The Bastille: A History of a Symbol of Despotism and FreedomThis book is both an analysis of the Bastille as cultural paradigm and a case study on the history of French political culture. It examines in particular the storming and subsequent fall of the Bastille in Paris on July 14, 1789 and how it came to represent the cornerstone of the French Revolution, becoming a symbol of the repression of the Old Regime. Lüsebrink and Reichardt use this semiotic reading of the Bastille to reveal how historical symbols are generated; what these symbols’ functions are in the collective memory of societies; and how they are used by social, political, and ideological groups. To facilitate the symbolic nature of the investigation, this analysis of the evolving signification of the Bastille moves from the French Revolution to the nineteenth century to contemporary history. The narrative also shifts from France to other cultural arenas, like the modern European colonial sphere, where the overthrow of the Bastille acquired radical new signification in the decolonization period of the 1940s and 1950s. The Bastille demonstrates the potency of the interdisciplinary historical research that has characterized the end of this century, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, and taking its methodological tools from history, sociology, linguistics, and cultural and literary studies. |
Contents
Editors Introduction | v |
Genesis of a Political Symbol The Bastille 17151789 | 4 |
The Storming of the Bastille The Historical Event as Collective Symbolic Action | 36 |
Revolutionary Symbolism under the Sign of the Bastille 17891799 A Prime Example of the SelfMystification of the French Revolution | 77 |
Bastille Symbolism in Modern France The Republican Legacy of the French Revolution | 203 |
Other editions - View all
The Bastille: A History of a Symbol of Despotism and Freedom Hans-Jurgen Lusebrink,Rolf Reichardt No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
14 Juillet 14 July ancien régime anonymous Archives August Bastille relics Bastille stones Bastille symbolism Beffroy de Reigny Bibliothèque Nationale cannons celebrations citizens Citoyens city hall collective symbol conquerors conspiracy contemporary Count de Lorges Courrier crowd département despotism Discours prononcé dungeons Dusaulx engraving Estampes etching events of 14 Faubourg Saint-Antoine festival Fête figure fortress France French Revolution German governor heroes Histoire Humbert Ibid imprisonment jour Journal journalistic Journée July Revolution king la Bastille Latude Launay Launay's letter lettres de cachet liberation Liberté Linguet Louis XVI March Marseille Mémoires Mirabeau Moniteur monument Napoléon Bonaparte National Assembly National Guard newspaper official Palais-Royal Palloy's pamphlet Parein patriotic Peuple Pierre Pierre-François Palloy political popular Prise published razing Reichardt Renneville reports reprinted republican Révolution française revolutionary Révolutions de Paris royal sequence social Société speech storming symbol Bastille texts tille tion Titon-Bergeras tyranny Vainqueurs victims victors vols Voltaire
Popular passages
Page 292 - ... insurrections de l'ouest, 2 Bde. Paris 1929-30. 5 Jacques CRÉTiNEAU-JoLY, Histoire de la Vendée militaire, 4 Bde. Paris 1840-42; Emile GABORY, La Révolution et la Vendée, 3 Bde. Paris 1925. Vgl. Claude PETTTFRERE, Une société mythique à l'origine de la légende dorée vendéenne, in: L'événement.