A Revolution in Fiction is designed to encourage thinking that crosses over disciplines–literature, history, art history, and the human sciences–as they pertain to revolutions. Since its origins in 2009, it has become a site for commentary on revolutions in fact as well as fiction. Revolutionary studies have abruptly become urgent, given the developments of 2014 in Ukraine, the Arab Spring in Egypt, Syria, and Libya, the summer 2011 violence in the UK and Chile, and the shocking events related to COVID-19, #BLM, police brutality and racism in spring-summer 2020. By bringing a historical perspective to our world today, we may get the distance needed to steer clear of at least some of the violence that is also part of revolution.
The site is maintained by Julia Douthwaite Viglione, one-time professor of French at the University of Notre Dame (1991-2018), author of The Frankenstein of 1790 and Other Lost Chapters from Revolutionary France (University of Chicago Press, 2012), and co-editor of Teaching Representations of the French Revolution. Bastille Day quizzes, info on children’s books, and all my published works are available via academia.com.
FYI: The lovely young woman of the avatar is Charpentier’s portrait of “Jeune femme,” 1795 at the Snite Museum of Art.
2023 UPDATE! The “Respect” quilt project, a civil rights artwork for our times. My post-academic business, Honey Girl Books and Gifts, has been creating “Respect” quilts in honor of Black Americans and our shared commitment to human rights since 2020. $100 are donated to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America for each quilt sold. Bright and colorful, unique and politically charged, these “Respect” quilts are available exclusively from Honey Girl B& G’s Etsy shop.
En français: Nous invitons les chercheurs et les étudiants français et francophones à contribuer à cette exploration collective de la France révolutionnaire et ses échos ailleurs. Nous nous intéressons également à vos réflexions sur les moyens de révolutionner l’enseignement des lettres aujourd’hui.
Revolution Now: We hope to explore and publicize new findings about French revolutionary art, literature, and culture, and to inspire more research on the little-known, transitional period between the ancien régime and modernity (1780-1830). We also seek reflection on the relations between the French Revolution and its impact abroad in Saint Domingue / Haiti, the Ukraine, or elsewhere, in the 18th century or today. With the new wave of revolutions sweeping the Middle East in 2011 and the Ukraine in 2014, the time is ripe for a cool and clear-sighted ‘revolutionary studies’ to guide public debate.
Update as of 7/12/18: Nowadays, it may seem more quixotic to maintain this blog, given the overwhelming sense of defeat among the Left, faced with he-whose-name-will-not-be-spoken and his acolytes in Congress. But even if it’s only in fiction, style or our collective memory, the Revolution will persevere! Update as of 7/13/21: May he remain forever irrelevant, silenced and impotent. And may we never forget the terrible years of Trump.
A Revolution in Fiction is linked to Teach This!, a list of ideas and strategies for teachers of all levels to mobilize a revolution in teaching literature.
A Revolution in Fiction forms a politically-charged pendant to the writer’s other blog, the more philosophical and meditative Daily Joy with Honey Girl: T’ai chi and Zen Wisdom for Beginners, begun 11/17. The times are changing and so are we! But French language, literature, and history and the Revolution in particular will always remain a passion, so you can expect that A Revolution in Fiction will abide for some time to come.
Readers may take heart knowing that writing about Revolution has led the author to create and offer, since 2012, a radically involved approach to community service. I offer a free semester-long weekly writing workshop for kids age 8-12 known as Write YOUR Story. It began in South Bend, Indiana and is still going strong in Seattle, WA, now at the South Park Community Center (summer 2023). Inspiring children to feel free, have fun while thinking, and be creative may be the most radical answer to oppression.
Welcome to my world!
-Julia
p.s. Follow us on Instagram!
A Revolution in Fiction 
Hi chère Julia,
Je réagis en français pour le plaisir de réunir nos deux langues. J’espère que ce site si original va contribuer à révolutionner le rapport au passé, au présent, et au futur.
Laurent
Hi, Julia!
I just wanted to write and let you know how much I enjoy your blog. I am teaching an adult altered book class this semester and I recently thought back to our lovely conversation of two (?) years ago regarding responding to texts of the French Revolution through altered book making. We Amagos are loving Chapel Hill, but we miss many things about South Bend, including you! Hope you are well.
With warm regards,
Amy Keenan Amago
Just wanted to say that you have some awesome content on your weblog. If it is OK I wants to use some with the information you provided on my website. If I link back again to your web site would it be OK to do so?
Of course!
Can I just say what a relief to find someone who actually knows what theyre talking about on the internet.
Thank you!
Quel plaisir, chère Julia, de lire comme, presque dix ans plus tard, et de l’autre côté des États-Unis, tu persistes et tu changes à la fois. Désormais sont réunis la réflexion sur la Révolution française et ses effets aujourd’hui, la diffusion de cette réflexion par l’enseignement, et la recherche de la liberté et du bonheur individuel, ici et maintenant (qui a été à l’origine de l’indépendance américaine et des Constitutions américaine et française). Le collectif, la transmission, le bien-être personnel. Lectrices et lecteurs, allez voir les trois sites de Julia !
What a pleasure, dear Julia, to read how, almost ten years later, and on the other side of the United States, you persist and change at the same time. The reflection on the French Revolution and its effects today, the dissemination of this reflection through teaching, and the search for freedom and individual happiness, here and now (which was at the origin of American independence and the American and French Constitutions) are now brought together. The collective, the transmission, the personal well-being. Readers, check out Julia’s three sites !
Merci, cher Laurent. C’est toujours un plaisir de te lire (en attendant le plaisir de te revoir)…