French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. De Baecque, La Révolution terrorisée
History, Politics and Society
Bibliographic reference: Antoine de Baecque, La Révolution terrorisée, Paris: CNRS, 2017
EAN: 9782271116062
238 pages
A caricature published in 1794 depicts Robespierre as a tyrant obsessed with death, going so far as to wish "to behead himself after guillotining the last of the French." In these traumatic images, Robespierre's France—a Republic of Terror—resembles a vast cemetery flooded by rivers of blood. Corpses infiltrate every representation.
Examining this political moment gripped by terror is the purpose of this book, which brings together roughly a dozen studies by Antoine de Baecque. By observing the various forms of symbolic, physical, or staged violence that pervaded the political sphere at the time, the historian highlights Hercules—the Armed Force wielding a club who emerged as a new allegory for France, standing alongside the goddess Liberty. The goal was to give physical form to the Republic and intimidate its detractors, while forging a colossal entity capable of legitimately fighting the monarchical giant by terrorizing the enemies of the people.
This book offers a fresh reading and rethinking of the Terror, demonstrating how the tangible presence of corpses and the power of a morbid imagination enabled revolutionaries to gauge (and misgauge) the sheer violence of the upheavals they unleashed, thereby justifying their policy of dread.
Antoine de Baecque, a professor at the École normale supérieure and a cultural historian of politics, specializes in representations ranging from the 18th century to cinema. His previous works on the French Revolution include Le Corps de l’histoire (1993), La gloire et l’effroi (1997), Les Éclats du rire (2000), and La France de la Révolution (2011). He has recently published his first novel, Les Talons rouges, which draws fictional inspiration from many of the historical essays gathered in this collection.
More information can be found on the publisher's website
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An article on this book can be read on en-attendant-nadeau.fr:
Antoine de Baecque's collection of studies contributes to the cultural and political history of the French Revolution, a foundational period in modern European history defined by radical political transformation and violent ideological conflict. As a leading scholar of political representations and a professor at the École normale supérieure, the author situates his work within the broader historiographical tradition of examining how collective mentalities, symbols, and iconography shaped revolutionary governance. By investigating the mechanisms of the Terror, the book engages with long-standing debates concerning state-sponsored violence and the ways political regimes manufacture legitimacy through fear.
This volume will be of particular value to historians, cultural studies scholars, and readers interested in the French Revolution, political anthropology, and the genealogy of modern state power. It provides useful insights for those seeking to understand how visual and bodily metaphors—from the omnipresent figure of the corpse to the allegorical representation of Hercules—functioned as instruments of political communication. Researchers and students examining the intersection of aesthetics, emotion, and politics during periods of profound historical rupture will find this collection a helpful resource for reinterpreting the dynamics of revolutionary dread.