The French Revolution and Its Legacy
Leaping Democracy into the Unlimited
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
This book offers an interpretation of the French Revolution and modern democracy, arguing that the revolution gave rise to a democratic power that is liminal by nature, and therefore unlimited, unaccountable on principle, and the basis for a state religion of continuous transformation. It demonstrates these claims by focusing on the universally adulated but little understood sacred motto 'liberté, egalité, fraternité', and on the sacrifice and role of Louis XVI in the revolution. Analysing the revolutionary process by which representative democratic government took the shape of political metamorphosis, the book shows that modern democracy does not represent the people but refers to the representation of representation and the existential condition of permanent displacement. The present study will appeal to scholars from across the social, political and human sciences with an interest in the French Revolution, modern democracy, political modernity, contemporary politics and the history of art.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Endorsement Page
- Half-Title Page
- Series Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Prologue
- Introduction: Framing the French Revolution as fundamental problem of the contemporary
- 1 In and out of the methodological cave: The French Revolution as liminal event and predicament of the sacred
- 2 The French Revolution and the constitution of metamorphic power (I): From the liminal void to liberté egalité fraternité
- 3 The French Revolution and the constitution of metamorphic power (II): Jacques Louis Davidâs Tennis Court Oath and the vision of modern democracy as political metamorphosis
- 4 Liminality and the disincorporation of royal power: The revolutionary events as symbolic-existential breaks with the past
- 5 The execution of Louis XVI and the rise of terror and civil war
- 6 Louis XVI between angelization and the sacrifice of love: The philosophical anthropology of the Christian prince
- Conclusion
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Name Index
- Subject Index