The Revolutionary Formalism of France

This chapter addresses how the divergent city experience of the Paris métropole accumulated contrary meanings (overtly political in the minds of some, artfully performative in the minds of others) for interested onlookers during the tumultuous middle decades of the nineteenth century. The signature rhythms of the city’s divided politics in this period constituted a form unto themselves. For some observers of Paris, the distinguishing characteristic of these forms is that they were being placed under great strain by the domestic factions coalescing in France around a number of longstanding social grievances there, which together found expression in the country’s capital city. Another group of observers might have recognized the revolutionary potential of such grievances, but they were preoccupied instead by the captivating drama that was politics in Paris. These readers monitored the city’s politics less to understand its core issues than to enjoy what was effectively a form of street theatre for a viewing public. In the Paris of 1848, readers met with an urban “text” the content of which was sometimes indistinguishable from the enormity of its historical forms.