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VISIONING THE NATION: CLASSICAL IMAGES AS ALLEGORY DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

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Date Issued:
2007
Abstract/Description:
In the latter half of the Eighteenth Century, France experienced a seismic shift in the nature of political culture. The king gave way to the nation at the center of political life as the location of sovereignty transferred to the people. While the French Revolution changed the structure of France's government, it also changed the allegorical representations of the nation. At the Revolution's onset, the monarchy embodied both the state and nation as equated ideas. During the Revolutionary Decade and through the reign of Napoleon different governments experienced the need to reorient these symbols away from the person of the king to the national community. Following the king's execution, the Committee government invented connections to the ancient past in order to build legitimacy for their rule in addition to extricating the monarchy's symbols from political life. During the rule of Napoleon, he used classical symbols to associate himself with Roman Emperors to embody the nation in his person. Through an examination of the different types of classical symbols that each government illustrates the different ways that attempted to symbolically document this important shift in the location of sovereignty away from the body of the king to the nation.
Title: VISIONING THE NATION: CLASSICAL IMAGES AS ALLEGORY DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
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Name(s): Reed, Kristopher, Author
Lyons, Amelia, Committee Chair
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2007
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: In the latter half of the Eighteenth Century, France experienced a seismic shift in the nature of political culture. The king gave way to the nation at the center of political life as the location of sovereignty transferred to the people. While the French Revolution changed the structure of France's government, it also changed the allegorical representations of the nation. At the Revolution's onset, the monarchy embodied both the state and nation as equated ideas. During the Revolutionary Decade and through the reign of Napoleon different governments experienced the need to reorient these symbols away from the person of the king to the national community. Following the king's execution, the Committee government invented connections to the ancient past in order to build legitimacy for their rule in addition to extricating the monarchy's symbols from political life. During the rule of Napoleon, he used classical symbols to associate himself with Roman Emperors to embody the nation in his person. Through an examination of the different types of classical symbols that each government illustrates the different ways that attempted to symbolically document this important shift in the location of sovereignty away from the body of the king to the nation.
Identifier: CFE0001901 (IID), ucf:47496 (fedora)
Note(s): 2007-12-01
M.A.
Arts and Humanities, Department of History
Masters
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): France
History
Revolution
Images
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001901
Restrictions on Access: public
Host Institution: UCF

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