ABSTRACT
Popular wisdom accuses revolutions of infanticidal appetite; it seems, however, that the charge of a parricidal inclination would be more to the point. Since revolutionary time runs fast, children turn into parents at a pace that defies the common view of generational change; in the short span of the revolution the parricide tends to be repeated many times over. Parricide becomes a ‘permanent’ mode of public life during the revolution; yet some revolutions reveal the parricidal bent more vividly than others. Whence the difference?
