Inaug.-diss.--Leipzig. / Vita. "Literatur": p. [7]-8.

Thesis. / Bibliography: p. 37-39.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

La thèse examine certaines conceptions historiques, politiques et sociales d'un personnage-clé de la Révolution française, Maximilien Robespierre, par rapport à la tradition du républicanisme-classique. Elle identifie des traits caractéristiques de la culture politique tirée des républiques antiques : leur rhétorique et leurs stratégies de légitimation du pouvoir, appuyées sur des valeurs morales des aïeux, grands hommes et pères des républiques de l'Antiquité. Portant attention aux modèles de morale politique, par l'approche méthodologique de l'école de Cambridge qui exige l'interaction indissoluble entre la rhétorique collective et l'application individuelle par des acteurs politiques, il s'agit de suivre le "double rôle" de Robespierre, à la fois penseur et homme d'action, dont les conceptions correspondent à une nouvelle culture politique, partagée et contestée par les membres de l'élite intellectuelle française du XVIIIe siècle. Il s'agit ainsi d'interroger l'évolution des références à l'Antiquité républicaine comme moyen d'identification et d'interprétation, en un moyen d'action politique activement employé par les députés pour réclamer une sorte d'authenticité révolutionnaire, et la transformation de l'idéal républicain à l'ombre des événements révolutionnaires pour construire une première expérience républicaine en France. / The present PhD project examines certain concepts of historical, political and social nature, that are ascribed to a key figure of the French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre, and correspond to the classical-republican tradition. Hereby are traits to be identified that are characteristic of the political culture of ancient republics, including rhetorical strategies of legitimating power which are referencing moral qualities of famous and illustrious ancestors, statesman and founding fathers of the republics of Classical Antiquity. The methodological approach of the socalled Cambridge School, that claims an indissoluble interaction between a collectively used rhetorical style and its application by individual political actors, is being employed in order to draw attention to models of political moral and to follow Robespierre's "double-role" as political thinker and actor, whose concepts are corresponding to a new political culture that was shared as well as contested by his contemporaries, belonging to the cultural elite of eighteenth-century France. It is therefore interrogated the issus of the evolution of references to the Republican Antiquity from an approved rhetorical and artistic device to an instrument of political action at the end of the eighteenth-century, that had been actively employed by the deputies of the French National Assemblies in order to claim revolutionary authenticity ; as well as the transformation of the Republican ideal during the revolutionary process that made possible the advancement of a first republican experience in France.

L’étude de l’image de Robespierre dans le discours politique de la Restauration à la fin du XIXe siècle met en lumière le processus de construction de la légende dorée de Robespierre, légende qui n’a jamais été étudiée de manière précise, bien qu’elle ait influencé fortement l’historiographie. Forgée à partir de 1830 par des militants appartenant à la composante radicale du parti républicain, elle présente Robespierre comme le défenseur de l’égalité politique et sociale, le théoricien du droit à l’insurrection et l’apôtre d’une religion fraternelle qui doit servir de base à un nouveau contrat social. Cette étude montre aussi que la légende noire de Robespierre est traversée par des fractures idéologiques mal discernées jusqu’ici. La légende noire conservatrice/contre-révolutionnaire née sous la Révolution fait de Robespierre à la fois un tyran et un anarchiste niveleur et impie. La légende noire libérale qui se développe sous la Restauration en fait seulement un tyran clérical. Les légendes noires communiste et anarchiste, apparues respectivement au tournant de 1840 et sous la Deuxième République, dénoncent non seulement le cléricalisme de Robespierre mais aussi son manque d’ambition sociale. A la différence de la légende noire communiste, la légende noire anarchiste reprend l’image du tyran et critique le rôle de Robespierre dans la Terreur. Enfin, la légende noire libérale-républicaine apparue à partir du milieu du XIXe siècle s’inscrit dans le prolongement de la légende noire libérale tout en étant influencée par les légendes noires communiste et anarchiste et fait de Robespierre un tyran politique et clérical dont elle souligne le peu d’intérêt pour les questions économiques. / Studying the image of Robespierre in the political discourse from the Restauration to the end of the 19th century highlights the construction process of the golden legend of Robespierre, which has never been precisely analysed, although it influenced profoundly historiography. Built from 1830 onwards by militants belonging to the radical fringe of the republican movement, it presents Robespierre as the defender of political and social equality, the theoretician of the right to insurrection and the apostle of a brotherly religion, basis of a new social contract. This study also shows that Robespierre’s dark legend is split by ideological divides which remained until now unclear. A dark legend which can be called “conservative/counter-revolutionary” appeared during the Revolution. It describes Robespierre at the same time as a tyrant and as a godless leveller anarchist. The liberal dark legend appeared under the Restoration presents Robespierre only as a clerical tyrant. The communist and anarchist dark legends, which emerged respectively at the beginning of the 1840’s and under the Second Republic, point out not only Robespierre’s clericalism but also his lack of social concerns. Unlike the communist dark legend, the anarchist dark legend reuses the image of the tyrant and denounces Robespierre’s implication in the Terror. Finally, a republican-liberal dark legend emerges in the middle of the 19th century. It is a continuation of the liberal dark legend which is also influenced by the communist and anarchist dark legends. It presents Robespierre as a political and clerical tyrant and stresses on his lack of interest in economic issues.

