The Family Romance of the French Revolution (Centennial Book) [Paperback]

Lynn Hunt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 24, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0520082702 | ISBN-13: 978-0520082700

This latest work from an author known for her contributions to the new cultural history is a multidisciplinary investigation of the foundations of modern politics. "Family Romance" was coined by Freud to describe the fantasy of being freed from one's family and joining one of higher social standing. Lynn Hunt uses the term broadly to describe the images of the familial order underlying revolutionary politics. In a wide-ranging account using novels, engravings, paintings, speeches, newspaper editorials, pornographic writing, and revolutionary legislation about the family, Hunt shows that politics were experienced through the grid of the family romance.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Not just for French specialists, this difficult yet fascinating book should also interest psychohistorians, cultural-intellectual scholars and political scientists. Recognizing that absolutism rested on a model of patriarchal authority, cultural historian Hunt ( Politics, Culture and Class in the French Revolution , Univ. of California Pr., 1989) uses Freudian terminology to explore what the killing of the father-king Louis XVI meant to the revolutionaries creating a new political order. Examining contemporary painting, literature, and iconography to see how those meanings are expressed, she uncovers the "collective unconscious images of the familial order" underlying revolutionary beliefs. Motivating the political struggle, she demonstrates, were changing cultural notions of what defined a "good" mother or father, the republican focus on fraternity rather than patriarchy, and efforts to democratize family life.
- Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll.,
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

`All in all, the book offers exciting and novel perspectives on the Revolution, and on politics more generally, ... a vindication of the power and importance of cultural history, ...' - Patrick Joyce Times Higher Education Supplement

`... the book offers exciting and novel perspectives on the Revolution, ... Hunt's book is a vindication of the power and importance of cultural history , and a significant signpost to a new sort of political history.' - Times Higher Education

`This is European cultural history at its best.' - France in Print --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 213 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (February 24, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520082702
• ISBN-13: 978-0520082700
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good cultural study of how the Revolution affected women, December 6, 2000

By 

Nathanael Robinson (South Hadley, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Family Romance of the French Revolution (Centennial Book) (Paperback)

Please disregard the negative review. Hunt's text is fairly accessible. She describes how the great republican and liberal revolutionaries depoliticized women by emphasizing domesticity. Simply: women could not have political rights or privileges because their biology and psychology directed them toward the home and childrearing. Hunt argues from cultural products: plays, festival, and symbols that the revolutionaries invented to legitimize their ideas (lots of quaint images of home life.) She fails at many points to explain the impact of these images and how widely people could have been affected by them. Many of these products will be unfamiliar to many readers, especially those without knowledge of the literature of the period. Furthermore, I would not recommend the books as a general history of the French Revolution. Even Hunt assumes that you know about the "great story." It is a much better book after you have read several political and at least a few social histories of the revolution. Thereafter, Hunt's books is an excellent counterpoint to the notion that the revolution was liberating--it wasn't!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good textbook to hold onto, July 3, 2004

By 

Emilie Gruchow (New York City, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Family Romance of the French Revolution (Centennial Book) (Paperback)

This is one of those books that leads you to purchase many other books, whether or not you can afford them. "Family Romance" was assigned for one of my college classes and I have picked it up several times since, both as a reference for other research and just to read through. The writing is excellent and the points well-supported. It is only an occasional conclusion that reaches beyond the immediate evidence, and these few are bolstered elsewhere in the work. The only thing that might be lacking is further illustration of cited artwork, the majority of which is far from pornographic (with the exception of the chapter on Sade). I would have liked her to expand more on the role of religion in the family model as well, especially in relation to those who saw themselves as martyrs to the revolution. In the former case, though, most of the works can be found in a general survey of Art History, and the summary of the latter points does not detract from the strength of her main argument. She describes her theory of an unconscious, "collective imagination" thoroughly, and connects it to important figures and events, giving it a chronological shape that makes it both easy to follow and convincing. Just don't follow the footnotes until you have a good savings account built up:)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A tough book but well worth the struggle, December 14, 2006

By 

Lehigh History Student (Bethlehem, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Family Romance of the French Revolution (Centennial Book) (Paperback)

This is a difficult book on the French Revolution. Lynn Hunt is a brilliant historian who takes European intellectual history and fashions it to understand what was going on in the French Revolution. I will guarantee this is a book to be read at least twice because the first time through you will be very overwhelmed (unless you have a very good knowledge in enlightenment philosophers) and you will need time to assess her ideas. The basics include the nation of France was the same dynamic as a family and the roman ace required the restitution of the family in order to make the country whole. Hunt does not take her theory far enough in the end to include Napoleon as the new father in her reconstituted family but otherwise it is a very interesting analysis. This is not a book for beginners but for those studying the French Revolution they may find it useful. Be warned if you see it on your syllabus make sure you leave time to read it several times over.