Start Date
12-6-2011 9:30 AM
Subject Areas
Europe, modern, bodies, violence
Abstract
This essay explains how William Reddy's theory of emotions helps a biographer interpret emotional language in letters from the French Revolution. Rosalie Jullien was the wife and mother of active revolutionaries. She maintained a private existence, but she was nevertheless deeply affected by the Revolution. The effect I study here is the physical and emotional toll she suffered during Year II, which saw the Reign of Terror. I argue that the "emotional regime" established during the Terror prohibited her from expressing emotions freely, including a suppression of her statements of physical illness.
Keywords
French Revolution, Terror, emotion, health
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
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The Toll of Terror: Pain and Privacy in the French Revolution
This essay explains how William Reddy's theory of emotions helps a biographer interpret emotional language in letters from the French Revolution. Rosalie Jullien was the wife and mother of active revolutionaries. She maintained a private existence, but she was nevertheless deeply affected by the Revolution. The effect I study here is the physical and emotional toll she suffered during Year II, which saw the Reign of Terror. I argue that the "emotional regime" established during the Terror prohibited her from expressing emotions freely, including a suppression of her statements of physical illness.