Reimagining Society in 18th Century French Literature

Happiness and Human Rights

AvJonas Ross Kjærgård

Häftad, Engelska, 2020

Del i serien Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature

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Beskrivning

The French revolutionary shift from monarchical to popular sovereignty came clothed in a new political language, a significant part of which was a strange coupling of happiness and rights. In Old Regime ideology, Frenchmen were considered subjects who had no need of understanding why what was prescribed to them would be in the interest of their happiness. The 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen equipped the French with a list of inalienable rights and if society would respect those rights, the happiness of all would materialize. This volume explores the authors of fictional literature who contributed alongside pamphleteers, politicians, and philosophers to the establishment of this new political arena, filled with sometimes vague, yet insisting notions of happiness and rights. The shift from monarchical to popular sovereignty and the corollary transition from subjects to citizens culminated in the summer of 1789 but it was preceded by an immense piece of imaginative work.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2020-09-30
Mått:152 x 229 x undefined mm
Vikt:440 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature
Antal sidor:222
Förlag:Taylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN:9780367666415

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Mer om författaren

Jonas Ross Kjærgård, PhD, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Aarhus University and recipient of the EliteResearch travel grant. He acquired his PhD degree at Aarhus University, Denmark, with a dissertation on French Revolutionary rights and literature. He has published articles and book chapters on literature and the French revolution and edited the volume Discursive Framings of Human Rights: Negotiating Agency and Victimhood (with Karen-Margrethe Simonsen), published by Birkbeck Law Press. He has begun a new research project on the literary history of the Haitian revolution.

Innehållsförteckning

Table of ContentsList of FiguresPrefaceIntroductionHappiness and the Politics of WordsThe Political Anthropology of Happiness and RightsLiteratureChapter I: The Unfinished DeclarationDebating the DeclarationNature and SocietyRights and DutiesEnmity and Passive CitizenshipLiteratureChapter II: What Was Literature?The Author-Politician and the Code of HistoryLouis-Sébastien Mercier and the Re-Awakening of Patriotic VirtueChoderlos de Laclos’ Reinterpretation of Dulce et UtileMarie-Joseph Chénier and the Author-LegislatorLiteratureChapter III: Louis-Sébastien Mercier and the Dream of a Happy FutureTemporality in Mercier’s Utopian ThoughtThe Form of Government in L’an 2440Taxation and the Duty of PatriotismLiteratureChapter IV: The Search for Order in Choderlos de Laclos’ Liaisons dangereusesLaclos and the Politics of Social FormsThe Rhythm of Social FormsThe Hierarchies of Social FormsLiteratureChapter V: The Regeneration of the State in Marie-Joseph Chénier’s Fénelon ou les religieuses de Cambrai Convent Life and Paternal InflexibilityThe Problem of HumannessPolitical Agency : From Unhappiness to HappinessThe Tableau Vivant: The Politics of the Happy EndingLiteratureConclusionLiteratureIndex