Death by Volcano: Revolutionary Theatre and Marie-Antoinette

This paper compares the trial and execution of Marie-Antoinette on 16 October 1793 with the performance, two days later, of Sylvain Marechal's hit play Le Judgement dernier des rois, which staged the death of all of Europe's monarchs by an exploding volcano. What links them is the revoluti...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	French studies 2013, Vol.67 (1), p.15-29
Main Author:	Perovic, Sanja
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	1700-1799 1755-1793 18th century Anonymous writers. Authors Capital punishment death drama Execution France French drama French literature French Revolution French speaking and English speaking literatures French speaking literatures History and criticism History and sciences of litterature History of literature Jugement dernier des rois Kings and rulers in literature Le Jugement dernier des rois Marechal, Sylvain Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (1755-93) Marie Antoinette, Queen, Consort of Louis XVI, King of France Marie-Antoinette [Queen] Maréchal, Pierre-Sylvain monarch Queen, consort of Louis XVI, King of France Queens Regicides in literature Revolutions in literature Royalty Terror Theater Theater studies Theatre Violence volcano symbolism
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	This paper compares the trial and execution of Marie-Antoinette on 16 October 1793 with the performance, two days later, of Sylvain Marechal's hit play Le Judgement dernier des rois, which staged the death of all of Europe's monarchs by an exploding volcano. What links them is the revolutionary concept of rupture, in which the historical breach with the past, associated with the death of the king, was to have established a new temporal relation between events. This article contends that the continued existence of the queen after the symbolic act of regicide and the official beginning of a new time reflects a profound crisis in the revolutionary self-image, a crisis fictively resolved by Marechal's utopian depiction of a world-historical revolution in which all of Europe's monarchs are naturally extinguished. For the volcano shows how revolutionary history requires the supplement of a symbolic terror in order to reintegrate events within a linear history of progress. By contextualizing the queen's trial within its own present, when revolutionary history was being actively constructed, this article aims to shed new light on the relation between revolutionary violence and the experience of time. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:	0016-1128 1468-2931 1468-2931