The Great Cat Massacre

The Great Cat Massacre: Deciphering Cultural Symbols In Darnton’s second chapter, Workers Revolt: The Great Cat Massacre of The Rue Saint-Séverin, Darnton explores the bizarre ritualized cat massacre of the rue Saint-Séverin during the late 1730s. Examining the symbology behind the cat in French culture, as well as the historical context behind the massacre, Darnton weaves together a complex story that transcends far beyond the gruesome deaths of la grise, and the cats of the rue Saint-Séverin. Drawing upon the autobiographical account of Nicholas Contant (a journeyman), Darnton describes the gruesome outbreak of the cat killing. Exhausted and humiliated by poor treatment from their master, Jerome (a fictionalized version of Contant), Léville…

In his book The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History, American cultural historian Robert Darton argues that readers can access the “social dimension of thought” via folktales because stories are often influenced by the “surrounding world of significance” (6). He claims that folktales often evolve to reflect the social attitude at the time at which they are told. Thus, as Darton suggests, it is “…unwise to build an interpretation on a single version of a single tale…

People tend to think that cultural history just refers to traditions, art, and human achievements, but cultural history is well more defined than those three categories. The Great Cat Massacre by Robert Darnton provides an effective job defining culture history by revealing how men and women of France and peasants, such as: artisans, philosophers, and peasants think in the eighteenth century. He expose the mindset of of those people to contribute to the world, give meaning through…

Twenty-five years ago, Robert Darnton offered a highly original perspective on historical understanding in his The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History (1984), and the book still warrants close attention. He proposes to bring an ethnographic perspective to bear on historical research, attempting to arrive at nuanced interpretation of the mentalities and worldviews of ordinary folk in early modern France. (Significantly, Darnton collaborated with Clifford Geertz at…

In his book The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History, American cultural historian Robert Darton argues that readers can access the “social dimension of thought” via folktales because stories are often influenced by the “surrounding world of significance” (6). He claims that folktales often evolve to reflect the social attitude at the time at which they are told. Thus, as Darton suggests, it is “…unwise to build an interpretation on a single version of a single tale…

I really enjoyed reading The Panic Virus, and believe it or not, I even more excited to write about it. I learned a lot while reading the book and I chose five out of the seven questions that I thought I knew the most about and also what I thought would be the most interesting to write about and do further research about. The five questions I chose were right in a row on the introduction sheet numbers 1 through 5. I am going to talk about the questions in the order they are listed. The first one…

with them, not just spending the time together but also enjoying the bedtime together, watching the television together……etc. But have you ever think about to have a black cat to be your family member? In many countries, the black cat seems to an “unluckiness” significant. Especially to the places which still remain the old traditional costumes. For an example, in Taiwan, when the elderly people see a black cat, they will try to get away from it or even scared the cat away. And the other rumor…

faces is when she was very young and someone murdered her two sisters and mother. The perpetrator is first believed to be Libby’s brother, Ben, causing Libby tobe in constant fear of herself and an anger towards her genealogy. This eventually leads her to dye her hair to separate herself, showing her pain and anger. “...I screamed ‘they’re all dead!’ in a voice that hurt my own ears”(Page 44) is a quote of what Libby said upon finding her family, showing her immediate agony and fear. Libby’s…

during the Great Leap Forward and Deng Xiaoping used his Four Modernizations to shape China’s economy to run smoother and more effective. Without these people, China would not be where it is today. As China started to shape itself, major belief systems started to be formed by different people. Confucianism was on of these first systems to appear in china. Confucianism is based on the idea that harmony, or social order and peace, can only exist when you…

Perhaps most disturbingly, the mainstream news did not limit their inaccurate coverage of video game related massacres to the 1990’s. While it may be fair to say that the news of the 90’s were simply covering a new and potentially dangerous phenomenon, in an attempt to inform the public, they still continue to inaccurately cover massacres, particularly the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Just a few days after Adam Lanza committed massacre, several news outlets in the UK ran the…