The Guillotine and the Terror
The Guillotine and the Terror by Daniel Arasse, published by Penguin in 1991, is a study that explores the guillotine’s role during the French Revolution. This edition, written in English and spanning 192 pages, delves into both the historical significance and the social and psychological contexts surrounding this iconic instrument of execution. Arasse examines the “mythology” and theatre of the guillotine, presenting a nuanced perspective on its invention and transformation throughout this tumultuous period.
Readers will find that the book offers a thesis arguing that the guillotine serves as an enlightenment machine, shaping a new understanding of the headless body politic. It also discusses the guillotine as an aristocratic and democratic art of dying, along with its influence on criminological portraiture. Through this analysis, the work engages with themes of fiction and history, providing a comprehensive look at how the guillotine has been perceived and represented in various contexts.
Official synopsis Publisher
This is a study of the guillotine and its role in the French Revolution, concentrating as much upon the social and psychological contexts – the “mythology” and theatre of the guillotine – as upon the history and transformations of the guillotine’s invention. The book offers a thesis which argues, for example, that the guillotine acts as an enlightenment machine, as the begetter of a new physiology of the headless body politic, as an aristocratic/democratic art of dying, and as the source of a new kind of criminological portraiture.
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