‘Exception française’: splendeurs et misères of a formula

Abstract

Used at first with their original (definite) article, the phrases exception francaise and fin de l’exception francaise gained instant notoriety after the publication of Furet, Julliard and Rosanvallon’s 1988 book La Republique du centre: La fin de l’exception francaise. Before too long, the shorter phrase, which (contrary to what is sometimes asserted) was already in existence, also started occurring without the article, with other determiners, and in the plural. This paper details some of the splendeurs et miseres (including progressive trivialization) of both the longer and the shorter phrase, thought of as exponents of a single formula. Show more