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Dress

Sans-culotte

sans-culotte

The name literally distinguishes someone without knee-breeches, conventionally associated with trousers and popular revolutionary militancy; it does not mean a person without lower clothing.

From the book

The Gods Are Athirst

Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Meaning

Lemma.

The name literally distinguishes someone without knee-breeches, conventionally associated with trousers and popular revolutionary militancy; it does not mean a person without lower clothing. The plural is sans-culottes. In the text the name can designate Dupont’s comrades, a figure on Gamelin’s cards, Jesus as appropriated by Gamelin’s rhetoric, and Élodie’s former lover in military service. It is a political identity and an image, not proof of a uniform class origin or moral character. The jurors’ varied clothing includes striped trousers worn in the sans-culotte fashion, without making every juror identically dressed. Later the positive label divides against itself: Gamelin imagines certain sans-culottes as foreign agents because they have outbid the Jacobins in patriotism, yet idealises sans-culotte judges who decide through patriotic illumination. The narrator also reports the crowd’s diminishing revolutionary vigilance. These are changing attributions and allegiances, not a fixed character shared by every wearer of trousers. The English retains the French term in singular and plural.

Places to read

  1. Chapter I, paragraph 8Frenchbons sans-culottes: a positively claimed political group. Dupont offers a toast.
  2. Chapter II, paragraph 39Frenchla silhouette d’un sans-culotte: a type made into a card image. Gamelin draws the replacement for the jack of spades.
  3. Chapter III, paragraph 45Frenchla secte du sans-culotte Jésus: a political recasting of Christian history. Gamelin compares the longevity of religious and revolutionary cults.
  4. Chapter V, paragraph 30Frenchun dragon sans-culotte: the former lover’s actual current identity. The narrator contradicts the category of noble émigré imposed by Gamelin.
  5. Chapter XI, paragraph 31Frenchdu pantalon rayé à la façon des sans-culottes: striped trousers in sans-culotte fashion. Only some jurors wear this costume; the paragraph expressly displays a variety of male dress.
  6. Chapter XX, paragraph 3Frenchtous ces sans-culottes en bonnet rouge: all those sans-culottes in red caps. Gamelin’s inward accusation targets those described as surpassing the Jacobins in patriotism. The demonstrative limits the claim; it is not a narrator’s verdict against every sans-culotte.
  7. Chapter XXII, paragraph 7Frenchdes sans-culottes jugeant par illumination patriotique: sans-culottes judging through patriotic illumination. Gamelin approves an ideal of swift heartfelt judgement in contrast to leisurely legal weighing.
  8. Chapter XXII, paragraph 24FrenchLa foule des tricoteuses et des sans-culottes: the crowd of knitting women and sans-culottes. The narrator states that its revolutionary vigilance and civic ardour have cooled; it does not decisively intervene against Julie.