Representing Violence in France, 1760-1820

Thomas Wynn is Professor of French at Durham University. He has published on eighteenth-century theatre, reading practices, libertine writings, and Voltaire.

• Thomas Wynn, IntroductionI.Violence and the crisis of reasonJohn Dunkley, Gambling and violence: Loaisel de Tréogate as a neuroscientist? Olivier Ritz, Metaphors of popular violence in the Revolutionary debate in the wake of Edmund BurkeStéphanie Genand, Dreaming the Terror: the other stage of revolutionary violencePierre Saint-Amand, Gothic explosions: Révéroni Saint-Cyr’s Pauliska ou La Perversité moderneII.Violence and the (re)writing of historyCatriona Seth, The ‘dix août’ (10 August 1792) in literary textsMichèle Vallenthini, Violence in history and the rise of the historical novel: the case of the marquis de SadeYann Robert, The everlasting trials of Jean Calas: justice, theatre and trauma in the early years of the RevolutionPierre Frantz, Violence in the theatre of the RevolutionIII.Violence and institutionsThomas Wynn, Violence, vulnerability and subjectivity in SadeOdile Jaffré-Cook, The Bastille or the ‘Enfer de Dutailli de Saint-Pierre’Ourida Mostefai, Violence, terrorism and the legacy of the Enlightenment: debates around Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the RevolutionIV.Violence and moralityMalcolm Cook, Violence in the work of Bernardin de Saint-PierreRebecca Sopchik, Violence and the monster: the Private lives of the duc d’OrléansJean-Christophe Abramovici, ‘Avec une telle violence que…’: Sade’s use of the term violenceWill McMorran, The sound of violence: listening to rape in SadeMichel Delon, Violence in the novels of Charlotte [de] Bournon-MalarmeSummariesBibliographyIndex

‘Most of the essays refract the question of violence through literary genres and authors: the roman noir, émigré literature, sentimental fiction, Revolutionary pamphlets, [along with] a consideration of gambling in fictional life-stories. [They] show how a distinctly literary sensibility permeates our grasp of past violence.’- French studies