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French History Seminar/Seminaire d'histoire de France

Citizens Electric! Galvanized Bodies and Popular Sovereignty in the Revolutionary Francophone Atlantic

October 27, 2023 | 4:30PM - 6:30PM
 | 
In-person
Centre for the Study of France and the Francophone World, Europe & Eurasia

This event is over

This event took place in-person at Room 108N, North House, 1 Devonshire Place, Toronto, ON, M5S 3K7
In an era before the lightbulb, when electricity meant both Benjamin Franklin's bottled lightning and the ethereal fluid that animated Luigi Galvani's frog legs, what did electricity mean politically? Electricity became a metaphor for the power of revolutionary festivals, speeches, and events to "shock" an audience, producing overpowering collective sentiment in an instant. Electrified citizens, equal and united in sentiment, replaced the stratified body politic as a model of social cohesion. A new era required new metaphors, and this talk investigated how science and politics intersected to produce the new metaphor of revolutionary electricity.
 
Co-Sponsor: CEFMF - Centre for the Study of France and the Francophone World Co-Sponsor: York University Co-Sponsor: Department of History Co-Sponsor: Department of French Co-Sponsor: Faculty of Arts & Science Co-Sponsor: Government of France, Cultural and Scientific Services, Ottawa Co-Sponsor: Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies
Centre for the Study of France and the Francophone World, Europe & Eurasia
Tanyaa Mehta tanyaa.mehta@utoronto.ca

Speakers

Samantha Wesner

Arts & Science Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Toronto