ABSTRACT
In chapter 3 we saw how Mérimée’s history of seventeenth-century Russia provided ample commentary on Louis Napoleon’s rise to power before the founding of the Second Empire: it was the story of an imperial impostor “pretending” to return to his homeland. Les faux Démétrius showed how the energy of fraudulence could— at least potentially—be harnessed for texts of political opposition. However, falsity has no strict political affiliation, as demonstrated by times of political turmoil, which often produce a kind of semantic gold rush—each group hoping to stake a claim on its version of the truth.
