Accidental Revolutionary, Feminist Provocateur, or International Agent? Théroigne de Méricourt, Gender, and Geopolitics in Revolutionary Europe

Speaker: Suzanne Desan, Vilas-Shinners Professor of History, University of Wisconsin Madison

Soon after the Belgian peasant, Théroigne de Méricourt, arrived in revolutionary Paris, royalists accused her of leading thousands of Parisian women out to Versailles to capture the royal family in the October Days uprising of 1789.  With a warrant out for her arrest, she fled homeward to the Austrian Low Countries, another hotbed of revolution. French émigrés and Austrian authorities seized her and held her captive for 10 months in Kufstein and Vienna. Finally liberated, she returned to Paris in 1792 – a triumphant but controversial figure. This talk will use Méricourt’s stunning story to probe the role of geopolitical intrigue and gender dynamics in forging revolutionary politics.

About the series:

The MIT Global France Seminar aims to bring together MIT faculty, instructors, and graduate students from across disciplines interested in the study of French and francophone cultures around the world. The seminar series is free and open to the public.

Nathalie Etoke
Black in Blue White and Red / Du Noir dans le Bleu Blanc Rouge
Mon. Sept. 11 at 5:30pm
More info

Suzanne Desan
Accidental Revolutionary, Feminist Provocateur, or International Agent? Théroigne de Méricourt, Gender, and Geopolitics in Revolutionary Europe
Thurs. Oct. 5 at 4:30pm
E51-275
More info

Charlie Piot
Migration Stories: The US Visa Lottery and Global Citizenship
Wed. Oct. 25 at 5:30pm
2-105
More info

What literature can do: Literature, shame and politics
Édouard Louis
Fri. Oct. 27 5:30pm
2-105
More info