" Quiconque lirait L’Emigré, L’Inconsolable, Brusquet, ... "

Abstract:

In 1793-1794, Isabelle de Charrière wrote a number of political dramas to express her opinion about the political and historical developments of the French Revolution, the radicalisation of which frightened her. One of these plays, La Parfaite Liberté ou les vous et les toi, represents the writer’s answer to a successful French comedy performed at the end of 1793 – La Parfaite Egalité ou les tu et les toi – in which Dorvigny celebrated the Jacobin linguistic reform – the tutoiement – the declared goal of which was to improve Equality of and Brotherhood between French citizens. Writing in Neuchâtel, by reversing all Dorvigny’s propagandistic items, Charrière joined the Parisian debate and questioned the importance of the revolutionary achievements. In so doing, she expressed not only her urgency for moderation, but also her critical and political judgment about a Revolution that had finally disconfessed in practice the ideals it had preached in theory. Even though the play was never performed, Charrière's political ideas influenced not only her Francophone milieu, but also the contemporary German readers of Huber’s translation.

SvD, December 2014

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• Publications > Belle de Zuylen Papers > 2014 > Perazzolo