Amongst the various printed accounts of the proceedings at Versailles, the Journal des Provinces appears to be the most accurate: the further publication of it has been prohibited...”7 Dorset held an insider’s perspective more accurate and reliable than Young’s traveler’s viewpoint. His description showed that the French monarch did take actions to silence the pamphleteers. Later, Young also noticed that “[Mirabeau’s writings] … were silenced by an express edict of government.”8 Mirabeau, an influential political leader and a successful orator elected to the Estates- General, published a small pamphlet to continue his discourse even after the government’s suppression. At that point, Young realized that “it [was] a weak and miserable conduct to single out any particular publication for prohibition while the press [groaned] with innumerable production…”9 Young and Dorset’s accounts revealed that the monarchical system did make several attempts to restrain the publication of pamphlets; however, the industry’s vitality outweighed the monarch’s ability to undo it. The widespread enthusiasm for political discourse led to uncontainable prosperity of pamphlet literature, which, in turn, stirred a revolutionary mentality and propelled the revolution. By appealing to marginalized social groups, the pamphlets helped to create a new revolutionary community that contained an unprecedentedly broad audience. The pamphleteers adopted various rhetorical strategies to politicize women, who were once excluded from political affairs. In one pamphlet, a liberal journalist lauded French women for their energy and courage demonstrated by their involvement in the March on Versailles, confirming their legitimacy in 3 Harvey Chisick, “The pamphlet literature of the French revolution: An overview”, History of European Ideas 17:2-3 (1933), 149-166. Chisick’s article also suggests that the flourishing pamphlet culture, as observed by Young, could be associated with Jurgen Habermas’s theory of the emergence of a public sphere in late 18th century France. 4 Young’s Travels, 125. 5 The pamphlets’ view that the English constitution was “cheap” apparently upset Young. Young’s Travels, 148. 6 Young’s Travels, 179. 7 Despatches From Paris 1784-1790 (London: Offices of Society, 1909), Volume I, 218. 8 Despatches, 135. 9 Young’s Travels, 130. 2 participating in the political process.10 The pamphleteer further glorified women’s political engagement by attributing their success to divine power: “She [Providence] inspired the women with the resolution to liberate the Fatherland; she made them succeed.”11 Interestingly, the author addressed women by the third person “they” and men by the first person “we”, as if he were speaking exclusively to men; his word-choice indicated a stereotypical convention that only men made up the reading public. Nevertheless, the author gestured toward change. The author provided women with suggestions on self-discipline,12 teaching them how to “continue functioning their role as a vigilante police force.”13 The author’s indirect communication with women invited them into the political dialogue. By praising their courage and offering suggestions, the journalist recognized their political presence; women were now seen as not only listeners, but also active participants. Another strategy the pamphleteers employed was the exploration of rhetorical femininity: male authors speaking in women’s voices to convey revolutionary messages.14 This practice restored women’s voice in political discussion and aroused social awareness of women’s underprivileged situation. A pamphlet produced in 1789, for example, expressed the fishwife community’s support for the Third Estate.15 Being the third part of the Estates-General, the Third Estate represented the commoners, while the Frist and the Second represented the wealthy, land-owning clergy and nobility. The pamphlet’s first-person plural narration
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Introduction
    © Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical means without prior written permission of the publisher. CHAPTER 1 Introduction French Society in 1789 Historians working on the French Revolution have a problem. All of our attempts to find an explanation in terms of social groups or classes, or particular segments of society becoming powerfully activated, have fallen short. As one expert aptly expressed it: “the truth is we have no agreed general theory of why the French Revolution came about and what it was— and no prospect of one.”1 This gaping, causal void is cer- tainly not due to lack of investigation into the Revolution’s background and origins. If class conflict in the Marxist sense has been jettisoned, other ways of attributing the Revolution to social change have been ex- plored with unrelenting rigor. Of course, every historian agrees society was slowly changing and that along with the steady expansion of trade and the cities, and the apparatus of the state and armed forces, more (and more professional) lawyers, engineers, administrators, officers, medical staff, architects, and naval personnel were increasingly infusing and diversifying the existing order.2 Yet, no major, new socioeconomic pressures of a kind apt to cause sudden, dramatic change have been identified. The result, even some keen revisionists admit, is a “somewhat painful void.”3 Most historians today claim there was not one big cause but instead numerous small contributory impulses. One historian, stressing the absence of any identifiable overriding cause, likened the Revolution’s origins to a “multi- coloured tapestry of interwoven causal factors.”4 So- cial and economic historians embracing the “new social interpretation” identify a variety of difficulties that might have rendered eighteenth- century French society, at least in some respects, more fraught and vulnerable than earlier.
