ABSTRACT

After some initial enthusiasm, public sympathy for the French Revolution waned in Britain in the 1790s. Growing violence stirred suspicion that revolutionary principles were giving way to radical despotism, and that anarchy was imminent. Satirical prints captured and propagated this disillusion, caricaturing the French as grotesque and threatening. The female body proved an especially fruitful resource; a colourful cast of cannibalistic crones, haggard fishwives, and monstrous viragos allied anxieties about radical femininity with Revolutionary corruption. The breast emerged as an evocative emblem of French unnaturalness—it appeared bare, bulbous, sagging, shrivelled, and even suckling snakes. But despite its prevalence, scholarship has overlooked one of its key incarnations. This article analyses caricatures of the French breast as physically threatening—flaming, reinforced by a gun, or shooting poisonous discharges. Mobilising medical, moral, and philosophical perspectives, it shows how it was used to position France as Britain’s dangerous and degenerate ‘other’.

摘要

在最初的热情之后，公众对法国大革命的同情在 1790 年代在英国逐渐减弱。日益增长的暴力引发了人们的怀疑，即革命原则正在让位于激进的专制主义，无政府状态迫在眉睫。讽刺版画捕捉并传播了这种幻灭，将法国人讽刺为怪诞和威胁。女性的身体被证明是一种特别富有成效的资源。形形色色的同类相食老太婆、憔悴的鱼妻和可怕的处女男，把对激进女性气质的焦虑与革命性的腐败联系在一起。乳房是法国不自然的一个令人回味的象征——它看起来光秃秃的、球根状的、下垂的、干瘪的，甚至是乳蛇。但是，尽管它很流行，但学术界却忽视了它的一个关键化身。本文将法国乳房的漫画分析为对身体构成威胁——燃烧、用枪加强或发射有毒气体。它调动了医学、道德和哲学的观点，展示了它如何被用来将法国定位为英国的危险和堕落的“他者”。