French Roots and Revolutionary Theater: A Collaborative Journey in History and Translation

Name:  Yann Robert

Title: Associate Professor and Head

Department: French and Francophone Studies

How did you become interested in the field of French and Francophone Studies?

You could say it’s in my blood – I was born and raised in France, before moving to the United States at the age of twelve. I chose to study French culture and history partly, I believe, as a means of staying connected to my origins, even as I was becoming more and more American. French classes offer far more than just fluency in another language; they open a window into another way of thinking that can help students discern and examine their own preconceptions. For me, taking French classes, and now teaching them, also had the added benefit of helping me better understand my own split identity.

You recently published the book The Last Judgment of Kings, which is a critical edition and translation of the play Le Jugement dernier des rois. Can you talk about the inspiration behind this project and what led you to pursue it?

Why translate and annotate such a play? Because it is an incredibly fun read! This is a play that was performed the very next day after the beheading of Marie-Antoinette and that stages the burlesque trial and execution of the remaining kings and queens of Europe, who are paraded in chains like circus animals, forced to brawl over a barrel of crackers, and finally obliterated by a spectacular volcanic eruption. Its considerable success – some scholars estimate that it was performed in front of over 100,000 spectators – came from the shock of seeing Catherine the Great thrashing the Pope with her scepter, as well as from the overt support of the government, which every night provided the actors with twenty pounds of gunpowder for the play’s volcanic eruption, at a time when wartime shortages threatened the very survival of the Republic.

Yet in spite of its popularity, The Last Judgment of Kings suffered the same fate as nearly all literary works from the French Revolution: unfairly reduced to vulgar propaganda, it was deliberately erased from history. By producing the first affordable critical edition, as well as the first English translation, of this play, I hope to revive it and help it reach the wider audience it deserves. Indeed, as I argue in the introduction, this short, lively, provocative play offers an ideal introduction to the most important and contentious questions of the Revolutionary period.

The Last Judgment of Kings was created in collaboration with your students at UIC. What was that process like?

This critical edition is highly unusual, in that it was completed as a collaboration involving twenty-seven undergraduate and graduate students over the course of five years and three separate classes here at UIC. The first class (in 2018) served as translators; the second (in 2021) as researchers; and the third (2022) as editors. Each task turned out to have its own unique pedagogical benefit. Translating short sections engaged students in a different relationship to the text, encouraging them to focus less on plot and more on style, register, and diction, and improving their analysis of the play as a whole. Researching background information on the play, as well as reviews published in eighteenth-century newspapers, trained students in how to locate and evaluate both primary and secondary sources. And editing the play – by which I mean reading a few pages of the original and its translation each week, comparing the two texts line by line, and marking words or phrases in need of improvement – proved far more effective than random sentences in a textbook at teaching students French grammar and style, no doubt because they knew that their decisions would have a genuine impact on a publication with a more substantial lifespan and readership than just a single semester and professor. My experience working with such astute and diligent collaborators has shown me that there is much to be gained in discarding the “lone scholar” model that still dominates research in the humanities in favor of a more cooperative approach with our students.

Describe some of your ongoing research as a faculty member at UIC. Do you have any exciting initiatives on the horizon?

I am currently writing a book that is very topical, in that it charts a new history of vigilantism. While specialists argue over its exact definition, all agree that vigilantism is a uniquely American phenomenon, dating back to the early years of the American Revolution. My discovery of a much older short story about a vigilante hero leads me to trace its roots instead to the early eighteenth century and notably to the philosophy of John Locke and the practice of slavery in the French colonies. Looking beyond the United States gives vigilantism not just a new beginning but a different ending as well. Indeed, I am particularly fascinated by the fact that vigilantism disappears almost entirely from French history and culture after the French Revolution, even as it remains so central to American society. I find it astounding, for instance, that there is no word in the French language for “vigilantism.” In my book, I seek to uncover the reasons for this disappearance, and to explore the fundamental cultural differences between France and the United States that it reveals.

What do you hope students will gain from learning about the field of French and Francophone Studies? How do you prepare students for their future careers?

There is sometimes a misconception that however fun it might be – and it is fun! – pursuing a degree in French and Francophone Studies only prepares you to be a high school teacher or a translator. This couldn’t be further from the truth. French also prepares students for careers in health fields, international law, marketing, tourism, foreign affairs… the list goes on. Just look at the many different career paths that our recent alumni have taken.

Do you have any advice to new students coming to UIC?

My main advice would be to resist the urge to specialize too early. Take a variety of classes, study abroad, learn a new language – there will never be a better time in your lives to explore widely and discover new interests and passions. I started my freshman year at university wanting to be an engineer, then a veterinarian, then a lawyer, then a writer… and ended up a French professor, after triple-majoring in English literature, French studies, and creative writing. In the vast majority of cases, pursuing a second major or minor won’t add any more time to your studies, and it can help make you an even better job candidate and well-rounded individual.