The Midinette Guiding the People. An Iconographic Break of the Assiette au Beurre - HAL-SHS - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société
Book Sections Year : 2024

The Midinette Guiding the People. An Iconographic Break of the Assiette au Beurre

Abstract

The Parisian midinettes' strike in August-September 1910 was aimed at increasing wages in an unprecedented context of rising living costs. It achieved partial victories, but ended with the movement running out of steam, which the press saw as a defeat for the strikers. One might think that the presentation of this movement through a series of caricatures published in the issue of 17 September 1910 of l’Assiette au Beurre ridiculed the amateurism of these striking women. But beyond the biting irony of the cartoonist, Maurice Radiguet, it is an avant-garde social movement that emerges under the banner of an avant-garde magazine in the field of satirical magazines. This double avant-gardism was due to a double break, in the practice of the strike on the one hand, and in its representation on the other. The strike was dominated by a festive dimension, while at the same time being organized around the union and the Bourse du travail. Radiguet's drawings challenge the established iconology of the strike, taking female figures out of the role of the mater dolorosa, and highlighting female figures that combine seductive attitudes with the determination in the movement. In this sense, it's a renewal of strike practice that is expressed by taking the strike out of its usual tragic and male-centric vision, to show its joyful strength in the search for continuous improvement in the working class condition.
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Year Month Jours
Avant la publication
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Embargoed file
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
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Dates and versions

halshs-04680441 , version 1 (28-08-2024)

Identifiers

Cite

Claude Didry. The Midinette Guiding the People. An Iconographic Break of the Assiette au Beurre. Filip Dorssemont. On the Artistic Representation of Industrial Disputes in the Shadow of Repression in European Art. From 1870 to 1914 and Beyond, 15, Springer International Publishing, pp.85-114, 2024, Law and Visual Jurisprudence, 978-3-031-63633-2. ⟨10.1007/978-3-031-63634-9_4⟩. ⟨halshs-04680441⟩
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