The People v. The State: French Insurrections

Undergraduate / Graduate

Why do people rise up against the state? What makes insurrection a means to a legitimate end? Whether they are sudden or have been germinating for decades, insurrections and uprisings can seem to be the only way to effect actual change, perhaps especially in democratic societies. They also sometimes only register weeks or months after they have happened. The French have a particular reputation for taking to the streets: is that reputation a result of an insurrectionist tradition, or is it a stereotype? In this class, we will study various moments in French and Francophone history that involved uprisings and insurrections, from the early modern period to the present. We will read literary texts and study films that portray the complexities of such moments, and discuss theoretical approaches to the socio-political concepts of insurrection, uprising, violence, dissensus, revolution, guerrilla, etc. The class will be centered around the question of reacting to the past and finding answers for the present, and for this purpose students will be immersed for three weeks in a roleplaying game where the class will be transformed into the Assemblée Nationale during the French Revolution, in 1791 and they will research, prepare and play their assigned roles such as conservative, Jacobin, the King, or Lafayette.