    [Show full text]
  • Voices of Revolt Voices of Revolt
    VOICES OF REVOLT VOICES OF REVOLT SPEECHES OF MAXIMILIEN ROBESPIERRE VOICES OF REVOLT VOLUME I * SPEECHES OF MAXI MILlEN ROBES PIERRE WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS Copyright, 1927, by INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS, INc. Printed in the U. S . .A. This book is composed and printed by union labor CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 9 Robespierre in the Club of the Jacobins 18 Robespierre as the Realpolitiker of the Revo- lution 22 Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety 2 7 The Ninth Thermidor 36 THE FLIGHT OF THE KING 41 AsKING THE DEATH PENALTY FOR Louis XVI 46 CoNCERNING THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZEN 52 IN FAVOR OF AN ARMED PEOPLE, OF A wAR AGAINsT THE VENDEE s6 REPORT ON THE PRINCIPLES OF A REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT 61 REPORT ON THE PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL MORAL­ ITY • REPORT ON THE EXTERNAL SITUATION OF THE REPUBLIC • EXPLANATORY NOTES MAXIMILIEN ROBESPIERRE INTRODUCTION IN the year 1770 a boy knocked at the gate of the Lycee Louis-le-Grand. Mass was just being held, and the youth could still hear the last notes of the organ as he was resting on a bench. He had covered a long distance on his journey: he had come from Arras. "Praised be Jesus Christ," was the sexton's greet­ ing as he opened the gate. The boy had already been announced, and was at once led to the rector. "So your name is Maximilien Robespierre, my child?" asked the Jesuit who conducted the insti­ tution. The young man becomes a scholar, one of the most diligent students of the Lycee Louis-le­ Grand.
    [Show full text]
  • The Innocence of Jacques-Pierre Brissot
    This is a repository copy of The innocence of Jacques-Pierre Brissot. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/1194/ Article: Burrows, S. (2003) The innocence of Jacques-Pierre Brissot. The Historical Journal, 46 (4). pp. 843-871. ISSN 0018-246X https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X03003327 Reuse See Attached Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ The Historical Journal, 46, 4 (2003), pp. 843–871 f 2003 Cambridge University Press DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X03003327 Printed in the United Kingdom THE INNOCENCE OF JACQUES-PIERRE BRISSOT* SIMON BURROWS University of Leeds ABSTRACT. Even during his lifetime, the French revolutionary Girondin leader Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville’s reputation was tarnished by allegations that, before 1789, he was a swindler, police spy, and political pornographer. These charges resurfaced in 1968 in a celebrated article by Robert Darnton, which found miscellaneous, fragmentary evidence to support them, above all in the papers of the pre-revolutionary police chief, Lenoir. Although Darnton’s view has been challenged by several historians, no critic has supplied any substantive new evidence, and hence the Brissot debate remains mired in assertions and counter- assertions. This article finally offers such evidence, drawing both on Darnton’s main source, the Lenoir papers, and on sources unavailable to him in 1968, notably records of Brissot’s Lice´e de Londres and his embastillement, now on deposit in the Archives Nationales.
