From the Royal to the Republican Body: Incorporating the Political in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century France

In this volume, scholars examine the role of the body as a primary site of political signification in 17th- and 18th-century France. Some essays focus on the sacralization of the king’s body through a gendered textual and visual rhetoric. Others show how the monarchy mastered subjects’ minds by disciplining the body through dance, music, drama, art and social rituals. The last essays in the volume focus on the unmaking of the king’s body and the substitution of a new, republican body. Throughout, the authors explore how race and gender shaped the body politic under the Bourbons and during the Revolution. This study expands our conception of state power and demonstrates that seemingly apolitical activities like the performing arts, dress and ritual contribute to the state’s hegemony. The text aims to be a valuable resource for students and scholars of history, literature, music, dance and performance studies, gender studies, art history and political theory.