Revisiting Duelling and Fencing in the Sociology of Norbert Elias

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is twofold: first, to relate the analysis of duelling in the ‘Boxing and Duelling’ (BD) manuscript with other Elias’s works where duelling is discussed; and second, to expand Elias’s analysis on the specific development of duelling and fencing in the French case. Combat activities performed by ruling classes in civil society (not warfare) constitute a good candidate for comparisons on different national patterns of civilizing processes. Analysis of the development of such combat activities provides a privileged window to observe links between processes of state formation, monopoly of violence and changes in the militaristic ethos of the ruling classes.