Pani Roland i trauma Rewolucji

• Authors: Głażewski Jacek

Title variants

EN

Madame Roland and the Trauma of Revolution

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article is devoted to diaries ("Mémoires particuliers" and "Mes dernières pensèes") written by Marie-Jeanne Roland de La Platière, also known as Manon Roland, or Madame Roland (1754-1793), a French political activist. It is one of the most interesting document of personal life that emerged during the French Revolution, and the it refers extensively to the events before 1789. In this context, the memoirs seem to be not only the result of implementation of the "autobiographical pact", but also a struggle for one's own subjectivity: to prove the world that the essence of human personality does not develop in the fever of current political events, because it lies far beyond current experience. The story is told in the "past perfect" tense to release the author from the oppressive domination of the present over the whole life experience, and to create a chance to equalize the ratio between a brutal critique of revolutionary public opinion, which she was subjected to, and the will of a personal, individual memory. A careful reading of "Memoirs" allows to grasp the author's struggle with the “spirit of history” and an unconscious encroachment of the revolutionary discourse to the area of personal memory, causing a kind of rupture or implosion of the genre form, revealing the force of revolutionary trauma. Madame Roland, who described her purely political experience in letters and other writings in prison, tried to turn off her "Mémoires particuliers" from the power of the revolutionary discourse. However, the impact of the freshest memories embedded in the memory questioned these operations. It was impossible to find a perfect way to mask the trauma: the very speech undermined the effectiveness of silence here. What has already been told (according to the logic of the narrative), called for complementation.

Keywords

PL

Marie-Jeanne Roland de La Platière; Rewolucja Francuska; autobiografia; pamiętniki

EN

Marie-Jeanne Roland de La Platière; French Revolution; autobiography; memoirs

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Warszawski / Instytut Badań Literackich PAN
• Journal: Napis. Pismo poświęcone literaturze okolicznościowej i użytkowej
• Year: 2013
• Issue: 19
• Pages: 41-52

Contributors

author

Głażewski Jacek

• Uniwersytet Warszawski