Participo en el sentiment comúels escrits polítics de Helen Maria Williams sobre la Revolució Francesa (1790-1827)

Resumen

British author Helen Maria Williams (1761-1827) traveled to France in July 1790 to participate in the first anniversary of the French Revolution. At a time in which women’s participation in the political discussion was regarded as improper, Williams devoted the greatest part of her writing career to produce chronicles discussing the events she witnessed in France. Her narratives on the Revolution have traditionally been studied either in isolation from the rest of her corpus, or together with her early production and reception. For that matter, this thesis provides a complete critical study focused only on her analysis of revolutionary events. Writing at the turn of the eighteenth century, Williams was influenced by the literature of Sensibility. However, she does not partake in the individualistic turn that this literary trend was taking in the last decades of the century. In her account, compassion is at the centre of political action, as it moves people to take part in the events with a collective change in mind and not only to alleviate suffering at an individual level. Williams sees politics as a collective effort and does not envision the future of nations as being only at the hands of political leaders. She explores the potential of acting in politics from the context of small and every-day actions. Besides, Williams does not see the divisions between the public and private as rigid and fixed, as she brings constant attention to how political decisions affect people on an everyday scale. Although this approach has been understood as domestic by Mellor (1992: 264) or Duckling (2010: 79), this dissertation shows that Williams is not only confined to the sphere of the home. In her discussion of individual affairs, Williams pays attention to public spaces such as prisons, salons, the streets and the battlefield. After setting in France permanently in 1792, Williams held a unique position compared to other contemporary British authors who participated in the debate surrounding the French Revolution in Britain, such as Burke or Wollstonecraft. As a result, Williams appeals to a revolutionary discourse rather than taking a nationalistic stance in order to make claims in favour of social emancipation.