体验革命:反思法国大革命的新路径

“Experience”and“Emotion”in the Recent Historiography of the French Revolution

近二十年来,法国革命史研究者日益关注大革命中个体的体验与情感。这一新趋势具有学术史的深层动力:大革命史学的正统派与修正派曾分别将阶级对抗与话语冲突视为革命的根本动力,忽视了革命进程中人性与情势的互动。受情感史等当代史学潮流的推动,法国革命史研究转向对个体能动性的关注,以体验与情感为切入点,从个体的生命经历出发重新审视革命。研究者们认为,那些生活在革命年代的个体,固然有其理性的考量,但也常常受制于具体情境所激发的情感;个人的体验以及由此衍生的情感甚至创伤,可以促成政治决策,推动革命进程。这一潮流有助于更新革命史研究的范式,深化人们对于革命进程内在逻辑的理解。但与此同时也应注意,一些研究具有过度共情的倾向,它们以体验与情感为借口不加区分地为革命造成的后果辩护,持论有失公允。

In the past two decades,historians have increasingly paid attention to the individual experiences and emotions in the French Revolution.This new tendency has been long nurtured in the historiography of the field.The orthodoxy theory once regarded class confrontation as the root cause of the revolution,while the revisionist theory replaced it with discursive conflict.Both theories,however,overlooked the interaction between humanity and the atmosphere of the Revolution.Influenced by emotional history and other contemporary historiographical trends,some researchers of the Revolution now take account of the individual agency,in attempt to reevaluate the Revolution from the perspective of individual lives,emotions,and experiences.Historians conclude that even if people living in the French Revolution were in exercise of reasoning,they were also making decisions while being affected by emotions,particularly at some radical situations.Personal experience,in relation with emotions and traumas,could have contributed to political decisions and pushed the Revolution forward.This trend of scholarship could complement the existing schema in this field and deepen our comprehension of revolutionary politics.But we also need to be aware of the danger of over-empathy,as it is unfair to defend the negative consequences of the Revolution with personal experiences and emotions.