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| Arlette Farge | |
|---|---|
| Name | Arlette Farge |
| Birth date | 1941 |
| Birth place | Paris |
| Occupation | Historian, archivist, professor |
| Era | 20th century–21st century |
| Main interests | Social history, Cultural history, Gender history |
Arlette Farge is a French historian and archivist known for her pioneering work on the social and cultural history of Paris in the early modern period and for her studies of the lives of the poor, marginalised, and litigants in the archives. Her scholarship combines detailed archival research with a sensitivity to narrative and voice, influencing debates in historiography and microhistory. Farge has held prominent positions in French archival and academic institutions and has published widely on the social experience of the Ancien Régime, gendered practices, and the history of emotions.
Born in Paris in 1941, Farge trained in archival science and palaeography at the École Nationale des Chartes and pursued postgraduate studies that brought her into contact with scholars of modern history and social history. Her formative years coincided with major intellectual currents in France, including debates associated with the Annales School, the work of historians such as Fernand Braudel and Marc Bloch, and the rise of social-scientific approaches influenced by figures like Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault. Engagement with archival holdings in institutions such as the Archives nationales (France) shaped her method and commitment to primary sources.
Farge served as a conservator at the Archives nationales (France) before joining the faculty at the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, where she directed doctoral research and seminar programmes linked to early modern France studies. She has been associated with research centres including the Centre national de la recherche scientifique and collaborated with scholars affiliated to the École des hautes études en sciences sociales and the Collège de France. Her institutional roles intersected with archival administration, pedagogy, and international scholarly exchange, including conferences and visiting appointments at universities such as Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Cambridge.
Farge's research focuses on the everyday life of Paris in the eighteenth century, exploring themes such as poverty, crime, the judicial culture of the Parlement of Paris, and practices of inspection and control under the Ancien Régime. She combines microhistorical attention to individual voices found in courthouses and notarial records with theoretical influences from oral history techniques and narrative strategies associated with cultural history. Methodologically, Farge emphasises close reading of manuscripts in repositories like the Archives départementales de la Seine and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, tracing affective dimensions—fear, shame, solidarity—in files pertaining to litigants, police reports, and petitions. Her approach dialogues with the work of Carlo Ginzburg, Natalie Zemon Davis, Robert Darnton, and Jacques Le Goff in locating the agency of marginal actors within archival traces.
Farge is author of several influential books and essays, notably studies that reached anglophone audiences through translations and collections. Her major works include archival monographs on the labours and living conditions of eighteenth-century Parisians, edited volumes on gendered violence and urban inspection, and methodological essays on reading archives. Key titles that appear in academic syllabi and bibliographies discuss the culture of legal proceedings, the voices of witnesses, and the spatial dynamics of neighbourhoods in pre-revolutionary France. Her publications engage with debates advanced by historians such as E.P. Thompson, Joel Mokyr, and Lynn Hunt and have been reviewed in journals linked to institutions like the American Historical Review and the French Historical Studies.
Farge's contributions have been recognised by French and international bodies, including prizes and fellowships connected to the Centre national du livre, the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, and research grants from the European Research Council and the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme. She has received distinctions that acknowledge both archival conservation work at institutions such as the Archives nationales (France) and scholarly achievements celebrated by learned societies like the Société des études robespierristes and the Association des historiens contemporanéistes.
Farge's work has had substantial impact on studies of Paris, the French Revolution, and the methodology of working with judicial and notarial archives. Her blending of empathetic narrative with rigorous source criticism influenced debates among historians including George Rudé, Simon Schama, Timothy Tackett, and Roy Porter, and shaped teaching in departments at the Université de Strasbourg, Université de Lyon, and international programmes in early modern studies. Critics and admirers alike have discussed her place within currents tied to the Annales School and to cultural turns associated with gender history and the history of emotions. Her books continue to be cited in scholarship on urban life, archival practice, and the history of marginalised populations.
Category:French historians Category:People from Paris