Marianne, réflexions sur une histoire

Abstract

Maurice Agulhon : Marianne, Some Reflections on her history. At the crossroads of political history, of folklore and sometimes of art, the author follows the changes in the image of the woman with the Phrygian cap, whether she was called Marianne or not. He recalls her beginnings during the Revolution, how she came into her own in the Nineteenth Century, especially from the Second Empire on and above all under the Third Republic during which the name « Marianne » and the effigy of the Republic became one and have since shared a common destiny. Marianne's history is part of that of political allegory, of the visual representation adopted by states ; it both comes under the heading of national folklore and of partisan symbolism. Such a complexity gives it its wealth of meaning and brings up the question of the role of this kind of research.