Narratives of joy in Enlightenment and revolutionary France and Britain: Festivals and jubilees (Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, 2026:12)

Narratives of Joy explores the centrality of ‘ethical joy’ and its narratives for the formation of civil society and nation-building in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It traces the development of a ‘philosophy of joy’ within eighteenth-century theories of sociability and pastoral literature, from Shaftesbury to Rousseau, showing how joy and cheerfulness were conceived as ethical emotions capable of strengthening social bonds and making virtue visible. It argues that the fête (lived, represented and imagined) translated the social dynamics of joy into vivid images. The book then explores how these ideals and images were harnessed during the French Revolution, especially with the civic festivals designed to regenerate social affections and educate citizens to nationhood. Focusing on the contrasting accounts of Helen Maria Williams and Rachel Charlotte Biggs, it shows how narratives of public joy became a contested lens through which revolutionary crowds, national affections and sovereignty were reinterpreted. The study culminates with the British national jubilee of 1809, in which festive enthusiasm was mobilised as a powerful political resource for loyalist patriotism and monarchical unity. By mapping the shifting meanings of joy from Enlightenment sociability to revolutionary and loyalist festivities, the book reveals how collective emotions became central to the making of modern political culture. Read more