The Literary Underground of the Old Regime by Robert Darnton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Darnton wants to say that the literary underground helped accelerate the destruction of the Old Regime. This is, of course, an undecidable thesis. On the one hand, Darnton shows how the population became increasingly irreverent as the symbolism of the Regime was degraded. On the other hand, Darnton also shows us how the Old Regime created the conditions that fostered the literary underground. More importantly should the Old Regime keep out the literary ambitions of so many new young writers, pushing them into poverty and blocking their ability to earn a living at every turn, how much of this officiated oppression was also expressed in other channels?
Darntons writing is clear. His use of specific case studies is entertaining, interesting and allows us a glimpse at the frantic hypocrisy these writers were forced to participate in as they faced economic ruin at every turn at the hands of the Old Regime, which cared not what they do. France’s policy of absolutely policing of who and what was allowed to be said proved to be their own undoing.
In a way, this book provides us the chance to see how a rising middle class, increased literary agency and expression proved to be too uncontrollable for the Old Regime. This fits largely with Wallerstein’s thesis that the French Revolution was not in fact the first sign of modern capitalism arising, but in fact, a symptom that capitalism had already progressed — the governing population did not realize it just yet — and a bloody revolution was the only way everyone could recognize that the time had already passed for the old order. In a sense, Darnton’s book shows us that the groundwork for a rising new social order had already been laid; and could not be repressed no matter how much the existing government had wanted it to be. Although Darnton really only demonstrates this to us through the filter of literary ambition, it’s nonetheless interesting (and depressing) to see how this plays out, to see specifically how individuals navigated their way between oppression and foreign markets for a rising class that demanded books of all sorts, not just the ones that were legal.
In this sense, it doesn’t even really matter if Darnton is correct — that this underground through its literary works played a super important role. The individuals involved (some of whom attained power in the revolution) and their resentment in their impoverishment is enough to show us that this frustration was present. What I mean to say is that illegal books was only the tip of the iceberg.
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