- Title
- From Corsican nationalist to French revolutionary: problems of identity in the writings of the young Napoleon, 1785-1793
- Creator
- Dwyer, Philip G.
- Relation
- French History Vol. 16, Issue 2, p. 130-152
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/fh/16.2.132
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2002
- Description
- As a young man, much of Napoleon's time was spent trying to arrive at an intellectual and emotional understanding of his own life story and of his place in the world. He did so in part by embracing his Corsican cultural heritage, and by identifying with both the Corsican independence movement and its hero, Pasquale Paoli. The advent of the Revolution in Corsica blurred the lines between what it meant to be French and Corsican, but it was not until 1793 that clan politics on the island obliged Napoleon to rethink his cultural and political identity. After having embraced the Corsican cause for so long, he turned his back on it and wholeheartedly supported the French Jacobin cause. This article attempts to put Napoleon's transformation from Corsican nationalist to French revolutionary in a cultural, political and psychological context. It helps to explain not only how Napoleon saw himself in the world, but also how he came to define himself as a cultural and political entity.
- Subject
- Napoleon; Corsican Revolution; Pasquale Paoli
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/27186
- Identifier
- uon:1446
- Identifier
- ISSN:0269-1191
- Language
- eng
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