From The Sans-Culottes To The Yellow Vests: Historical Emotion, National Identity And The Persistence Of Cultural Memory

This paper asserts that the French Revolution of 1789 was a significant cause behind the Yellow Vest movement due to a phenomenon known as cultural memory, better defined as a concrete reservoir of significant events or fables serving to shape a nation’s identity as well as carrying emotions from history to the present. It goes on to declare that members of the Yellow Vest movement drew inspiration from the Revolution, influencing their mode of protest, end goals and unique solidarity due to the Revolution’s status as a core aspect of French cultural memory. Through comparisons of parallels between facets of the Revolution and the Yellow Vest, the impact of the former on the latter can be cleanly drawn out. Further, the experiencing of emotions like that of the sans-culottes by the Yellow Vests is another key reason behind the Revolution’s influence. This paper then shows that cultural memory drove this similarity in emotion via analysis of connections between specific artwork from both movements.