Naked Terror: Political Violence, Libertine Violence

SADE AND TERROR: PUTTING THIS NAME AND THIS WORD TOGETHER might first evoke figures of libertine executioners, the cruel despots of the Marquis’s tales (Saint-Fond, Noirceuil, Blangis, Brisa-Testa) or figures of  massacring courtesans (Juliette, Clairwil, Olympe, Mme Durand). Such a conjunction might also evoke the extraordinary meeting between a man and a historic moment, between a writing and an event: Sade left the Bastille on 4 July 1789 because of the riot, later became an active militant of the Revolution, was imprisoned during the Terror for being a moderate, and barely escaped being guillotined himself. Hence the following ques tion: between libertine terror, such as that described by the writer of 120 Days of Sodom, and the revolutionary Terror, is there something upon which to reflect, is there a conjunction that would not be accidental but indeed essential?