Abstract
At the close of eighteenth century, we can observe a complex overlap between political philosophy, poetics, and representations of Jacobin state terrorism. When Maximilien Robespierre described terror as a means of achieving virtue, he seemed to echo contemporary theories of tragedy and their notion of "purifying" terror. Conversely, the Reign ofTerror had a significant impact on post-Revolutionary literature: early commentaries on Gothic fiction describe it as an offspring of the French Revolution.
According to the American philosopher Robert Solomon, all emotions are by nature political because they occur in a social and interactive context, where they are purposively deployed "to move other people." Solomon adds that "[m]any emotions are about power, persuasion, manipulation, and intimidation." Eighteenth-century discussions of "terror" are very much aware of the political nature of fear. They emphasize the power of pathos to not only move the viewer, but to also steer them in a particular direction, namely towards virtue.
This chapter traces the politics of terror from the theory of tragedy through philosophical discussions of tyranny to the Jacobins' justification of state terrorism to demonstrate that in each case, the evocation of terror was conceptualized as a means of deterrence. With the rise of the discourse of sublimity, terror became an end in itself. As such, it no Ionger served a didactic or disciplinary purpose. Significantly, however, "terror" continued to resonate with the political notion of "terror(ism)," as is evidenced by the critical debate surrounding Gothic fiction during the 1790s.
Frank, Michael Clemens