This study deals with Gertrud Kolmar's literary texts, those that center upon the topic of the French Revolution. It endeavors to examine her poetic discourse dealing with the possibility of an alternative political leadership in a time of crisis. The texts comprise the essay "Bildnis Robespierres," the Robespierre cycle of poems, and the play Cecile Renault. These texts, in which Robespierre takes center stage, stand out from within the complete works of Kolmar. They were written between the fall of 1933 and March 1935 and may be read as texts of resistance against the Nazi dictatorship. / Since these texts have to be seen as a direct reaction to the historical developments of the period, they are being closely examined herein, hoping to unearth their political and ideological intent. Drawing upon the theories and conclusions of New Historicism, which assumes that the writer and her subject cannot exist outside their socio-historical environment, important historical influences have been taken into consideration, in an effort to establish possible aspects that have entered into Kolmar's literary message. / A close reading of these texts demonstrates that, by first using the genre of the essay, Kolmar searched for a positive alternative paradigm of power to counter the fascist totalitarian regime. She finds this ideal in the figure of Robespierre because of his virtue and strong sense of justice. Because Kolmar interprets the Revolution as incomplete--since the Jacobin adhered to his principles up to his death--these texts may be considered as a revolutionary call to take up the fight for human rights once again. In her poems, Kolmar poetically creates a model of ideal leadership in the figure of Robespierre. She propagates his strict and harsh rule, as he presented himself to his fellow citizens and accepts violence as necessary in order to establish justice. Thus, Kolmar's model is problematic, since it mirrors, and therefore, confirms the given dictatorial power structures of the National Socialists. In an attempt to justify the use of violence and force, Kolmar immerses her protagonist in the messianic-idea. In her play, she adheres to her model of Robespierre as a messianic figure. But in the light of the altruistic attributes and the fate of the young Cecile Renault, whom Robespierre sacrifices, he appears questioned in his role as the only possible redeemer figure. Therefore, this last Robespierre-text reveals an expanded awareness and an altered attitude of the author towards her historical environment.

This dissertation is an attempt to portray the revolutionary character of the American Civil War through a comparative methodology utilizing the French Revolution as both point of influence and as a parallel example. Within this novel context, subtle trends in the ideological development of the Republican Party's Radical wing undertake new meaning and an alternative revolutionary heritage takes shape around an idealization of the universalism of the French and Haitian Revolutions of the 1790s. The work argues that through a diffusion of ideas and knowledge of events from the streets of Paris into the fields of Haiti and onto the shores of the American coast, a small faction of militant abolitionists latched onto the ideal of the Haitian Revolution as their own legacy. By the late 1830s, this radical edge of the antislavery movement embarked onto two courses, both derived from and influenced by their newfound ideology. The first was towards violent direct action against slavery while the second aimed at legitimizing radical new legal theories and creating the political structure necessary to bring about their enforcement. While on the one hand John Brown and Gerrit Smith pursued militant action, on the other Alvan Stewart and Salmon P. Chase sought a political and legal redefinition of American society through the Liberty and eventually Republican parties. With the coming of war in the 1860s, these two trends, violence and radical politics, converged in the Union war effort. In the midst of the Civil War and the early fight for Reconstruction, Radical Republicans and their allies in the Union Army displayed themselves as American Jacobins. Through a set of comparisons with French Revolutionary events and political debates, this thesis argues that the result of the ideological development between the American Revolution and the Civil War Era in the United States was the creation of a revolutionary ideology parallel to that of French Jacobinism. By the time of their fall from power, the Radical Republicans had seen their ideals both lambasted as the radical edge of politics and then transformed into the status quo, helping to prepare the nation for modernity.

No description available.

Pareils à nombre de révolutionnaires français, Robespierre et Condorcet souhaitent rompre avec l'Ancien régime en reconnaissant la souveraineté naturelle du peuple et les droits naturels des hommes. Cependant, en démocrates assumés et conséquents, ils se singularisent en présentant la nécessité du gouvernement représentatif comme une étape provisoire de la réalisation libre et heureuse des hommes et non comme une fin. Convaincus d’une nature humaine perfectible, habilitant l’homme à un devenir libre et heureux, les deux révolutionnaires sont conduits à promouvoir, l’idée d’un droit perfectible et celle d’une constitution transitoire capable d’articuler souveraineté du peuple et gouvernement à la naturalisation progressive des institutions et des hommes. Les progrès de l’autoconstitution du peuple souverain, appuyés par ses représentants provisoires, engagent les conditions d’une autonomisation de la société et ouvrent la voie à celle de l’individu en réconciliant l’État et la société. / Like many French revolutionaries, Robespierre and Condorcet wish to break with the Ancien Régime (Old Regime) by acknowledging the natural sovereignty of the people and the natural rights of men. However, as asserted and consistent democrats, they stand out by presenting the need of a representative government, not as an end, but as a provisional step to men’s achievement of freedom and happiness. Convinced of a perfectible human nature, empowering man to become free and happy, the two revolutionaries are led to promote the idea of a perfectible right and a transitional constitution which can connect sovereignty of the people and government to progressive naturalization of institutions and men. The progress in self-constitution of popular sovereignty, supported by its temporary representatives, sets the conditions of society’s empowerment and paves the way to that of the individual by reconciling the State and the society.