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.
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.
Foreword by Lynn Hunt The Republican Calendar Brief Chronology of the French Revolution Introduction I. The History of the Revolutionary Festival The Revolution as Festival History of the Festivals, History of the Sects Boredom and Disgust II. The Festival of the Federation: Model and Reality Riot and Festival: The "Wild" Federations The Federative Festivals The Paris Federation A New Festival? The Festival of All the French? III. The Festival above the Parties: 1792 The Norm and the Exception Two Antagonistic Festivals? The Unity of Tragedy IV. Mockery and Revolution: 1793-1794 The "Other" Festival Where, When, with Whom? Reasonable Reason Violence and the Festival V. Return to the Enlightenment: 1794-1799 The "Happy Nation" The System of Brumaire, Year IV VI. The Festival and Space Space without Qualities The Symbolic Mapping-Out The Renovation of a Ceremonial Space: The Example of Caen The Resistance of Paris The Space-Time of the Revolution VII. The Festival and Time Beginning Dividing Up Commemorating Ending VIII. The Future of the Festival: Festival and Pedagogy "The Schools of the Mature Man" The Power of Images The Correct Use of Images Nothing Goes without Saying IX. Popular Life and the Revolutionary Festival A Shameful Ethnology History of a Failure Revolutionary Symbolism and Peasant Tradition The Mai sauvage A Pedagogical Tree From the Maypole to the Tree A Break X. The Revolutionary Festival: A Transfer of Sacrality Horror vacui The Meaning of a Few Borrowings The Meaning of Purging Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index
Mona Ozouf is Director of Research at the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris. Lynn Hunt is Eugen Weber Professor of Modern European History, University of California, Los Angeles. Alan Sheridan is the author of Michel Foucault: The Will to Truth. He has also translated over 50 books, including works by Sartre, Lacan, and Foucault.
One of the most brilliant books about the French Revolution written
in recent years. In a dazzling analysis of revolutionary festivals,
Mona Ozouf takes up the question of why revolutionaries of all
stripes seemed so obsessed with public celebration… An unusually
powerful and readable work of serious history.
*Los Angeles Times Book Review*
Brilliantly conceived, cogently argued and a pleasure to read…this
volume…was recognized at once as a work to reckon with, and Alan
Sheridan’s luminous translation now makes it available in
English.
*New York Times Book Review*
Ozouf’s remarkable insights into the festivals and the
revolution…offer fresh ways of understanding the immense effort the
revolutionaries made both to destroy the ancien régime and to
perpetuate an emerging secular, liberal order.
*American Historical Review*
One of the most magisterial and original contributions to the
interpretation of the French Revolution to appear in this
decade.
*Eighteenth-Century Studies*
One of the most brilliant books about the French Revolution written
in recent years. In a dazzling analysis of revolutionary festivals,
Mona Ozouf takes up the question of why revolutionaries of all
stripes seemed so obsessed with public celebration... An unusually
powerful and readable work of serious history. -- Edward Berenson *
Los Angeles Times Book Review *
Brilliantly conceived, cogently argued and a pleasure to
read...this volume...was recognized at once as a work to reckon
with, and Alan Sheridan's luminous translation now makes it
available in English. -- Eugen Weber * New York Times Book Review
*
Ozouf's remarkable insights into the festivals and the
revolution...offer fresh ways of understanding the immense effort
the revolutionaries made both to destroy the ancien regime
and to perpetuate an emerging secular, liberal order. -- Charles
Rearick * American Historical Review *
One of the most magisterial and original contributions to the
interpretation of the French Revolution to appear in this decade.
-- Carla Hesse * Eighteenth-Century Studies *
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