ABSTRACT

The new norms of social communication and behavior established by republican civility were claimed to rest on moral maxims that conformed to human nature and universal values. Their task was to put the "eminently mobile nation" into organized forms or, rather, to model a collective body that was mobile but well structured. The French Revolution attributed an educational function to public space. At the core of this model of society, femininity had a dual role. The model of a harmonious order of society required a rigorous spatial division between individuals based on their 'nature" and, in particular, between masculine and feminine spaces. Subsequent research brought about a change in the aesthetic codes of various genres such that theater and painting became the major references for festive representation. Femininity, in consequence, in its role as a representation of nature, became more and more artificial. The anxiety of the historical rupture was transmuted in a fury of order.