Civility Books, Child Citizens, and Uncivil Antics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4375800 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Margaret R Higonnet (0000-0003-1281-985X, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 123 |
| Publication date | 1992-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Poetics Today (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0333-5372 • E-ISSN: 1527-5507 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1772793 |
| OpenAlex | W2319489669 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 3 |
In 1793-or, more precisely, on 24 frimaire of the Year II-twelveyear-old Josephine Fontanier was granted permission to speak to the assembly of a local section in Paris, the Assemblee de la Societe Populaire de la Section de l'Unite. First, she recited the Declaration of the Rights of Man, a text disseminated to all French schools by a decree of 30 frimaire. These rights, she affirmed, were not only your rights, that is, the rights of the adult men in the assembly, but also-enlarging the notion of the sansculotte citizen-those of my sex (Fontanier 1793 [an 2]: 1-2). With the lucid directness typical of a child, she then outlined the civic duties of young men and women. In Josephine's view, rights were naturally paired with duties. In her second speech, on 30 prairial, Josephine began by asking how a child like herself could aid the nation; her answer: by offering lint and lead from her old clothes and inkpot, respectively, and by continuing to develop her skills and virtues (Fontanier 1794 [an 2]: 1-3). Josephine simply assumed her potential to be a useful citizen of the new state.1
Civility · Criminology · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · German Literature and Culture Studies · Law · Psychology · Themes in Literature Analysis
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |