Belgian neo-Babouvism (1830-1839): a revolutionary experience at grips with its rhetoric.

Summary This research aims to reconstruct the experience of the Belgian neo-babouvist movement of the 1930s. It is based on the analysis of 400 unpublished works. It is based on a rhetorical analysis of revolutionary writings apprehended in their political and cultural contexts. It falls within the framework of political studies (with a historical subject) and is inspired by the research of Claude Lefort and Pierre Rosanvallon. It seeks to understand the revolutionary experience in its complexity and to shed light on its implicit aspects. Its methodology is in line with the New Rhetoric (Chaïm Perelman) and pragmatics. It is an extension of the studies of Marcelo Dascal. Compared to political and historical studies, its specificity lies in the attempt to go beyond the historiography of concepts, to bring rhetoric back to its classical function, that of an art of persuasion. It studies the relationship between rhetoric and politics in their reciprocity and through their dynamics. It also seeks to broaden the methodological framework that inspires it by complementing the analysis of voluntary rhetorical strategies with those of involuntary rhetorical forms (rhetorical molds), which sometimes run counter to their declared objectives. The application of these principles to the study of Belgian neo-Babouvism has led us to establish a correlation between a rhetorical form, namely the oxymoron, and a politico-historical positioning - the deep ambivalence of Belgian revolutionaries towards their national revolution.