Intimité et discours politique : l’intime dans les campagnes électorales de 1848

• Main Author: Marieke Stein
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Pléiade (EA 7338) 2012-11-01
• Series: Itinéraires
• Subjects: election campaigns; universal suffrage; romanticism; authors in politic; Self; electoral statements
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/itineraires/1087

Since the 1950 American election campaigns (from Eisenhower onwards), political marketing has brought to the foreground the family life of the candidates, their love lives, emotions… anything related to their personal lives. In France, a similar trend was noted during the 2002 election, which was even more apparent in 2007. But what was the situation in 1848, at the first French elections with universal suffrage? Did the candidates for the national parliament base their electoral strategy on their personal lives or on their political vision?This study examines the political statements of authors who stood for election in 1848: Hugo, Lamartine, Dumas, Sue, Vigny, etc. These authors, associated with the Romanticism Movement in 1848, all have an unusual relationship with the Self. Moreover, Romanticism closely links the Self and the political: therefore, the relatively impersonal tone of their statements is all the more surprising.The main purpose of this article is to better comprehend the role of the self in political life from a historical perspective.