This thesis explores the relationship between the short story and anarchism at the end of the nineteenth century. In doing so it interrogates the tendency in existing scholarship on anarchism and literature during this period to rely on analogies between literature and the bomb. This is partly due to a lingering association of anarchism with the 1892-94 period of terrorist attacks. I seek to nuance this critical position in three chapters featuring little-discussed short stories by Auguste Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, Octave Mirbeau, and Jean Grave and Louise Michel. Whilst it is true that contemporary writers employed metaphors of the bomb, it was not always simply as a destructive and terrorising force. Nor was it the only concept to inform literature’s relationship to anarchism. Indeed, as my thesis explores, fin-de-siècle anarchism was a heterogenous and plural concept and therein lay much of its appeal to the period’s artists and writers. I contend that the short story form offers a privileged lens through which to explore the anarchists’ investment in intellectual emancipation and their vision of revolution and the future society.

Jean Grave’s newspaper (Le Révolté (1879-87), La Révolte (1887-94), Les Temps Nouveaux (1895-1914)) is a central thread through my discussion. The paper sought to reflect contemporary anarchist debates and its varied voices. Moreover, its literary supplement played a key role in bringing together cultural and political spheres in the anarchist community. It was through this newspaper that many workers, artists, and writers alike encountered anarchism. The authors I discuss in this thesis are no exception: all had a connection with this newspaper. In Chapter One, I focus on Villiers. Through close readings of two of his late short stories, I return to the Paris Commune as a key event for anarchism, considering anarchism’s position in the event’s legacy. In Chapter Two, I turn to Mirbeau and make the case that his short stories offer a print-based activism that is at once aesthetic and political. Finally, in Chapter Three, I discuss the children’s stories of Michel and Grave. Here, I consider the importance of education for anarchism, namely as utopian process. Reflections on anarchist pedagogy inform my discussion of how these writers might resist the authoritarianism of their form and their claim to writerly authority, specifically through the fostering of critical reading strategies.

My project concludes by drawing out a reflection on the divergences and convergences of anarchist and State practices of propaganda. This thesis offers insights into the works of non-canonical authors and obscure literary works as well as a contribution to studies on the relatively understudied form of the nineteenth-century short story.