Mass Violence and the Self

G. Brown Howard

Description

Mass Violence and the Self explores the earliest visual and textual depictions of personal suffering caused by the French Wars of Religion of 1562-98, the Fronde of 1648-52, the French Revolutionary Terror of 1793-94, and the Paris Commune of 1871. The development of novel media from pamphlets and woodblock printing to colored lithographs, illustrated newspapers, and collodion photography helped to determine cultural, emotional, and psychological responses to these four episodes of mass violence.Howard G. Brown's richly illustrated and conceptually innovative book shows how the increasingly effective communication of the suffering of others combined with interpretive bias to produce what may be understood as collective traumas. Seeing these responses as collective traumas reveals their significance in shaping new social identities that extended beyond the village or neighborhood. Moreover, acquiring a sense of shared identity, whether as Huguenots, Parisian bourgeois, French citizens, or urban proletarians, was less the cause of violent conflict than the consequence of it. Combining neuroscience, art history, and biography studies, Brown explores how collective trauma fostered a growing salience of the self as the key to personal identity. In particular, feeling empathy and compassion in response to depictions of others' emotional suffering intensified imaginative self-reflection. Protestant martyrologies, revolutionary "autodefenses," and personal diaries are examined in the light of cultural trends such as the interiorization of piety, the culture of sensibility, and the birth of urban modernism to reveal how representations of mass violence helped to shape the psychological processes of the self.

Sujets

• History of art
• History of Europe
• France

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501730702
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 250 Mo

Extrait

Mass Violence and the Self

Mass Violence & the Self

from the french wars of religion to the paris commune

Howard G. Brown

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca & London

Copyright © 2018 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

First published 2018 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Names: Brown, Howard G., author. Title: Mass violence and the self : from the French wars of religion to the Paris Commune / Howard G. Brown. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2018. Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018014899 (print) | LCCN 2018017113 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501730702 (pdf ) | ISBN 9781501730726 (epub/mobi) | ISBN 9781501730610 (cloth : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Violence—France—History. | Political violence—France—History. | Psychic trauma—France— History. | Collective memory—France—History. | Identity (Psychology) —France—History. | Group identity—France—History. | Self (Philosophy) — France—History. Classification: LCC HN440.V5 (ebook) | LCC HN440.V5 B78 2018 (print) | DDC 303.60944—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018014899

Cover image: Detail fromThe Massacre at Lyon, ordered by Collot d’Herbois at the head of 100000 sansculottes. Stipple engraving by James Idnarpila (Giacomo Aliprandi) after original by Jacques Bertaux (London, 1804). Bibliothèque nationale de France.

c o n t e n t s

List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: A Discourse on Method

1. Massacres in the French Wars of Religion 2. The Fronde and the Crisis of 1652 3. The Thermidorians’ Terror 4. The Paris Commune and the “Bloody Week” of 1871

Conclusion

Notes 229 Index 277

Plates are at the end.

1

34 77 113 161

216

v

i l l u s t r a t i o n s

Figures Figure 1. “The Massacre at Cahors in Quercy, 19 November 1561” 57 Figure 2. “The Massacre at Sens in Burgundy done by the populace in the month of April 1562” 60 Figure 3. Catholic polemic: Huguenots as iconoclastic monkeys subjugating a lion that represents both Lyon and France 72 Figure 4. A supporter of the Fronde exhorting Parisians to revolt against Cardinal Mazarin 87 Figure 5. The Hôtel de Ville in Paris during the Fronde 101 Figure 6. The entry of Louis XIV into Paris, 21 October 1652 111 Figure 7. Drowning rebels in the Loire during the Vendée civil war of 1793 125 Figure 8. “Government of Robespierre.” Samson the executioner, having already guillotined various groups of people, cuts off his own head. 128 Figure 9. “Monument raised to the spirits of victims immolated at Lyon by the terrorists” 150 Figure 10. Royalist cutthroat with an assault on a Jacobin in the background 157 Figure 11. “Massacre that happened at Montpellier” (fictional) 158 Figure 12. “Incendiaries: pétroleuses and their accomplices” 173 Figure 13. Communards killed defending a barricade, 24 May 1871 180 Figure 14. “Paris—Summary execution of insurgents, agents of the Commune, rue SaintGermainL’Auxerrois, 25 May at 6:30” 181 Figure 15. Rebels killed in the fighting at La Roquette prison during Bloody Week 182 Figure 16. “The end of the Commune. The execution of a pétroleuse.” 183 Figure 17. “Memories of the Commune—an execution in the Luxembourg Gardens” 185

vii

viiio f I l l u s t r a t i o n sL i s t

Figure 18. “Arresting women, one in a National Guard uniform, accused of shooting an officer” 186 Figure 19. “A column of incendiaries led to the Champs de Mars, 24 May” 199 Figure 20. Visitors leaving accused Communards imprisoned at the military camp of Satory near Versailles 200

Plates (at the end)

Plate 1. “The Massacre at Vassy the first of March 1562” Plate 2. “The Massacre at Tours done by the populace in the month of July 1562” Plate 3. Protestant iconoclasm at Lyon Plate 4. Assassination of Admiral Coligny and massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day Plate 5. Desecration of graves by Protestants Plate 6. “Narrative of Mazarin being forced into exile at Sedan” Plate 7. “Pillaging and Burning a Village” Plate 8. Massive procession of the relics of Sainte Geneviève and others at Paris on 11 June 1652 Plate 9. Battle in the faubourg SaintAntoine between rebel forces under the Prince de Condé and royalist forces under Marshal Turenne, 2 July 1652, with the Bastille in the background Plate 10. “The Massacre at Lyon ordered by Collot d’Herbois in 1793” Plate 11. “Plagues of Egypt or the state of France from 1789 to the establishment of the current constitution” Plate 12. “The Harsh Means of Joseph Lebon” Plate 13. “Tableau of some of the crimes committed during the Revolution and especially under the National Convention” Plate 14. Destruction on the rue de Rivoli in Paris, May 1871 Plate 15. “Their Works.” Five “infamous” civilian and military leaders of the Versailles government led by Adolphe Thiers Plate 16. “Massacre of the Dominicans from Arcueil, 25 May 1871” Plate 17. Paris burning Plate 18. “Women defending the barricade at the Place Blanche” Plate 19. “Capturing Montmartre on 23 May” Plate 20. “Attack on the Place Vendôme on 23 May” Plate 21. “Death of M. Darboy, Archbishop of Paris” Plate 22. Burned ruins of the Hôtel de Ville

L i s t o f I l l u s t r a t i o n six

Plate 23. “Shrouding the dead at the Ambulances de la Presse: harvest of one day’s combat” Plate 24. “A corner of the room for those shot and deposited at the Ambulances de la Presse, rue Oudinot” Plate 25. Identifying a dead body after the taking of a barricade Plate 26. “To his excellence Monsieur Thiers, head of the executive power of the rural Republic. Bravo Adolphe! William is just a coward!!!” Plate 27. Corpses photographed during May 1871 for the purpose of identification Plate 28. Selfcommissioned photographs of members of the Commune Pilotell and Gaudon in a photograph album assembled by the police Plate 29. Communards photographed by Eugène Appert in the prisons of Versailles