O Neill Media: PN1997.D35 1991 French Revolution Virtue and Terror Part 2 Week 02 Lecture 01 22 January 2008 II. 1791 Turning point: No more dream of constitutional monarchy 1791: June 20-21: The Night of Varennes : Royal family tries to escape Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette (of Austria) La Nuit de Varennes : O'N Media PN1997.N92x 1983 III. 1792: Radical phase begins Unified self v. Other: External Enemies Deputy Target gives birth to the constitution of September 1791 NB: A male gives birth! Viktor Frankenstein 1
L ennemi est partout! [The enemy is everywhere!] 1) Domestic : September Massacres [1792] in Paris V Frankenstein born 2) Foreign : French victory at Valmy calms tensions REPRESENTATION: Enemy is everywhere: in your neighborhood! EXPORTING THE REVOLUTION: mission civilisatrice REPRESENTATION: A Crusade against Counter-revolutionaries : to liberate all Europe Crusade : medieval religion-- liberate from Holy Land from Islam War against external enemies [ counter-revolutionaries ] permits the invention / legitimation of self-identity over and against an other The Marseillaise Arise you children of our patrie, Oh now is here our glorious day! Over us the bloodstained banner Of tyranny holds sway! Oh, do you hear there in our fields The roar of those fierce fighting men? Who came right here into our midst To slaughter sons, wives and kin. Phrygian cap --- worn by freed Roman slaves To arms [aux armes], oh citizens! Form up in serried ranks! March on, march on! And drench our fields With their tainted blood! The Marseillaise Albertville 1992 Opening Ceremony IV. 1793: Regicide Arise you children of our patrie, Oh now is here our glorious day! Over us the bloodstained banner Of tyranny holds sway! Oh, do you hear there in our fields The roar of those fierce fighting men? Who came right here into our midst To slaughter sons, wives and kin. To arms [aux armes], oh citizens! Form up in serried ranks! March on, march on! And drench our fields With their tainted blood! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtuy9kw1ukk Start at 4:02 --- notice the white dove of PEACE!!! Disorder at the Center: Pollution, Purity and Danger Cf. Earlier examples of anthropological anxieties: Uccello, Burning of the Jews Gargoyles: sacred center / dangerous edges Luther: pope as monster excrement 2
Jean-Paul Marat: Leader of the radical Montagnard faction counter-revolutionary / conservative forces 1793: July 13 Assassinated in his bath by Charlotte Corday, a young Girondin conservative. Jacques Louis David, Marat Assassinated [1793] 1793 October 28: Marie Antoinette guillotined for promiscuity [esp. incest] QUESTION: Why would you kill your father and mother??? Imaginary Center of the Nation Cartesian Order --- Sexual Disorder PURITY --- POLLUTION 3
Tabula rasa: Dechristianisation program The Republican Calendar: Adopted by Convention of Oct. 1793 RATIONALITY: 12 Months 30 days each Three ten-day weeks [décades] 10 th day = day of rest 5 days left over at end of year: the sans-culottides Re-naming the months Referents are natural [i.e., not mythological / Xtn] cf,. Rousseau: natural = primitive ; innocent ; objective ; not sullied by civilization or culture Again: cf. Frankenstein What s in a name?????????? V. 1793-1794 Robespierre: Virtue imposed by Terror Proper address: Citizen X [cf. Soviets: Comrade NOT based on gender Monsieur ; Madame ; Mademoiselle or Estate : Monseigneur [ My Lord ]; Père [ Father ]; Soeur [ Sister ] Elimination of de --- signifies aristocracy [Duc d Orleans; Duc de Lubac; Dumortier Children s names --- no longer saints names [Pierre; Michelle; Jean-Marie] Rather, natural referents: Goldenrod ; Marigold ; Seedling ; Rosebud Terror is nothing other than justice: prompt, severe, inflexible. Maximilien de Robespierre: The Incorruptible 4
July 1793- July 1794: Robespierre principal director of the Comité de salut public [Committee on Public Safety] Rousseau: A Republic of Virtue ; the Regeneration of Man Robespierre: the total regeneration of man requires both virtue and terror [cf. Lenin] Two-pronged strategy: 1) family values : e.g., republican motherhood 2) guillotine: ridding body politic of infection A. Clément, La France Républicaine [Republican France] Virtue Breasts: motherhood Virgin Mary Rooster: ancient symbol of France [the Gallican rooster] Rousseau s Regenerated Man Completely virtuous 5
Grey s Anatomy Melodrama starts from and expresses the anxiety brought by a frightening new world in which the traditional patterns of moral order no longer provide the necessary social glue... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9akarogkues Trauma: a collective encounter with chaos Melodrama plays out the force of that anxiety with the apparent triumph of villainy, and it dissipates it with the eventual victory of virtue. Rousseau s Regenerated Man Completely virtuous Cf. Purity [virtue] and danger [villainy] Georges Jacques Danton Robespierre a puritan: family values Danton: more popular rival not at all puritanical must be eliminated Guillotined: 5 April 1794 O Neill Media: PN1997.D35 1991 6
20 June 1794: Feast of the Supreme Being June 20, 1794: Feast of the Supreme Being [June 21 = St. John Baptist / Solstice] 7
Notre-Dame de Strasbourg Converted into a Temple of Reason Cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand: The French People recognize the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul. Tabula rasa: Dechristianisation program The Republican Calendar: Adopted by Convention of Oct. 1793 Francis Poulenc, Dialogues of the Carmelites 17 July 1794 8
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope, Hail! [salve] our life, our sweetness and our hope, Hail! [salve] Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, 9
our life, our sweetness and our hope, Hail! [salve] To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping; [repeat] in this valley of tears [in had lacrimarum valle].. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us; And Jesus, blessed fruit of thy womb, Show unto us after this our exile, O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. 10
O clement. O loving. O sweet, virgin, Mar ------- Glory be to the Father, and to the Son who from death is risen and to the Paraclete into eternity of eternities [Doxology for Eastertide] into eternity Caricature: Robespierre executes the executioner 11
This is all of France Constitution of 1791 Thermidorian Reaction : Coup of 9 Thermidor (July 27, 1794) Robespierre shot in the jaw Beheading of Robespierre: 10 Thermidor 28 July 1794 12
The Terror A desperate effort to stabilize subjective individualism into a community where they will be interconnected and care for one another. Inherent instability of subjective individualism On the one hand: the individual person as the ordering principal and source of all value PROBLEM: not just one will but many! Thus: individual is source of instability and disorder First topic of semester: Comparing the American and French Revolutions Two revolutions Two visions of democracy Two visions of unity Two visions of human nature [Phil. Core: Phil. of the Person ] Dissent and factions essential Prevent tyranny of majority over individual (minority) wills Human nature/reason fallible Dissent and factions not allowed Contrary to idea of social compact Human nature/reason both innocent and ever-progressing Virtue v. Villainy: must virtue s victory be forcibly imposed??? 13