Révolution, traumatisme et non-savoir: la « longue surprise » dans Le nouveau Paris de Mercier

Le nouveau Paris (1798) by Louis Sébastien Mercier is mainly devoted to the French Revolution, during which the author was, in his own words, « a witness, a participant and a victim ». What characterizes his treatment of the Reign of Terror — a personal and a collective trauma — is his insistance on the blindness and the disorientation of all involved. Moreover, Mercier believes that future generations will not understand what was actually experienced during that period, in particular the permanent state of « not-knowingness ». The political gain of the Revolution (« I was born a subject ; I shall die a Republican »), though, gives the writer the strength to accept this traumatic incomprehension, both as it was experienced and as it is anticipated.