This thesis examines the popularity of plays from the ancien régime in the theatre of the French Revolution. In spite of an influx of new plays, works dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were amongst the most frequently performed of the decade. Appropriation resulted in these tragedies and comedies becoming ‘Revolutionary’ and often overtly political in nature. In this thesis, I will establish how and why relatively obscure, neglected plays became both popular and Revolutionary at this time. I shall draw on eighteenth-century definitions of appropriation to guide my analysis of their success and adaptation, whilst the theoretical framework of pre-history and afterlives (as well as modern scholarship on exemplarity and the politicisation of the stage) will shape my research. To ensure that I investigate a representative selection of appropriated plays, I will look at five very different works, including two tragedies and three comedies, which pre-date the Revolution by at least thirty years. Voltaire’s Brutus enjoyed successive Revolutionary afterlives from 1789-1799, whereas Lemierre’s Guillaume Tell was only truly successful as political propaganda during the Terror. Meanwhile, Molière’s Misanthrope was subjected to censorship and Revolutionary alterations, but could not rival the extraordinary success of one of his lesser known comedies, Le Dépit amoureux, which suddenly became one of the most popular plays in the theatrical repertoire. Finally, Regnard’s Les Folies amoureuses became popular in the highly politicised theatre of the Revolution in spite of the fact that the comedy had no obvious connection to politics or republicanism. The power of appropriation was such that any play could become Revolutionary, as both audiences and the government used appropriation as a method of displaying their power, attacking their enemy, and supporting the progress of the French Revolution.

This study focuses on Hegel¡¦s national philosophy."Philosophy of right" explains the spirit of the law¡Xfreedom. People¡¦s freedom lives, constitution and the social security system are the responsibility of a modern state. This article will find that the Constitution is the fundament of the state, because the constitution guarantees people¡¦s freedom and the rights. National study of Hegel's thought focuses on objective spirit, because country serves the population as a whole. Freedom, equality, and love that are what people need. French Revolution, in which era people pursued human dignity, is a milestone. This article emphasizes on human dignity, which is also the thought of Hegel's philosophy. The state, which implements at law, protects human dignity. Renaissance caused people to rethink the human values. Human beings believe that people can move toward a better life by their own efforts. The faith, man can triumph over nature, is the belief in this era. People can manage their owns as long as the Fair and justice legal system as protection. Hegel considered the country needs a constitution, because the Constitution is the common will of the people¡¦s, therefore, the state is that the common will of the people¡¦s. Human beings are yearning freedom, but freedom is not owned by everyone. People strive for freedom, which shows in French Revolution. Hegel was longing for the ideal of pursuit of freedom in French Revolution. This report, studies relationship between philosophy of law, equality and the constitution, as well as social security and fraternity, which bases on freedom, equality, fraternity ideals,and freedom. The target of modern country is the law, freedom and security.

The opening of the Estates General in 1789 came at a time of momentous national crisis. France’s separate Three Estates were summoned to meet and collectively decide about how best to remedy France’s many ills. However, the initial collegial spirit between the privileged First and Second Estates and the assertive Third Estate quickly evaporated. Antipathy towards certain nobles, particularly those perceived as corrupt and debauched, quickly crystalized in 1789 into hostile attacks on the entire Second Estate, who were all labeled dangerous “aristocrats”. The rapid disempowerment of one of Europe’s strongest élites is difficult to interpret without discussing the important role of widely produced anti-noble caricatures that targeted France’s nobility. Anti-noble caricatures, ranging from the malicious to the comical, were an essential component in the rapid sidelining and demonization of the nobility. From approximately 1789-1793 anti-noble caricatures constantly degraded and demonized their targets, in unrelenting and accessible imagery, marking them out as traitorous enemies. Caricatures not only helped convince the public that nobles were not only inhuman, but so dangerous in fact, that persecution and violence became options in order to purge France of its alleged aristocratic fifth columnists. / Graduate