    [Show full text]
  • Camille Desmoulins
    KEY PEOPLE LF3 / 01 CAMILLE DESMOULINS Lucie Simplice Camille Desmoulins was 29 years old when he uttered the words that brought him to prominence in France’s revolution. On 12 July 1789, hearing that Necker had been dismissed, he bounded up on to a coffee table amidst the milling mob outside the Palais Royal and implored the crowd ‘to arms, to arms!’ His career as a politician, journalist and rabble-rouser to that point had been somewhat underwhelming but on that warm July afternoon, Desmoulins lost the stammer that had impeded his progress and aroused the horde to pilfer weapons and then on to storm the Bastille. Desmoulins’ background and beliefs suit the archetype of a revolutionary and it is important to mention this background when ascertaining his role in inspiring the revolution. He was decidedly bourgeois – his father, a lawyer and his education, liberal. He earned a scholarship to the College Louis-le-Grand in Paris which also educated Robespierre (but it is unlikely they were school friends given the age difference). Desmoulins was a student of the Classics and particularly of the Roman Republic. By 1785, Desmoulins had secured a position as an advocate at the Paris Parlement and presumably witnessed the despotism of King Louis XVI at close quarters. While passionate, he was not a gifted orator, and, due to his stammer, he turned to writing and was sufficiently skilled that the Comte de Mirabeau hired him in the spring of 1789. He ran for election to the Estates-General but failed; nonetheless, he was a witness to the proceedings and was clearly indignant at the turn of events in late June and early July.
    [Show full text]
  • Press Release Cordeliers
    Next Hallbars Awards will be in Paris, Tuesday November 30, 2021 Please send your new report We have now decided to concentrate the Hallbars Awards ceremony in the last months of 2021. We will wait for vaccinations to allow a return to more normal travel and events. First, the Best in the World 2021 of the Hallbars Awards will be announced from Alfred Nobel House Björkborn in Karlskoga, Sweden, on October 21. It is Alfred Nobel Birthday. Next, the Hallbars Awards ceremony will be in Paris, France on Tuesday November 30, 2021 in the afternoon. It will include first the ceremony of the Hallbars Awards 2020, which could not take place because of the pandemic. All participants 2020 are welcome. The Hallbars Awards 2021 will follow. The evening will end with a celebration party with drinks. The event will take place in the monks dining hall of Les Cordeliers, on Paris left bank, in the center of the Latin Quarter. This exact location became famous as the meeting place of the Club des Cordeliers in 1790 during the French Revolution. Most famous at Cordeliers were Danton, Camille Desmoulins, Marat. Members included poet Andre Chenier, and writer Choderlos de Laclos, author of Dangerous Liaisons, made into films. The Cordeliers later became a medical museum, as it is on the street of the major historical medical school in Paris, Rue de l' Ecole de Medecine. In Roman times, the street was a path separating two vineyards. Later, in the 12th century, the higher end was a cemetary for Jews. The Cordeliers monks monastery was active until the French Revolution.The medical Museum left in 2015, and it has been beautifully renovated.
    [Show full text]
  • Was the French Revolution Successful?
    NEW YORK STATE SOCIAL STUDIES RESOURCE TOOLKIT 10th Grade French Revolution Inquiry Was the French Revolution Successful? Jacques-Louis DaviD, ink Drawing, Tennis Court Oath, 1791. © RMN-GranD Palais / Art Resource, NY. Supporting Questions 1. What were the social, economic, anD political problems in prerevolutionary France? 2. How did the relationship between the French people anD the king change in the early stages of the Revolution? 3. How did Robespierre justify the Reign of Terror? 4. Did Napoleon’s rise to power represent a continuation of or an enD to revolutionary ideals? THIS WORK IS LICENSED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION- NONCOMMERCIAL- SHAREALIKE 4.0 INTERNATIONAL LICENSE. 1 NEW YORK STATE SOCIAL STUDIES RESOURCE TOOLKIT 10th Grade French Revolution Inquiry Was the French Revolution Successful? 10.2: ENLIGHTENMENT, REVOLUTION, AND NATIONALISM: The Enlightenment calleD into New York State question traditional beliefs and inspired widespread political, economic, and social change. This Social Studies intellectual movement was useD to challenge political authorities in Europe anD colonial rule in the Framework Key Americas. These ideals inspired political and social movements. Idea(s) & Practices Gathering, Using, and Interpreting Evidence Chronological Reasoning and Causation Comparison and Contextualization Staging the Discuss the concept of revolution through a series of photographs that Depict the recent Egyptian Question uprising (2011–2013). Supporting Question 1 Supporting Question 2 Supporting Question 3 Supporting
