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
creativeforce. 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.
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