De lykkelige skatteborgere

Forfattere

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/kok.v44i121.23722

Nøgleord:

Happiness, Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Literature and economics, the enlightenment, the French Revolution

Resumé

The article offers a contextualized reading of Louis-Sébastien Mercier’s forbidden bestseller The Year 2440 (1771). It focuses on Mercier’s financial politics as these are presented both in the novel and in the author’s intervention in the public debate immediately prior to the outbreak of the French revolution. Based on a reading of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the article argues that there is a link between happiness, rights and fiscality, which has rarely been examined. Intervening in this field of discourse, Mercier is co-responsible for the establishment of the unhappiness/happiness-dichotomy that characterizes much of the French late eighteenth century thought on happiness.

Forfatterbiografi

Jonas Ross Kjærgård, Aarhus Universitet

Jonas Ross Kjærgård er adjunkt i Litteraturhistorie, Aarhus Universitet. Han har skrevet en litteraturhistorisk ph.d.-afhandling om sammenhængen mellem lykke og menneskerettigheder i årene op til og under Den Franske Revolution, hvorfra en del af materialet til denne artikel stammer. Han arbejder pt. med Den haitianske Revolutions litterære efterliv i England, Frankrig og USA i årene 1791-1848.

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Publiceret

2016-06-21

Citation/Eksport

Kjærgård, J. R. (2016). De lykkelige skatteborgere. K&K - Kultur Og Klasse, 44(121), 83–100. https://doi.org/10.7146/kok.v44i121.23722

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