Le lingue di Satana. Note sul «serpente antico» nella lingua ai tempi della Rivoluzione

During the French Revolution, the image of Devil, like other elements of religious imaginary, is not completely eradicated by the «Déchristianisation» and remains vital from a linguistic and cultural perspective. In this short contribution, by no means exhaustive, I will examine some examples of Satan’s presence in revolutionary language. Through the analysis of texts of different nature (public speech, tragedy, satirical poetry), I shall focus my attention on the image of the “Serpent” to which Satan is also associated in common parlance. The metaphorical presence of the Serpent is linked by the three authors taken into consideration – Jules-François Paré, Gabriel Legouvé, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin – to a perverted use of language: this figure will be investigated from a symbolical, cultural and metalinguistic point of view, with a particular emphasis on the idea of linguistic “abus” and on the relationship between language and ethics.