Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons^™

Myth And The Paris Commune, Katie Brunner

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

The Paris Commune of 1871 is an event in history that has had a special place in the hearts of many revolutionaries. Karl Marx called it “the first successful working class revolution”. This paper looks at the events of the Paris Commune, as recounted in a work produced 25 years after the event occurred and, by means of comparison with more recent accounts, examines how it moved from a historical “reality” to a mythic history through the lens of secondary framing and historical mythology. This approach to the Paris Commune reveals many significantly different interpretations; pointing out that the true …