Introduction — Ruptures in revolution

On February 26 2011, during the so-called Jasmine Revolution, a Tunisian newspaper stated: “A revolution is, by definition, a rupture with the past”. This interpretation is not new and tellingly confirms what dictionaries and encyclopedias suggest. Revolutions are always defined as radical changes and thus indeed evoke the idea of a rupture with the past, of a break in continuity. This seemingly obvious interconnectedness might be the reason why the link between rupture and revolution has nev...