The Limits of the Language of Human Rights in Revolutionary France - The Case of the Declarations Addressed to the National Assembly and the Pamphlets of Olympes de Gouges (1789-1791)

Abstract

The article investigates women's political participation through declarations, petitions, and motions addressed to the Constituent Assembly or directly to the people via pamphlets – particularly those of Olympe de Gouges. The central aim is to reveal the ambivalence of the language of rights and nature – central references of modern politics – in these documents produced between 1789 and 1791. A secondary objective is to outline the textual strategies women employed to assert the legitimacy of their political actions. This is significant because the Revolution necessitated the invention of a specific eloquence for the emerging public sphere. At first glance, the material analyzed might seem to reproduce the divide that political theory later reinforced between the private and public spheres, nature and politics, and the woman citizen detached from involuntary, survival-related familial ties. However, the argument put forth is that the complexity of these women's writing lies precisely in blurring these categories. The article concludes by demonstrating the relevance of a historical approach in political theory for a rigorous analysis of the core concepts underpinning contemporary political references.