2014/06/02 by Ronald Schechter · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis #French Historical and Cultural Studies
paper · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199959853.003.0008
openalex publication_date 2014/06/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
The “shades” (manes) were the ghosts of those who had become victims of counterrevolutionary force and had sacrificed their lives for the Revolution. They were understood to demand a counter blood sacrifice in order for their souls to be appeased. It is argued that study of the shades enables us to see the French Revolution in a new light. They help us understand the motivation for revolutionary action, the willingness of political actors to kill and to risk their own lives for new and otherwise abstract causes: liberty, the fatherland, the Republic. Likewise, the shades help us understand the Reign of Terror (or simply the Terror, as the French call it) and the role of martyrs and martyrdom in producing it.