In the theater of the world, the search for base and summit

Abstract

If we accept that places of power cannot be reduced to built spaces, can we sketch out their natural repertoire ? Perhaps the simplest way is to return to the topographical evidence of the overhang and sovereign gaze : by following the motif of the mountain of power from Kalila and Dimna to Machiavelli, via the fortress of Alamût and the political fable of " Vieux de la Montagne ", we recall that political art is defined first and foremost by the ability to see from afar. But this quest for the summit, which fuels an entire moral literature warning against vertigo and temptation, is coupled with an ambivalent reflection on the foundations of power. The Icelandic example of theAlthing shows that all places, even the most desolate, can become places of deliberation. From this point onwards, the reflection questions the possibility of a comparative history of forms of representative assembly and, beyond that, the relevance of a search for the fundamental anthropological characteristics of a symbolic geography of domination.

Contents

• What did we see from the Château de Mehun-sur-Yèvres ? First review
• In search of the fundamental anthropological features of a symbolic geography of domination
• The mountain of power from the Kalila and Dimna (Ibn al'Muqaffa, The Book of Kalila and Dimna , trans. André Miquel, Paris, 1980)
• A high, steep, tempting place : " climbing it is very hard, and staying in the good that lies there is even more bitter and difficult "
• From Alphonse X Le Sage to Henri IV de Trastamare, " le roi est comme une sierra " (François Foronda, " La montagne du pouvoir. L'image de la montagne dans le discours politique castillan (XIII^th -XV^thsiècle) ", in Montagnes médiévales. Actes des congrès de la Société des historiens médiévistes de l'enseignement supérieur public, 34ᵉ congrès, Chambéry, 2003)
• Black castles of subversion dark abysses of cruelty, from the Carpathians to the fortress of Alamût
• Who is " the Old Man of the Mountain ? "
• The origins of the fable :Marco Polo'sDevisement of the World and "  l'Arbre Seul, que les chrétiens appellent l'Arbre sec "
• The mountain, refuge for the ungovernable (James Scott, Zomia, ou l'art de ne pas être gouverné, Paris, 2013)
• Le déguerpissement, force des faibles (Katsumato Shizuo, Ikki. Coalitions, leagues and revolts in ancient Japan, CNRS éditions, 2011)
• Living in the shadow of the castle : political fictions
• " Just as those who draw countries place themselves below, in the plain, to consider the nature of mounts and high places... " : back to the dedication letter of Machiavelli'sPrince
• Qui sont coloro che disegnano e paesi ?(Romain Descendre, "  L'arpenteur et le peintre : métaphore, géographie et invention chez Machiavelli ", Italian Laboratory, 2008)
• Political knowledge as the art of seeing from afar (Carlo Ginzburg, À distance. Neuf essais sur le point de vue en histoire, Paris, 2001)
• Délibérer dans des lieux désolés : l'Islande comme " société fragmentaire " (Jesse Byock, L'Islande des Vikings, Paris, Aubier, 2007)
• TheAlthing : court of justice, sovereign assembly, political arena
• " He went to bed, spread his cloak over him, lay there all day and the following night, and said not a word " : story of the law-teller Thorgeir of Ljósvatn (Peter Brown, The Rise of Medieval Christianity, Paris, 1997)
• Y a-t-il des formes obligées du rassemblement politique ? (Thomas Flum, Maxime Kaci, Jérôme Loiseau and Emilie Rosenblieh (dir.), Les Lieux de délibération. Espaces, décors, dispositifs, Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté, forthcoming)
• Quand les lieux délibèrent pour nous (Ann Davidian and Laurent Jeanpierre (dir.), What Makes an Assembly? Stories, Experiences, Inquiries, London, Sternberg Press & Evens Foundation, 2022)
• Histoires comparées des formes délibératives (Marcel Détienne (ed.), Qui veut prendre la parole ?, Paris (" Le genre humain ", 40-41) 2003)
• À Samarkand, à la cour du roi du Mâli et à Angkor : trois histoires d'ambassade, d'espaces curiaux et de lieux de pouvoir (Patrick Boucheron, " La ville, la cour, la modernité de l'État. Un "modèle européen" au risque de la world history ", in Léonard Courbon and Denis Menjot (eds.), La Cour et la ville dans l'Europe du Moyen Âge et des Temps modernes, Turnhout, Brepols, 2015).