Domestic aspects of the revolution?? Pls explain this seems interesting
Oh geez let’s see if I can keep this brief and readable! I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT, surprising nobody(also I *know* there are other people with comments to make on this around, maybe someone will add on?)!! Bear with me, Nonny, I swear I work my way around back to Joly by the end! Prepare for XTREEEEME simplifications of incredibly complex social issues of the day!
Also, Content Warning for Discussion of Intensely And Somewhat Bizarrely Binarily Gendered Concepts, Because Society.
Anyway it’s commonly noticed (among fancademia, academia pays not a lick of attention to this stuff that I’ve found) that the Amis in their intro have a bit of a sliding scale of, well, Various Concepts really, from Enjolras at one end to Grantaire at the other. And one of the very obvious concepts is “The Domestic” as thought at the time would have it–that would include women, romance, family, home life, housekeeping–all the things that could also be summed up as “Women’s Sphere”, you know?
And on the other end was The Political– public life, politics in the sense of Actual Government Action, military Whatever, Economics-with-a-Capital E, The Patriarchy, etc. Manly!
And obviously these things have a lot of overlap! But they were seen as Spheres and being Complementary rather than, IDK, Inherently Unified.
Also, as suggested above, suuuuuuper gendered. Like whoa gendered. I’m not getting into this and the evolving concept of gender roles in the 19C the way it deserves because that would take semesters of lectures and essays I am not remotely qualified to write but like. Consider it noted, right?
This concept of Domestic is exactly what Enjolras rejects. Hugo goes to some length to make it clear that this is what Enjolras rejects. That’s what the whole thing about him not being moved by the bare breast of Evadne and thinking flowers are only good to hide swords and giving the Abyssal Glare to women who try to flirt with him is about–he rejects the importance of Family Life, Women, Romance, etc etc.* Enjolras, when introduced, is 100 percent About The Manly Political Aspect of the Revolution and of the Republic.
On the other end of the list, Grantaire cares about nothing at all in the Manly Political Sphere. “He loves the girls and he loves good wine”, but really what he loves is personal, domestic -type connections. He doesn’t care a single damn about the government or abstract social theory or social ideals or any of it. He loves Enjolras, he loves his friends, his knowledge of Paris is entirely framed in personal, home-comfortish ways— he knows the best places for dancing, dating, dinner . (Grantaire being the internally incoherent disaster man he is, he starts his arc unwilling to admit even to loving his friends, because even that is too much commitment for him. But the narrator is tattling on him from the get-go.)
Obviously the idea that these things are complete separate or genuinely separable is absurd. But that’s the social concept Hugo is dealing with in this regard!
–Also obviously, there is a certain Secret Sneaky Crossover Link here and it’s Friendship, but Friendship And The Amis is like. A Mini-novelette length essay if I ever have the focus. I’m not good at focus, as we’re seeing!
ANYWAY! From Enjolras to Grantaire the Amis generally take up an increasing weight of “domestic”associations. Combeferre and Jehan are, like Enjolras, very much about Ideas and Ideals and Politics and Philosophy, though their philosophy is increasingly more concerned with those domestic aspects of society (women, families, children, feelings ). Feuilly, Courfeyrac, and Bahorel are very much About the Manly Man World of politics–they’re all Actiony and Political and even Combative, tied to Politics and Work and Socializing in a Very Activist Way. But Feuilly gets more family-linked language in his intro than Enjolras or Combeferre do, and Feuilly’s family is dead. Courfeyrac rejects an aspect of his family identity, but we hear about it!
Bahorel, coming after the Balancing Point that Courfeyrac represents, is explicitly linked not just to concepts of family , but in a happy relationship to his own Actual Family, and their history– and he personally holds this up as part of his identity, too. (We also hear more specifics about Bahorel’s fashion choices in just his intro than we do about Enjolras or Combeferre’s or Feuilly’s in ever– another Domestic, Personal signifier.) After Bahorel, things take a massive turn for the Personal and Domestic in Intro-land. Bossuet gets a whole story about his family background,and dating stories, and ..well, and Joly (who in his turn gets all his science being directed into personal concerns and home treatments and furniture arranging , like…this is a very homey couple of revolutionaries here) Bossuet and Joly are explicitly, practically linked at the start, and then again repeatedly and at length in other passages in the novel. They have separate characters, but a major part of both those characters is this..well..pair-bond. Between two people who live, eat, and sleep together. Super domestic! AND NOW the “of the Revolution” part!
In Preliminary Gayeties–well, a lot happens. And it’s all, again, domestic as hell. They eat, they drink, they support a friend in a very (specifically!) not political way. And in this chapter with a title that echoes the chapter title of children being raised at the convent –seriously the domestic coding is intense – their personal bond is not only stressed again, it’s pretty much established as key to their function as political actors. “They are what the subordinate monks are called, BINI”– the bini were, as established, monks who were supposed to go out into the world paired, to support and aid each other in carrying out their Divine Mission. In this case the Divine Mission is trying to bring about the Republic–and in this chapter we specifically see them doing their double-act as part of leading a friend back to the cause (who keeps Grantaire where the barricade is? Who’s Grantaire quoting with “J’en suis”? Yeah.) , relying on personal connection and simple, domestic comforts to work.
And to those who will say “oh come on, they’re just a couple of dorks hanging out”– yeah. They are. That’s kind of the Point.
Because that’s the thing,–there’s no way to completely separate the Political and the Personal , the Public and the Domestic. Any modern reader has probably heard “The Personal is Political” to the point of it wearing flat, but, well, it is . And the political is personal, too– if someone’s mother can be The Republic, if they can take Humanity and Justice for their mother and father, then they can make their friends their republic, too; they can seek justice and progress and societal balance through personal connections and friendship and just being kind. And in fact people kinda have to; the systemic plays out on the personal level, after all. A major part of Enjolras’ character arc is getting to the point where he can embrace that personal domestic aspect and understand its importance to the (per Hugo) Divine Ideal. But Joly and Bossuet are already there; it’s what they are.
Sources!
There’s too many things to mention about the Gender Role stuff and I’m doing synthesis more than specific quotes, but: start with Socialism’s Muse by Naomi J Andrews and follow the bibliography from there if you’re really wanting to get into it.
For the Bini stuff, please look at @barricadeur‘s excellent posts on the topic; I’m particularly referencing this one, which has a bucket o’sources on The Importance of the Buddy System in Catholic Thought, including Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, and , you know, the Gospel.
* this should not be taken as me arguing that he isn’t in any way queer coded; I think he is, it’s just in a very era-specific way and I don’t think this is really where it comes in. But that’s definitely an even longer post.