The rhetoric of historical representation : three narrative histories of the French Revolution

The role which narrative discourse plays in the writing of history is an area of increasing interest to historians and literary theorists, resulting in some of the most stimulating and controversial historiographical work in recent years. The rhetoric of historical representation represents one of the first attempts to carry out a sustained textual analysis of historiographical practice. Ann Rigney focusses on three celebrated nineteenth-century histories of the French Revolution, written by Alphonse de Lamartine, Jules Michelet and Louis Blanc. What distinguishes her account is the sensitivity and sophistication with which she handles the semiotic issues each text raises. She shows how a greater understanding of the specific features of historical narration can be achieved through a comparative analysis of the different representations of a common event. This fresh new perspective on a long-standing historiographical debate brings into relief the ways in which the narrative medium can be used to invest events with one significance rather than another. Ann Rigney focusses on three celebrated nineteenth-century histories of the French Revolution. The role which narrative discourse plays in the writing of history is an area of increasing interest to historians and literary theorists, resulting in some of the most stimulating and controversial historiographical work in recent years. The rhetoric of historical representation represents one of the first attempts to carry out a sustained textual analysis of historiographical practice. Ann Rigney focusses on three celebrated nineteenth-century histories of the French Revolution, written by Alphonse de Lamartine, Jules Michelet and Louis Blanc. What distinguishes her account is the sensitivity and sophistication with which she handles the semiotic issues each text raises. She shows how a greater understanding of the specific features of historical narration can be achieved through a comparative analysis of the different representations of a common event. This fresh new perspective on a long-standing historiographical debate brings into relief the ways in which the narrative medium can be used to invest events with one significance rather than another In Book 47 of his history of the Girondins (1847), Lamartine recounts how Verniaud's brother-in-law, a certain M. Alluaud, came to Paris from Limoges in order to bring money to the imprisoned Girondin leader, who had already been stripped of his worldly possessions and was soon afterwards to die on the scaffold; how he was accompanied by his ten-year-old son who, terrified, hid from the sight of the famished, pale face of his uncle, with his torn and dirty clothes, his unkempt hair and his long beard; how the child clung to his father, but how Vergniaud took him up in his arms: 'Mon enfant, lui dit le prisonnier en le prenant dans ses bras, rassuretoi et regarde-moi bien; quand tu seras homme, tu diras que tu as vu Vergniaud, le fondateur de la Republique, dans le plus beau temps et dans le plus glorieux costume de sa vie: celui ou il souffrait la persecution des scelerats, et ou il se preparait a mourir pour les hommes libres'. Considers Lamartine's Histoire des Girondins, Michelet's Histoire de la Révolution française and Blanc's Histoire de la Révolution française Ann Rigney. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [177]-183) And Index.