‘The Chambre is stronger than the rules’: the performance and parliamentary practices in the nineteenth century French Chambre des Députés des Départements

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of embodied actions in the daily practices of parliamentary debates in nineteenth-century France. The publication of parliamentary transcripts in the main newspapers at the time confirms the interest of the public in political debates. Instead of simply reporting the content of speeches delivered in the assemblies, these transcripts provided readers with highly detailed accounts of the deliberations, including, for example, the reactions of the audience, as well as the movements and vocal characteristics of political actors. Reproducing the articulations of speeches within the material context of the Chambre, journalists and stenographers sought to allow readers to immerse themselves into the parliamentary experience. Using the analytical frame of experience to examine these material elements within the recorded parliamentary activity found in a representative selection of newspapers, this paper argues that the discursive interactions within the assembly relied on practices that used the materiality of the Chambre. These practices shaped the cultural code of the assembly, which merged within its institutional fabric and exerted a strong influence on the debates. Given the volume of transcripts published during the long nineteenth century, the analysis focuses on a significant parliamentary crisis, the Manuel Affair, to serve as a contextual entry point into the topic.