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Imagination and Revolution: Guidelines for a Historiography of the Literature of the Paris Commune of 1871

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

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The purposes of this study are threefold: to consider the possible significance of literary art created by supporters of the Commune of 1871; to assess the contribution made by past studies of this literature; and to suggest an approach to its effective utilization as historical documentation.

Type
De La Litterature a L'Histoire
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1972

References

page 539 note 1 Aspects of this discussion were raised briefly in a paper presented to the XIth congress of the International Federation for Modern Languages and Literature, 1969.

page 540 note 1 Cri du Peuple, 28 mars 1871.

page 540 note 2 Included in Pottier, E., Chants révolutionnaires (Paris, 1887).Google Scholar Set to music by Pierre Degeyter in 1888.

page 542 note 1 Descaves' extensive research into the Commune also served as inspiration for his own novels about it: La Colonne (Paris, 1901) and Philémon, vieux de la vieille (Paris, 1913).

page 542 note 2 Danilin, Ju., Poety Parižskoj Kommuny, torn I (Moscow, 1947).Google Scholar

page 542 note 3 Schulkind, E. W., La Littérature de la Commune de 1871, thesis for “doctorat d'université” (Paris, 1951), typewritten.Google Scholar

page 542 note 4 Fréville, Jean, “La Commune et la litterature”, in: Europe, avril 1951, pp. 73111.Google Scholar

page 542 note 5 Fischer, Jan O., “La poésie de la Commune dans l'évolution littéraire”, in: Philologica Pragensia, IX (1966), pp. 163174.Google Scholar

page 543 note 1 Gille, Gaston, Jules Vallès. 1832–1885. I: Ses révoltes, sa maîtrise, son prestige. II: Sources, Bibliographie. Préface de Lucien Descaves (Paris, 1941).Google Scholar

page 543 note 2 See Choury (cf. note 5 below) for an up to date summary of the “battle”.

page 543 note 3 Danilin, Ju., Antologija poezii Parižskoj Kommuny 1871 goda (Moscow, 1948).Google Scholar

page 543 note 4 Les poètes de la Commune. Avec une préface de Jean Varloot pour le quatre-vingtième anniversaire de la Commune de Paris (Paris, 1951).Google Scholar

page 543 note 5 Les poètes de la Commune. Présentéd parMauriceChoury. Préface de Jean-Pierre Chabrol (Paris, 1970).Google Scholar

page 543 note 6 Although there is evidence to demonstrate Verlaine's sympathy for the Commune both before and after its defeat, only one poem, “Les Vaincus”, is known to express this attitude (in the sections added in 1872). Elsewhere in his poetry there are only but the remotest references. Yet one finds, in the edition of Choury, for example, “Des Morts”, written before 1848, and “Mort!”, which not only contains no reference to the Commune but was written in 1895.

page 543 note 7 Hugo, Victor did not support the Commune either publicly or in his poetry; nor did he support Versailles. In various poems that appeared in l'Année terrible (Paris, 1872)Google Scholar he expresses his revulsion at the barbarity of the repression, his compassion for the victims and his respect for their idealism.

page 544 note 1 When the song appeared in the 1885 edition of his Chansons, it was accompanied by a note that the poem now reminded him of a woman whom he had glimpsed at a barricade fourteen years earlier. However, the song proper was composed in 1866 and expresses no political allusions.

page 545 note 1 La Fédération des Artistes was formerly created at a meeting on the 13th April. An account of the meeting and a statement of the declaration of principles issued by it can be found in the Journal Officiel [Commune], 15 avril 1871.

page 547 note 1 Cf. Dubois, Jean, Le vocabulaire politique et social en France de 1869 à 1872 (Paris, 1962).Google Scholar

page 549 note 1 A recent study, Georges Coulonges, La Commune en chantant (Paris, 1970)Google Scholar deals with the image of the Commune in popular songs, but once again the contribution is vitiated by the same impressionistic and loose conception of earlier works.

page 550 note 1 The first two sections of this poem appeared in La Gazette rimée in 1867. Only the last two relate to the Commune and appear to have been added in 1872. At that time several inconsequential changes were made in the first two sections.

page 550 note 2 There is universal agreement that “Les Mains de Jeanne-Marie” was probably written in the summer of 1871. The manuscript for “L'Orgie parisienne on Paris se repeuple” bears the date of “mai 1871”.