The Paris Commune of 1871 in Selected Texts of French Prose Fiction

<p>The thesis consists essentially of a consideration of the Paris Commune of 1871 as represented in the following texts: l'Apprentie by Gustave Geffroy; l'Ami de l'Ordre by Jerome and Jean Tharaud; Bas les Coeurs and l'Epaulette by Georges Darien; la Colonne and Philemon vieux de la vieille by Lucien Descaves; les Massacres de Paris by Jean Cassou. With two exceptions (Bas les Coeurs (1889) and les Massacres de Paris (1935)) these works appeared during the opening fifteen years of the twentieth century. In addition to its obvious function of introducing the principal authors discussed, the Introduction provides background information to (and attempts to set the tone for) material examined in the main body of the thesis. Chapters one and Two, devoted to Gustave Geffroy and the Tharaud brothers respectively, consider the commune primarily in terms of its effects upon, and consequences for, individuals and families at the time. Georges Darien's savage denunciation of the bourgeois order - an indictment in which the Paris Commune serves an essential purpose - is considered in chapter Three. The fourth chapter (centred upon la colonne by Lucien Descaves) entails discussion of the commune's repudiation - through the toppling of the vendome column - of warmongering and chauvinism. In Philemon vieux de la vieille, the Commune is seen essentially in terms of its continued significance for former communards looking back, during the early l900's, to the seventy-two days' and the years of exile. Jean Cassou's characterisation of leading participants in the Commune notably Louis Rossel, Louise Michel and Jaroslaw Dombrowski - provides the principal focus for discussion in chapter six. Sources used by both Descaves and Cassou are considered in the relevant chapters. To complement material in Chapters One to Six, appendices relating to three texts (Un Communard by Leon Deffoux; le Mur by Maurice Montegut; la commune by Paul and Victor Margueritte) are included. Throughout the thesis, references are frequently made to, and comparisons drawn with, other writers who have portrayed the commune: notably Emile Zola, Leon Cladel and Jules Valles.</p>

The Paris Commune of 1871 in Selected Texts of French Prose Fiction

<p>The thesis consists essentially of a consideration of the Paris Commune of 1871 as represented in the following texts: l'Apprentie by Gustave Geffroy; l'Ami de l'Ordre by Jerome and Jean Tharaud; Bas les Coeurs and l'Epaulette by Georges Darien; la Colonne and Philemon vieux de la vieille by Lucien Descaves; les Massacres de Paris by Jean Cassou. With two exceptions (Bas les Coeurs (1889) and les Massacres de Paris (1935)) these works appeared during the opening fifteen years of the twentieth century. In addition to its obvious function of introducing the principal authors discussed, the Introduction provides background information to (and attempts to set the tone for) material examined in the main body of the thesis. Chapters one and Two, devoted to Gustave Geffroy and the Tharaud brothers respectively, consider the commune primarily in terms of its effects upon, and consequences for, individuals and families at the time. Georges Darien's savage denunciation of the bourgeois order - an indictment in which the Paris Commune serves an essential purpose - is considered in chapter Three. The fourth chapter (centred upon la colonne by Lucien Descaves) entails discussion of the commune's repudiation - through the toppling of the vendome column - of warmongering and chauvinism. In Philemon vieux de la vieille, the Commune is seen essentially in terms of its continued significance for former communards looking back, during the early l900's, to the seventy-two days' and the years of exile. Jean Cassou's characterisation of leading participants in the Commune notably Louis Rossel, Louise Michel and Jaroslaw Dombrowski - provides the principal focus for discussion in chapter six. Sources used by both Descaves and Cassou are considered in the relevant chapters. To complement material in Chapters One to Six, appendices relating to three texts (Un Communard by Leon Deffoux; le Mur by Maurice Montegut; la commune by Paul and Victor Margueritte) are included. Throughout the thesis, references are frequently made to, and comparisons drawn with, other writers who have portrayed the commune: notably Emile Zola, Leon Cladel and Jules Valles.</p>

The First Workers’ Government in History: Karl Marx’s Addenda to Lissagaray’s History of the Commune of 1871

In Marxist circles it is common to refer to Karl Marx’s The Civil War in France for a theoretical analysis of the historical significance of the Paris Commune, and to Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray’s History of the Commune of 1871 for a description of the facts surrounding the insurrection of the Paris workers and its repression by the National Assembly led by Adolphe Thiers. What is less well-known is that Marx himself oversaw the German translation of Lissagaray’s book and made numerous additions to it. In this article we describe Marx’s addenda to Lissagaray’s work, showing how they contribute to concretising his analysis of the Paris Commune and how they relate to the split in the International Working Men’s Association between Marxists and anarchists that took place after the Commune’s defeat. We also show how Marx’s additions to the German version of Lissagaray’s book were linked to his involvement with the recently created Socialist Workers’ Party of Germany and to his criticism of the programme it had adopted at the congress celebrated in the city of Gotha.

Introduction

While scholarly interest is often drawn to the more tumultuous Paris Commune of 1871, insistence on this moment of revolution and civil war obscures the specific stakes of the Siege of Paris, which was not as much a revolution as a moment of suspension in French history. Cut off from the rest of the world, Parisians were left to their own devices during the Siege. What resulted was a literary industry with few established authors present, limited resources, and enormous demand. Despite the circumstances, Parisians turned to literature to alleviate their isolation and bear witness to the unspeakable tragedy that surrounded them. The relative anonymity of Parisian literary production during the Siege has erroneously led to the conclusion that culture came to a standstill during this period. However, a closer look at literary institutions, which weathered the storm of national defeat remarkably well, shows that literature does not disappear in times of war: it simply changes form. The introduction defines the four major sites of cultural production and the networks that existed within and among them: theaters, newspapers, personal writing, and book publishing.

Cinema, Anarchism, and Revolution

This chapter examines cinema's representation of anarchist heroes, martyrs, and fleeting revolutionary moments, formulating a critique of mainstream socialism that is far from the banalities of bourgeois sociology. Two films, Bo Widerberg's Joe Hill (1971) and Giuliano Montaldo's Sacco and Vanzetti (1971), deal with a transitional historical period before the final polarization of Bolshevism and anarchism. These films are reverential tributes to radical martyrs, and reflect the fact that these members of the Old Left pantheon have long been heralded as all-purpose leftists whose legacies provide useful object-lessons for socialists, liberals, and communists, as well as anarchists. The chapter then looks at the documentary and fiction films inspired by the Spanish Revolution of the 1930s. It also considers a prototypical sequence in Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg's Soviet avant-garde epic New Babylon (1929), which sums up the grassroots anti-authoritarianism of the seventy-two-day Paris Commune of 1871, while prefiguring the Spanish libertarian communism of the 1930s and the anti-statist radicalism that erupted during the events of May 1968 in France.

7. Down the mine

‘Down the mine’ considers the role of the mining community on Zola. The bloody events of the Paris Commune of 1871, when a revolutionary uprising of citizens declared the city independent from the government, convinced Zola that he should write a novel that addressed revolutionary activity in a contemporary setting. Germinal describes a strike in a mining community in northern France, led by Gervaise Macquart’s son Étienne Lantier. The novel was influenced by the socialist ideas that were becoming widespread, with characters representing militant, moderate, and anarchist ideals. Germinal depicts a moment in history when the workers begin to find a political voice. But the strike fails, and the ending is ambiguous, with Étienne leaving for Paris to continue his struggle there.