Giuseppe Sciara
Università di Bologna
Abstract
During the years of the French Revolution, writing was Madame de Staël’s main weapon to influence political events. Although theoretical and practical intentions are inextricably linked in her production, the work Réflexions sur le procès de la reine, composed in 1793, a few weeks before the trial that would lead to Marie Antoinette’s death sentence, constitutes a perfect example of a pamphlet due to its polemical, sometimes aggressive and, in any case, denunciatory character. Identifying a target audience of women only, the work aims on the one hand to defend and to redefine the queen’s image in the face of public opinion, and on the other hand to condemn the Terror, to unmask the mechanisms through which the Jacobins are able to mobilise and manipulate the people by appealing to their passions, first and foremost envy and partisan spirit.
Keywords
Madame de Staël – Pamphlet – French Revolution – Women – Democracy
DOI: 10.13131/unipi/2611-9757/ykv8-th73
