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International audience ; Jean-Jacques Rousseau was one of the major figures of the French Revolution, even though he died a few years before the Bastille was taken. Many politicians considered his moral treaties on how to regenerate the corrupted and spoiled nation as a guide for conducting the Revolution. The philosopher was largely venerated by the republican revolutionaries for being the one who gave back to the French the liberty and dignity they had been deprived of by the Ancien Régime. As the democratisation of the public opinion influenced art, popular playwrights used the philosopher's popularity and put him in their theatrical productions, despite all Rousseau's anterior protestations against the institution of the theatre, considered as a place of social destruction and moral licentiousness. The aim of this article is to retrace the process of revolutionary "mythologisation" of Jean-Jacques by analysing two plays in which he was introduced as a main character. Simultaneously, the article investigates which elements of Rousseau's philosophy appear in both productions to reveal the influence of his thought on republican society and politics; for theatre became an important instrument of revolutionary propaganda.

International audience ; Revolutionary politicians and philosophers quite soon understood that it was the young generation who would pursue and preserve their work. What at thetime was called the 'regeneration of the French nation' would therefore only depend on young children, who would not have any memories of the Old Regime. Thus, a system of compulsory and free education was conceived to support the government's mission to inculcate republican values in society's youngest members. However, setting up a whole new educational system was not an easy task, and surely not as speedy as one would have imagined. In those circumstances, some writers and moralists decided to endorse the governmental efforts; manuals for home teaching started to appear throughout France in order to pass revolutionary ethics to both children and their tutors.

International audience ; When 1789 comes, the older generation of French novelists let themselves be involved in the reformatory movement, abandoning their 'literary duties'. Their younger colleagues are still too inexperienced to reach for a pen and describe the fast-changing reality they live in; for this they will need some temporal and/or spatial distance. Meanwhile, it turns out that what was once considered to be just a signifi cant evolution has now become a real, ultimate and all-changing Revolution. In such a 'regenerated' state there is no longer room for any remains of the hateful Ancien Régime. This is how the novel, as it developed during the eighteenth century, becomes one of the first victims of the new revolutionary taste and is now stigmatised as an emblem of the ci-devant depraved aristocratic society. A reformed theatre, political speeches and journalistic genres successfully supplant the novel, considered no longer capable of providing all citizens with the up-to-date information they need. Moreover, when in revolutionary France heads start to fall, at which point a promising reality begins to turn into a sanguinary nightmare, novelists seem intellectually paralysed and fi nd themselves suffering from a kind of 'creative impotence' that will not pass until the revolution has finished.

International audience The aim of this article is to show the way women were represented in the revolutionary theatre of the times of Great Terror (1793—1794). After three years of social and political changes brought by the Revolution women are no longer shown as possessions of their families or husbands. Although marriage remains the focus of their existence, they all fight to have a good life and a good marriage with a respectful partner, rather than with an all-mighty master who despises them. Many of female characters we meet are very independent and self-conscious — especially the younger generation who are well aware of the possibility of divorce. Men change too; fathers no longer decide for their daughters, while unfaithful husbands improve their behaviour, as they all know that the basis of general and personal happiness is a happy marriage.

International audience ; The aim of this article is to show the way women were represented in the revolutionary theatre of the times of Great Terror (1793—1794). After three years of social and political changes brought by the Revolution women are no longer shown as possessions of their families or husbands. Although marriage remains the focus of their existence, they all fight to have a good life and a good marriage with a respectful partner, rather than with an all-mighty master who despises them. Many of female characters we meet are very independent and self-conscious — especially the younger generation who are well aware of the possibility of divorce. Men change too; fathers no longer decide for their daughters, while unfaithful husbands improve their behaviour, as they all know that the basis of general and personal happiness is a happy marriage.

International audience ; The aim of this article is to show the way women were represented in the revolutionary theatre of the times of Great Terror (1793—1794). After three years of social and political changes brought by the Revolution women are no longer shown as possessions of their families or husbands. Although marriage remains the focus of their existence, they all fight to have a good life and a good marriage with a respectful partner, rather than with an all-mighty master who despises them. Many of female characters we meet are very independent and self-conscious — especially the younger generation who are well aware of the possibility of divorce. Men change too; fathers no longer decide for their daughters, while unfaithful husbands improve their behaviour, as they all know that the basis of general and personal happiness is a happy marriage.