Les théâtres de la violence à Paris au XVIIIe siècle

Theatres of violence in 18th century Paris Ariette FARGE et André ZYSBERG Urban violence was banal everyday fact of life in the 18th century but it does provide an indicator of the degree offebrility or protest in which the pre-Revolutionary population of Paris lived quantitative and qualitative analysis of complaints lodged with the Petit-Criminel also provides us with material for study of the social composition of the lower classes and glimpse of those everyday incidents around which conflicts crystallize conflicts generally neglected by conventional social analysis The Parisian theatres of violence in the 18th century were those in which life itself was lived the cabarets homes workshops the street Violence was absent neither from leisure nor from work and in general it occurred between members of the lower classes It was form of expression or survival springing from ordinary incidents One likely reason for the fall in the number of complaints for assault in the 18th century is that people fell into the habit of not lodging an official complaint preferring to sort things out among themselves in the presence of the policeman We are more generally accustomed to hearing about Paris engulfed in attacks on property it was also city of brawls and crimeFarge Arlette. Les théâtres de la violence à Paris au XVIIIe siècle. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 34ᵉ année, N. 5, 1979. pp. 984-1015