The French Revolution of 1789 in European Narratives

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Gerhart Hoffmeister (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.04: French Writing and Culture: Eighteenth-Century and the Enlightenment, 1700-1800.
Vol. editors: Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Jenny Mander (University of Cambridge), Síofra Pierse (University College Dublin), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

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Literature Topic

Dates

Date of occurrence 1795-1874

Places

France (Location)
Germany (Location)
United Kingdom (Location)

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Introduction

Since the beginning of Western civilization, literary works have been products and reflections of a particular culture and a specific stage in the moral and social development of the respective people. The interdependence between society and art has been accepted even for times of political fragmentation, above all for the Golden Age of Pericles and the dysfunctional Weimar Republic: the more political and social turmoil, the more the arts flourished. Expected is therefore a similar impact of the French Revolution not only on the fine arts (e.g., Jacques-Louis David), but also on fiction. The revolutionary slogan “liberté, égalité, fraternité” challenged the absolutism of the ancien régime both in government and its concomitant doctrines classiques in literature.

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2170 words

Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "The French Revolution of 1789 in European Narratives". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 April 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19321, accessed 21 November 2024.]

The French Revolution of 1789 in European Narratives

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