FR255 The Crowd in French Politics and Imagination, 1870-1945
There is a good reason why the demonstration has become one of the French national stereotypes, for the people in the street have often played a pivotal role in French history. This module explores the importance of the crowd as a political force and symbol, focusing on the period that the crowd psychologist Gustave Le Bon heralded in 1895 as l’ère des foules. When he was writing, representations of nineteenth-century crowds in parades and festivals, riots or demonstrations were still frequently influenced by the conflicting legacies of French Revolution, yet the same crowds also held the potential to shape a new political world, inspiring contemporary theories of regenerative violence. This course addresses the real and imagined history of the crowd, offering the chance to study the development of mass politics and mass parties, and also to analyse representations of the crowd in literature and film.
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