Literatur der Französischen Revolution (review)

REVIEWS 349 Henning Krauß, ed. Literatur der Französischen Revolution. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler , 1988. xxix + 316pp. The French literature of the revolutionary period has been largely ignored for almost two centuries. The aesthetic judgments of nineteenth-century literary critics—invariably based on a comparison of "ephemeral" revolutionary writings with the "superior" works of the pre-revolutionary philosophes—were upheld until the 1970s. The dilemma is perhaps best illustrated by the works of the marquis de Sade. It was not until 1973 that they appeared in a French "édition définitive." Once admitted to the canon, however, they were, more often than not, meant to serve as a warning example of the "excesses" produced by the Revolution. Sade may be a special case, but the fact remains that literary history has neglected revolutionary literature. It is the aim of the present collection of essays not only to rewrite literary history but also to demonstrate the importance of a body of literature which has proved vastly influential for the modern period. The editor and the contributors have succeeded admirably in their intention. The essays argue, for instance, that it was during the Revolution that the transition was made from élite to mass literature, and that the theatre and the press had a vital role in this process. A great variety of genres addressed an ever-increasing and often semi-literate or illiterate public. And although revolutionary literature was dominated by rhetoric, it was not devoid of entertaining dimensions. Among the genres discussed in this volume are the press, mass literature, the theatre, songs and popular poetry, prose fiction , public rhetoric, counter-revolutionary writings, women's literature, and the Utopian works of de Sade. Together, the essays present a formidable introduction to an unjustly neglected literature. In his introduction, Henning Krauß focuses on the reception of revolutionary literature. Demonstrating its popular appeal, he also points out its differences from the literature produced by the philosophes. Since revolutionary writers addressed a large and often uneducated public, their writings are dominated by types and marked by stylization. Many works, such as plays and songs, were pure agitprop—although it is difficult to align or synchronize literary developments with revolutionary events. In fact, older forms and genres persisted; and in many cases it is hard to decide whether the writings had a direct influence. Krauß argues that the beginning of "la terreur" can be considered as a kind of watershed which saw the end of "littérature civique" and the rise of a more conservative literature, such as the "mélodrame," which tried to uphold revolutionary achievements as well as the new establishment. The important point about the literature written between 1789 and 1794 is that it destroyed the traditional borders between popular and élite cultures and that it created new patterns and forms of production and reception. The first essay assesses the changes within the classical French system of genres. Fritz Nies emphasizes the rise of new genres (divertissement, vaudeville, opéra-comique), a development largely ignored by literary historians, despite the fact that these genres brought about a radical change in "mentalité" and approaches to culture and literature. Although they were meant to serve as ideological weapons, the texts often embodied elements sufficient to undermine the revolutionary message. In fact, a number of contributors stress the ambivalence of revolutionary texts (Hudde, Rieger, Hausmann). Albert Gier points out the literary aspects of the revolutionary press in his very perceptive analysis of several periodical publications. Literary historians will find this article as interesting and provocative as Heinrich Hudde's appraisal of the theatre, in which he comments on the importance of the new public which demanded and got changes in the production of plays. Heinz Thoma turns the searchlight on another neglected area—songs and lyrics. Unfortunately , he does not seem to understand some of the radical aspects of the works he deals with (obscene songs, for instance). Dietmar Rieger, however, provides a convincing outline of the debt of French revolutionary fiction to tradition and its role in innovation. 350 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FICTION 2:4 Claiming that it is a fallacy to believe that everything produced after 1789 was revolutionary in spirit, Rieger shows that...