    [Show full text]
  • Camille Desmoulins ( Day- Moo- Lahn)
    ROUSSEAU, BURKE AND REVOLUTION IN FRANCE, 1791 JACOBIN FACTION Camille Desmoulins ( day- moo- lahn) Newspaper Editor ou are not a delegate in the National Assembly, though you are a leader of the Jacobin faction. You are 31 years old and from Guise, in the region of Picardy (department Aisne). Your father was a royal magistrate, and through patronage you received a Y scholarship to attend the most prestigious school in France: Louis-​­le-​­Grand, in Paris. It was here, when you were both students, that you met Maximilien Robespierre. You did extremely well, even when compared to such shining lights as Robespierre and Louis- ​­Marie Stanis- las Fréron. In fact, you did well enough to advance to the study of law, also in Paris. Not wishing to return to Picardy and energized by the environment in Paris, you remained in the city. You had trouble finding work in the law, however, due to your stammer and temper, so you have been living in poverty for a long time. You decided that writing might be a better career path, and, proceeding from your interest in public affairs, you tried your hand at journalism. Your father was elected to the Estates General for Guise, but couldn’t attend because of ill health. You attended as a spectator and wrote him with all the details. You also wrote a response to the procession of the Estates General, Ode aux Etats- Generaux, not your most scintillating work—​­that claim is reserved for some of your later journalism—​­but one of which you were proud, nevertheless.
    [Show full text]
  • Outlines of the French Revolution Told in Autographs
    mmm> j^H^^a J wMm?imm President White Library Cornell University Cornell University Library , l l rench Revolution told i iii iii ili??iii?iMn!i l!S.„f 3 1924 032 226 olm.anx 684 &«J Cornell University Library 'Be h The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032226684 OUTLINES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TOLDr IN AUTOGRAPHS [SELECTED FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION] EXHIBITED AT THE LENOX BRANCH OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY MARCH 20, 1905 I/. ABBREVIATIONS. signed. A. L. S. Autograph letter signed. A. D. S. Autograph document L. S. Letter Signed. D. S. Document Signed. A. L. Autograph Letter. A. D. Autograph document. P. Portrait. I. Illustration. ^5f*0RD BEACONSFIELD — groping for comparisons — declared that 111 there were only two events in history: The Siege of Troy and ^^ the French Revolution. The present exhibition of autographs is an attempt to teach the outlines of history, and particularly of the French Revolution, by means of holographic illustration. The writing of a man, it is held, is the most perfect relic he leaves behind him. Something physical, as well as intellectual and moral, belonging to his personality, has gone into the material substance carrying his writing. A limited space makes the selection of characters a. difficult matter. All students are not likely to agree in regard to the eminence and importance of some individuals who had part in the great event here illustrated.
    [Show full text]
  • Peter Mcphee, Maximilien Robespierre's False Friends
    34 French History and Civilization Maximilien Robespierre's False Friends Peter McPhee At the close of the sessions of the National Assembly in September 1791, Maximilien Robespierre was chaired from the chamber by a group of Parisians to shouts of “Vive l’Incorruptible!”, a reference to the nickname he had enjoyed for several months.1 He had also made some close political friends: in particular, Jérôme Pétion (who had been chaired from the session with him), Camille Desmoulins and Georges Danton. But across the next thirty months Robespierre agreed – however reluctantly – that all three should be tried for capital offences. How had friendships come to this? What was the relationship between friendship and politics? And what effects may the deaths of erstwhile friends have had on Robespierre’s health and his political judgment? After his return to Paris from a brief holiday in November 1791, Robespierre wrote glowingly to his best friend Antoine Buissart in Arras about the affection showered on him at the Jacobin Club and in public. On the day of his return, he had gone directly to the Club, where he was made its president on the spot. In particular, he had been delighted to see his friend Jérôme Pétion, victorious over Lafayette in elections as mayor of Paris: “I supped the same evening at Pétion’s. With what joy we saw each other again! With what delight we embraced! … The burden with which he is charged is enormous, but I have no doubt that the love of the people and his qualities will give him the means to bear it.
    [Show full text]
  • The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution
    THE COMING OF THE TERROR IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution Timothy Tackett The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, En gland 2015 Copyright © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First printing Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Tackett, Timothy, 1945– Th e coming of the terror in the French Revolution / Timothy Tackett. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978- 0- 674- 73655- 9 (alk. paper) 1. France— History—Reign of Terror, 1793– 1794. 2. France— History—Revolution, 1789– 1799. I. Title. DC183.T26 2015 944.04—dc23 2014023992 Contents List of Illustrations vii List of Maps ix Introduction: Th e Revolutionary Pro cess 1 1 Th e Revolutionaries and Th eir World in 1789 13 2 Th e Spirit of ’89 39 3 Th e Breakdown of Authority 70 4 Th e Menace of Counterrevolution 96 5 Between Hope and Fear 121 6 Th e Factionalization of France 142 7 Fall of the Monarchy 172 8 Th e First Terror 192 9 Th e Convention and the Trial of the King 217 10 Th e Crisis of ’93 245 11 Revolution and Terror until Victory 280 12 Th e Year II and the Great Terror 312 Conclusion: Becoming a Terrorist 340 Abbreviations 351 Notes 353 Sources and Bibliography 419 A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s 447 Index 449 Illustrations Th e Tennis Court Oath 50 Attack on the Bastille 56 Market women leave Paris en route to Versailles 67 Federation Ball 93 Confrontation between Catholics and
    [Show full text]
  • History the Club Had Its Origins in the Cordeliers District, a Famously
    History The club had its origins in the Cordeliers district, a famously radical area of Paris called, by Camille Desmoulins, "the only sanctuary where liberty has not been violated." This district, under the leadership of Georges Danton, had played a significant role in the Storming of the Bastille, and was home to several notable figures of the Revolution, including Danton himself, Desmoulins, and Jean- Paul Marat - on whose behalf the district placed itself in a state of civil rebellion when, in January 1790, it refused to allow the execution of a warrant for his arrest that had been issued by the Châtelet. Having issued, in November 1789, a declaration affirming its intent to "oppose, as much as we are able, all that the representatives of the Commune may undertake that is harmful to the general rights of our constituents," the Cordeliers district remained in conflict with the Parisian government throughout the winter and spring of 1790. In May and June 1790, the previous division of Paris into sixty districts was, by decree of the National Assembly, replaced by the creation of forty-eight sections. This restructuring abolished the Cordeliers district. Anticipating this dissolution, the leaders of the Cordeliers district founded, in April 1790, the Société des Amis des droits de l’homme et du citoyen, a popular society which would serve as an alternative means of pursuing the goals and interests of the district. This society held its meetings in the Cordeliers Convent, and quickly became known as the Club des Cordeliers. It took as its motto the phrase, Liberté, égalité, fraternité.
    [Show full text]
  • Deputies and the Dangers of Conspicuous
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Kingston University Research Repository ‘COME AND DINE’: THE DANGERS OF CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION IN FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS, 1789-95 The French Revolution saw the invention of a new kind of politics, one in which the government was subject to the people. It also gave birth to a new kind of man, the professional politician, and to the complex and often fraught relationship that bound him to his electorate. Tensions had surrounded the very notion of political representation since the beginning of the Revolution as legislators struggled to give ‘sense and embodiment to the idea of the nation.’1 The very nature of the representative system, Paul Friedland has argued, reduced the people to spectators and legislators to ‘political actors’.2 Because of this new dynamic, the deputies’ every word and action, both public and private, quickly became subject to intense public scrutiny. How should legislators dress, talk and eat in public? What attitudes and behaviours should they adopt to make their government palatable in the aftermath of the king’s trial and Saint-Just’s pronouncement that ‘no man [could] reign innocently’?3 In order to meet these challenges, revolutionary politicians tended to highlight their capacity for virtue and for sacrificing themselves for the republic. Maximilien Robespierre stressed the importance of politicians’ ‘probity, application to work’ and ‘modest habits’.4 Other deputies described gruelling daily schedules and frugal living 1 Pierre Rosanvallon, Le peuple introuvable: Histoire de la représentation démocratique en France (Paris: Gallimard, 1998), 38.
    [Show full text]