
The Calendar in Revolutionary France
Perceptions of Time in Literature, Culture, Politics
Sanja Perovic(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Published on 8. October 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
292 pages
978-1-107-56645-3 (ISBN)
Description
One of the most unusual decisions of the leaders of the French Revolution - and one that had immense practical as well as symbolic impact - was to abandon customarily-accepted ways of calculating date and time to create a Revolutionary calendar. The experiment lasted from 1793 to 1805, and prompted all sorts of questions about the nature of time, ways of measuring it and its relationship to individual, community, communication and creative life. This study traces the course of the Revolutionary Calendar, from its cultural origins to its decline and fall. Tracing the parallel stories of the calendar and the literary genius of its creator, Sylvain Marechal, from the Enlightenment to the Napoleonic era, Sanja Perovic reconsiders the status of the French Revolution as the purported 'origin' of modernity, the modern experience of time, and the relationship between the imagination and political action.
Reviews / Votes
'The Calendar in Revolutionary France is an exhilarating book that invites one to think about the calendar and its history in ways that move between different time scales and that complicate the terms through which we imagine historical periodization altogether.' Deborah Elise White, Nineteenth-Century French StudiesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
13 Halftones, unspecified; 1 Line drawings, unspecified
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
427 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-107-56645-3 (9781107566453)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Sanja Perovic
The Calendar in Revolutionary France
Perceptions of Time in Literature, Culture, Politics
Book
08/2012
1st Edition
Cambridge University Press
€129.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Sanja Perovic is Lecturer in the French Department at King's College London.
Content
Introduction; 1. From myth to lived experience: the literary and cultural origins of the revolutionary calendar; 2. Between the volcano and the sun: Sylvain Marechal against his time; 3. History and nature: the double origins of Republican time; 4. Death by volcano: revolutionary terror and the problem of year II; 5. Unenthusiastic memory: imagining the festive calendar; 6. Perishable Enlightenment: wearing out the calendar; 7. The end of the lyrical Revolution and the calendar's piecemeal decline; Conclusion; Chronology of Gregorian and Republican calendars; Bibliography; Index.