{"title":"«Une barricade, non un gouvernement» Contrasting Views of Association in the Paris Commune","authors":"W. Roberts","doi":"10.1353/NCF.2021.0003","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This essay recovers a lost debate about the political aspirations of the Commune. Recent scholarship has rightly emphasized that the common theme of Communard initiatives was association. However, Communards were torn between competing interpretations of association. According to the predominant sense, indebted to Proudhon, associations were expressions of worker autonomy. They were voluntary but morally obligatory contracts for mutual benefit. Opposed to this conception was another, according to which associations were necessary defensive formations, meant to resist economic and political domination. The most articulate advocate of this defensive conception was Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray (1838–1901), and this essay focuses on reconstructing his theory of association during and after the Commune. According to Lissagaray, association is not voluntary, but a practical necessity, a barricade against the overwhelming power of capital and the state. The tension between these divergent understandings of association is essential to the history and legacy of the Commune.","PeriodicalId":42524,"journal":{"name":"NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH STUDIES","volume":"49 1","pages":"173 - 193"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2021-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/NCF.2021.0003","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH STUDIES","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/NCF.2021.0003","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE, ROMANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:This essay recovers a lost debate about the political aspirations of the Commune. Recent scholarship has rightly emphasized that the common theme of Communard initiatives was association. However, Communards were torn between competing interpretations of association. According to the predominant sense, indebted to Proudhon, associations were expressions of worker autonomy. They were voluntary but morally obligatory contracts for mutual benefit. Opposed to this conception was another, according to which associations were necessary defensive formations, meant to resist economic and political domination. The most articulate advocate of this defensive conception was Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray (1838–1901), and this essay focuses on reconstructing his theory of association during and after the Commune. According to Lissagaray, association is not voluntary, but a practical necessity, a barricade against the overwhelming power of capital and the state. The tension between these divergent understandings of association is essential to the history and legacy of the Commune.
期刊介绍:
Nineteenth-Century French Studies provides scholars and students with the opportunity to examine new trends, review promising research findings, and become better acquainted with professional developments in the field. Scholarly articles on all aspects of nineteenth-century French literature and criticism are invited. Published articles are peer reviewed to ensure scholarly integrity. This journal has an extensive book review section covering a variety of disciplines. Nineteenth-Century French Studies is published twice a year in two double issues, fall/winter and spring/summer.