French Literature Reviews - 2026

Arlette Farge, Ils ont écrit leurs visages. Signalements de galériens et de délinquants.e.s du XVIIIe siècle
History, Politics and Society

In this fourth volume of the archVives collection, Arlette Farge examines the stigmatization of the common people's bodies through an 18th-century archival register that meticulously details the physical descriptions of galley slaves. Chained two by two, they were dragged across the roads and towns of France all the way to Marseille, and—for those who survived the brutal treatment—embarked as oarsmen on the King's galleys. In this procession of suffering, referred to in some texts as the "triumphal chariot," one encounters petty tradesmen from the streets and peasants, smugglers of counterfeit tobacco, petty thieves...

One encounters Jews and Protestants, deserting soldiers, and the young. The unearthed archives yield a list of portraits recorded by prison guards—rough descriptions of galley slaves focusing on distinctive marks, signs of disease, and wounds. Photography did not yet exist, and words were used to identify these prisoners who might at any moment attempt to escape. These few fleeting traces, which bear witness to the brutal confrontation between the "common folk" and the judicial and police apparatus, allow us to trace the gradual formation—during this Age of Enlightenment—of the procedures that would provide the emerging modern state with the levers to control and discipline the social body. Thanks to the framework provided by the archVives collection, Arlette Farge also allows herself to step slightly aside from her usual work as a historian.

For she approaches these written portraits through the specific lens of empathy—an approach that contrasts, across the centuries, with the anonymous identifications of a power that blindly categorized and stigmatized the common people. Two regimes of the gaze are thus exposed, two ways of approaching the portrait and the face, two ways of considering humanity. Finally, this sets up a contrast with contemporary control and identification measures, wherein power now more than ever imposes norms and mechanisms designed to discipline and/or criminalize populations who are most often victims of inequalities generated by that very power.

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Table of Contents

Prelude 15

Galleys, Galley Slaves, and Convicts 23

Identification 33

They are “Nothing,” They are “Other” 45

When Emotion Arises 59

Concluding, Perhaps 69

Now 75

Acknowledgements 123

The historical study of popular classes, marginality, and institutional power forms a central thread in modern French historiography. During the Old Regime, judicial archives and police registers frequently served as primary instruments for surveillance and social categorization. Scholars examining these materials often explore how administrative records construct deviant identities and reflect broader patterns of state discipline. In this volume, the author investigates eighteenth-century records concerning galley slaves and petty delinquents, examining the institutional mechanisms through which authorities monitored common people before the advent of modern photography.

Beyond administrative history, the work engages with questions of representation, empathy, and the confrontation between marginalized individuals and judicial apparatuses. Readers interested in eighteenth-century social history, historical archives, and the evolution of state control mechanisms may find the publication relevant to their inquiries.