My subject is Legitimism in the Third Republic, focusing on the period 1877- 93, namely the period which witnessed both the stabilisation of the Republic and the decline and ultimate failure of Legitimism as a political movement. Legitimism can be read as a local phenomenon, which makes studying it in the local context an obvious approach. I have opted for a comparative study, selecting two contrasting departements in the Midi-Pyrenees, the Haute-Garonne and A veyron. I approach Legitimism as a political culture, examining the ideas and ideology that underpinned Legitimist activity. In particular I investigate the role of myths of the Revolution of 1789 within this political culture, given the context of the 'republican Republic' that took shape 1877-79 and drew explicitly on the Revolution to legitimate itself. I suggest that previous research on Legitimism has seriously underestimated the importance of these myths within the Legitimist movement. My study is centred on an examination of the struggles initiated by the advent of the 'republican Republic': the struggle for republican education, the struggle for republican politics and the struggle for republican symbolism. At all these levels the Legitimist conceptions of society and of the nature of France were challenged. Legitimist mobilisation in the face of these challenges revealed not only their social and political conceptions, but also raised questions about the political strength of Legitimism in the novel context of mass politics. I show the successes and the failures that ensued, the importance of the local dimension and discuss Legitimist engagement in broader reactionary politics, suggesting that standard studies of the French right in this period have neglected nondynastic clerical conservative politics. I conclude by offering a new perspective on the nature of Legitimism.

Pierre Paul Prud’hon (1758-1823) lived and worked as an artist during the last years of the French Monarchy, the Revolution, the Republic, the Empire and finally the Restoration. He mostly worked with allegory, setting him apart from other artists at the time, such as Jacques Louis David. While Prud’hon was a significant artist in his own time, he is only just being rehabilitated today. In this thesis I trace Prud’hon’s artistic career as an allegorical painter through the different governments, examining thematically his different types of allegories, from the moral to the political. In particular, the context of allegory is examined, including how Prud’hon approaches allegory and criticism and interpretation of his use of allegory. This examination of Prud’hon highlights what was so unusual about Prud’hon’s art – primarily his use, with reasonable success, of allegory. This alone makes it clear that he should be held in higher regard by today’s art historians.

No description available.

Francis Poulenc’s three-act opera Dialogues des Carmélites (1953-1956) depicts the struggles of the novice nun Blanche de la Force during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution. The use of Latin liturgical music at critical points in the opera conveys the ritualistic nature of Catholic worship. The spiritual message of mystical substitution, along with the closely related notion of vicarious suffering, imbue the opera with a spirituality that offers a sharp contrast to earlier operatic settings of Catholic texts, particularly during the age of grand opera. Marian devotion also plays an important role in the opera. The final tableau of the opera stages the execution of Blanche and her sisters, complete with the sound of a guillotine, with the nuns singing the Salve Regina as they proceed to the scaffold. The multivalence of the final tableau highlights the importance of voice and its absence. While the nuns, onstage spectators, and the guillotine are audibly present in the scene, the priest participates solely through gesture. The surfacing of the Lacanian Real in the silent moment of traumatic shock that follows the guillotine’s first fall allows for intertextual references to the opera in Poulenc’s Sonate pour Flûte et Piano (1957) to function as a work of remembrance.

Thesis advisor: Franklin Harkins / Thesis advisor: Brian Dunkle / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

No description available.

During the War of the First Coalition, the Army of the Sambre and Meuse, commanded by Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, played the decisive role against Coalition forces in the Low Countries. Created in June 1794, the army defeated the Allies at the battle of Second Fleurus on 26 June 1794 and commenced the Coalition’s retreat to the Rhine River. At the end of the year, Jourdan led the army to winter quarters along the left bank of the Rhine and achieved France’s historically momentous “natural frontier.” Despite its historical significance, the Army of the Sambre and Meuse has suffered from scant historical attention. Based largely on archival research, this thesis provides a detailed examination of the army’s performance during the Fleurus campaign. In addition, this thesis pursues several broader themes. A detailed study of the Sambre and Meuse Army provides insight into institutional military change during the late eighteenth century. While historians traditionally argue that the French Revolution inaugurated an attendant “revolution in military affairs,” this thesis presents evidence of evolutionary changes and continuities. Another important theme is the question of the combat effectiveness of French field armies during the Revolutionary epoch. Although historians typically present the French armies as unique and superior to their Old Regime opponents, this thesis demonstrates the effective parity between the armies of Revolutionary France and the Old Regime on the battlefield.