Joseph Déjacque Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Joseph Déjacque before the court, 1849

May 1, 2020 Shawn P. Wilbur

POSSESSION OF MILITARY ARMS AND MUNITIONS. — Joseph Dejacques, a paper-hanger, condemned to transportation for participation in the insurrection of June 1848, and pardoned last May, appeared today before the magistrates’ court (7th chambre), presided over by M. Jourdain, for possession of two cartridges, several flints and a dozen caps.

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Joseph Déjacque and the Humanisphere

May 22, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

COMMENTARY & LINKS: The Trial of Joseph Déjacque (1851) Excerpts from Pierre Leroux’s The Beach at Samarez (1863) Proudhon’s Critics Anarchist-communism, work, and the virtue of selfishness Déjacque and the First Emergence of “Anarchism” Joseph Déjacque or Imre Madách? Misc. clippings Tag feed CORVUS EDITIONS: In Which the Phantoms Reappear: Two Early Anarchists, Exiles Among the Exiles Down with the Bosses! and other Writings (Expanded Edition) WORKING TRANSLATIONS: Joseph Déjacque, et al, “To the Workers” (1848) Joseph Déjacque, “To the Ci-Devant Dynastics“ Joseph Déjacque, “Discourse Pronounced July 26, 1853 on the tomb of Louise Julien, exile“ Joseph Déjacque, The Revolutionary […]

Joseph Déjacque, Short prose works from “Le Libertaire” (1858)

May 21, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

Le Libertaire 1 no. 1 (June 9, 1858) Le Libertaire (1274 words)(signed) Beaucoup d’appelés et peu de venus (943 words) Le Père Enfantin et le Père Félix (136 words) Bourgeois contre Bourgeois (193 words) Un nouveau livre de J. P. Proudhon. Nous voudrions pouvoir parler à nos lecteurs du dernier livre de Proudhon : De la Justice dans la Révolution et dans l’Eglise. Malheureusement, nous n’en connaissons que le titre et les quelques lignes de la dédicace publiée par la Revue de l’Ouest. Si quelqu’un avait un exemplaire de cet ouvrage en sa possession et qu’il voulût nous faire un plaisir, […]

Joseph Déjacque, “Essay on Religion” (1861)

May 20, 2019 Shawn P. Wilbur

What is Religion today? It is the immutable synthesis of all errors, ancient and modern, the affirmation of absolutist arbitrariness, the negation of attractional anarchism, it is the principle and consecration of every inertism in humanity and universality, the petrification of the past, its permanent immobilization.

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Joseph Déjacque — clippings

October 20, 2018 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Déjacque came from Jersey to New York in the spring of 1854, so the help wanted listing would have been soon after he arrived. The conflict over “La question révolutionnaire” was in 1854. The Association Internationale was formed in 1855, the same year that Claude Pelletier arrived in New York. And then Déjacque was in New Orleans for much of the period 1855–58. Le Libertaire was launched in June, 1858. [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] “BOY WANTED—WHO SPEAKS FRENCH AND English, and is between twelve and fifteen years of age. Good wages. Apply immediately, to […]

Joseph Déjacque, “The Theory of Infinitesimal Humanities” (1859)

December 25, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

La Théorie des Humanités Infinitésimales, OU SYSTEME DES QUATRE GRADATIONS Si mon ignorance de bien des sciences n’est pas un insurmontable obstacle à ce que je médite, j’essayerai quelque jour de développer plus complètement une théorie qui n’est qu’en germe dans l’article précédent (et qui n’est pas sans analogie avec la “Série” de Fourier et la “Triade” de Leroux, mais plus rationnelle, je le crois.) C’est la théorie des “Humanités infinitésimales” ou application, à tous les êtres dans l’universalité et à l’universalité de tous les êtres, du système des trois règnes (minéral, végétal, animal), couronné du quatrième, l’hominal, ou essence […]

Joseph Déjacque, “Discourse Pronounced July 26, 1853”

December 25, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] Here is Joseph Dejacque’s speech from the funeral of radical poet Louise Julien. The wind-up at the end is particularly fascinating, being a mix of Fourierist passional science and fire-breathing revolutionary rhetoric. [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] Discourse Pronounced July 26, 1853 at the tomb of Louise Julien, exile by Joseph Déjacque Again a grave is opened… And this time, it is not a man. It is a woman that exile… that the circus devours to the applause of Caesar and his praetorian rabble. A poor and valorous woman, a humble martyr for an idea, […]

Joseph Déjacque, “The Humanisphere” (1858)

December 13, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

[one_third padding=”0 10px 0 0px”] [This is an in-progress, working translation. A revised edition is being prepared for publication.] Joseph Déjacque Archive [/one_third][two_third_last padding=”0 0px 0 10px”] Joseph Déjacque, “The Humanisphere” The Humanisphere Anarchic Utopia ———— Utopia: “A dream not realized, but not unrealizable.” Anarchy: “Absence of government.” Revolutions are conservations. — (P. J. Proudhon) The only true revolutions are the revolutions of ideas. — (Jouffroy) Let us make customs, and no longer make laws. — (Emile de Girardin) So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty…. Stand fast therefore in […]

Joseph Déjacque, “Scandal” (1858)

September 4, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

I have this nagging fear that perhaps readers of the blog have not been reading the translations by Joseph Déjacque. It’s hard for me to imagine any other reason for the failure of at least a minor Déjacque cult emerging. His work strikes me as an exciting amalgamation of revolutionary fervor and socialist social science, with literary qualities which range from the heights to the depths in entirely entertaining ways. This essay is from Le Libertaire No. 4 (August 2, 1858), and is a sort of explanation for his approach to anarchist propaganda. Along the way it includes one of […]

Joseph Déjacque, “The Universal Circulus” (1858)

September 4, 2017 Shawn P. Wilbur

[This remarkable bit of libertarian philosophy by Joseph Déjacque poses all sorts of difficulties for the modern reader, not the least of which is it borrowings from, and reworkings of, the works of Charles Fourier and Pierre Leroux. And there are places where it ha been necessary to translate things rather literally, since terms are used suggestively, according to the established uses of none of the writers or schools that they were drawn from. There are also a couple of times when Déjacque’s enthusiasm clearly ran away with the syntax: where catalogs of conditionals come to abrupt stops, without ever […]