The Mood of Defeat

Abstract

Abstract Although the mood of defeat is usually seen as physically and emotionally debilitating, many historians and, philosophers have argued, that, the defeated, are in a better position, to understand, history. In, the words of the historian, Reinhart Koselleck, 'If history is made in. the short, run, by the victors, historical gains in knowledge stem in. the long run from the vanquished'. But, the requirement, for distance evades the interesting question, of how far analysis of defeat, represses, but, is still shaped, by, the original mood, of defeat: a vital question for those interested, in. the defeat, of the Left, as the experience of revolution, can easily be dismissed, as an emotional, infantile outburst. This is the case in what is perhaps the most, comprehensive historical study of defeat: Wolfgang Schivelbusch's The Culture of Defeat: On National Trauma, Mourning, and Recovery. Schivelbusch. defines the insurrections that, often follow national defeat, for example the Paris Commune in. 1871 or the Spartacist, uprising in. Berlin, in. 1919, as 'delusional' or 'dream' states, which stand in. the way of national 'recovery', which he defines as a return, to reason, through an acceptance. An alternative perspective on. political defeat, is offered by Jules Valles Vingtras trilogy, conceived, and, written, while in exile in. London, after the defeat, of the Paris Commune. Valles makes no attempt, to distance or contain the emotional consequences of defeat. On the contrary, the core structure of feeling that, informs and, shapes his narrative is the mood of personal unhappiness he experienced, first, in. his provincial childhood. This evocation, of misery and, misattunement, becomes the touchstone against, which all subsequent setbacks and, depressive states are measured. Instead of a narrative of recovery, Valles's trilogy offers a model of how it, might be possible to use misattunement, to think through the mood, of defeat. His use of as a resource for resistance has implications for how we think about, defeat, now, and, not, just, in terms of the relationship between, the past, and, the present, but, also for how view the futur e.Key Words mood, defeat, Jules Valles, LEnfant, Le Bachelier, Linsurge, Wolfgang Schivelbusch, The Cultur e of Defeat, the Paris CommuneI'm in the mood for dancing, romancingOoh I'm giving it all tonightI'm in the mood for chancingI feel like dancingOoh so come on and hold me tight(The Nolan Sisters, T am in. the Mood, for Dancing', 1979)I'm in the mood for love simply because you're near meFunny but when you're near me, I'm in the mood for love.Heaven is in your eyes, bright as the stars we're under,Oh, is it any wonder, I'm in the mood for love.(Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Field, 'Fm in the Mood for Love', 1935)The Nolan sisters are in the mood for dancing. Ella Fitzgerald is in the mood for love. Glen Miller is just in the mood. But if sexual yearning is the most common theme in popular music, the mood of defeat is as significant a point of register in contemporary culture. The slumped bodies of the losing team, the forced dignity of the politician ejected from office, the grainy shots of prisoners of war behind barbed wire are all familiar images with which we can connect, investing our own feelings of pain, exhaustion, and humiliation or, alternatively, triumph, scorn, and aggression. If the mood of love is felt physically, transforming itself into rhythm and movement, so too is the mood of defeat; but whereas the sensations of desire are visual - 'Heaven is in your eyes/Bright as the stars we are under' - and tactile - 'so come on and hold me tight' - the sensations of defeat are olfactory and gustatory. We smell it. We taste its bitterness. Touring the burnt-out ruins left after the defeat of the Paris Commune, Henry James, found 'in all things a vague aftertaste of gunpowder'1 and wrote to his brother: 'Beneath all this neatness & coquetry, you seem to smell the Commune suppressed, but seething'. …