Rumour, Denunciation and Terror

Abstract

“Rumour, Denunciation and Terror”, pursues this argument to its conclusion, examining how rumour became an inextricable part of the climate of suspicion and denunciation that existed during year II. Many arrests were based on hearsay, rumour and innuendo, which were later cited as evidence at Revolutionary tribunals. The use of historical evidence, retrofitted and reinterpreted through an increasingly radicalised lens, led to convictions for behaviour that, in the early years of the Revolution, would not have been criminal. These shifting perspectives are reinforced by ever-elastic and mutable definitions of “suspect”, ultimately reflecting the instability of language itself.