La guerre de Vendée comme un « mémoricide » ? Point de vue littéraire sur un différend historique

Abstract

The paper deals with a historical polemic concerning the war of Vendée during the French revolution (1793–1799) which is considered by some historians to be the first genocide of modern history. One of them, Reynald Secher, speaks about a “memoricide”, which means a murder of historical memory. The paper presents this conception and then tries to verify it on the base of some historical novels written by Royalist and Republican authors all along the 19th century. The conclusion proves that historical memory of Vendée has neither been forgotten nor repressed, but on the contrary, this theme was being used by both sides in their political and ideological conflicts.

Keywords

• french revolution
• historical novel
• 19th century
• history of literature
• war of vendée
• revolutionary historiography
• reynald secher