Festivals and the French Revolution

Description

Festivals and the French Revolution--the subject conjures up visions of goddesses of Liberty, strange celebrations of Reason, and the oddly pretentious cult of the Supreme Being. Every history of the period includes some mention of festivals, although most historians have been content either to ridicule them as ineffectual or to bemoan them as repugnant examples of a sterile, official culture. Mona Ozouf shows us that they were much more than bizarre marginalia to the revolutionary process. Festivals offer critical insights into the meaning of the French Revolution; they show a society in the process of creating itself anew.

Historians have recognized the importance of the revolutionary festival as a symbol of the Revolution. But they have differed widely in their interpretations of what that symbol meant and have considered the festivals as diverse as the rival political groups that conceived and organized them. Against this older vision, Ozouf argues for the fundamental coherence and profound unity of the festival as both event and register of reference and attitude. By comparing the most ideologically opposed festivals (those of Reason and the Supreme Being, for instance), she shows that they clearly share a common aim, which finds expression in a mutual ceremonial and symbolic vocabulary. Through a brilliant discussion of the construction, ordering, and conduct of the festival Ozouf demonstrates how the continuity of the images, allegories, ceremonials, and explicit functions can be seen as the Revolution's own commentary on itself.

A second and important aim of this book is to show that this system of festivals, often seen as destructive, was an immensely creative force. The festival was the mirror in which the Revolution chose to see itself and the pedagogical tool by which it hoped to educate future generations, Far from being a failure, it embodied, socialized, and made sacred a new set of values based on the family, the nation, and mankind--the values of a modern, secular, liberal world.

Get the book

Amazon.com

Search the book

eBay.com

Search the book

Other editions

• 

  Festivals and the French Revolution

  • 1991
  • 404 pages
  • Paperback
  • Harvard University Press

Similar books

• 

  Slavery and the French Revolutionists (1788-1805)

  By Anna Julia Cooper

  Professor Joan Markley Todd of San Jose State University read my interpretive study ; she furnished valuable suggestions . These many kindnesses contributed richly to the outcome . Such an array of characters inhabits these pages that I ...

• 

  Popular French Romanticism: Authors, Readers, and Books in the Nineteenth Century

  By James Smith Allen

  ... and challenge to such historical writing in Michael Zuckerman , “ Dreams That Men Dare to Dream : The Role of Ideas in Western Modernization , ” Social Science History 2 ( 1978 ) , 332-45 ; James Henretta , “ Social History as Lived ...

• 

  Napoleon: A Biographical Companion

  By David Nicholls

  Describes the life, achievements, rise to power, and influences of the military leader who crowned himself Emperor of the French and established dominance over Europe.

• 

  Mastering the Market: The State and the Grain Trade in Northern France, 1700-1860

  By Judith A. Miller

  Throughout the eighteenth and early nineteeenth centuries, French regimes developed strategies to control the crucial grain trade.

• 

  法蘭西全史：從凱撒的高盧戰記到戴高樂將軍的自由法國，歐陸強權法蘭西的二千年史

  By 約翰．朱利葉斯．諾里奇

  這是一本關於法國的古今全史，也是一紙寫給法蘭西的情書 英國大眾歷史作家界的祖師爺諾里奇爵士，以幽默風趣、引人入勝的筆調， 引領讀者走進「高盧雄雞」兩千年的迷人歷史 ...

• 

  百合與玫瑰: 中古至近代早期英法王權的發展

  By 林美香, 李若庸, 秦曼儀

  對王室而言,恩庇扈從體系如同兩面刃,既需藉之拉攏名門望族效忠,又使王權受這些強勢貴族的鉗制,故路易十三接受李希留提議,推動以首相為服務王權之首的官僚制度,遂行中央集權式的統治管理。 59 李希留死後,所有遭其放逐的大貴族皆在因病垂死的路易十三同意 ...

• 

  枫丹白露宫：千年法国史

  By 让·弗朗索瓦·埃贝尔, 蒂埃里·萨尔芒

  枫丹白露宫，坐落在森林深处的古老城堡。800多年来，34位国王和2位皇帝在这里上演着权力更迭的悲喜剧：卡佩王朝的开创，瓦卢瓦王朝的屈辱，波旁王朝的骄奢淫逸，大革命的风起 ...

• 

  审判王后：1793年10月14—16日

  By （法）埃马纽埃尔·德·瓦雷基耶尔著, 曾昭旷译

  (法)埃马纽埃尔·德·瓦雷基耶尔著, 曾昭旷译. 府机构里参政的弗勒里奥-莱斯科[445],他在卢浮宫街新开了一家细木工作坊。 ... 他也为战争部部长布绍特工作。1793年9月刚被任命为陪审员,他就和克莱蒙一起瓜分了革命法庭《公报》的印刷垄断权[183]。

• 

  甜蜜的世仇

  By 羅伯特．圖姆斯, 伊莎貝爾．圖姆斯

  指控伯克跟專制統治和教皇一黨站在同一邊(因此吉爾雷的漫畫才會出現那些符號)。 ... 康斯坦(Benjamin Constant)後來所說的、奠基於個人政治與經濟自由的「現代人的自主權」而言,卻是不可或缺的要素。伯克也和法國的 ... 伯恩斯(Robert Burns)等詩人。

• 

  A History of Zionism

  By Walter Laqueur

  ... 1913–14°, Middle Eastern Studies, April 1965. J.Marlowe, Rebellion in Palestine, London, 1946. M.Medzini, Esser Shanim Shel Mediniut Eretz Misraelit, Jerusalem, 1928. M.Orenstein, A Plea for Arab-Jewish Unity, London, 1946.