La notion d’auditoire universel chez Perelman. Une illustration à travers un passage des Faux-Monnayeurs d’André Gide
Perelman’s universal audience illustrated by an excerpt from Gide’s Counterfeiters

Summary/Abstract: The notion of universal audience raised many queries to the point that it even appeared as a “contradiction in terms” (« contradiction dans les termes ») (M e y e r, 1999: 266). We propose to illustrate some of its special features with a passage from the Counterfeiters (1925). This is the fragment in which Bernard and Olivier comment upon the theme of essay. The reflection will include three stages: 1) we will go back to the special characteristics of the notion of universal auditorium; 2) starting with these reflections and commentaries by P e r e l m a n and O l b r e c h t s -Ty t e c a (2008 [1958]) on a fragment from Tristam Shandy, we will study the embedding of the various auditorium types in the fragment of choice; 3) we will perceive the auditorium as one of the regulatory concepts (C a s s i n, 1990: 33) of Perelman’s system. In our view, it is these regulatory concepts that enable the Nouvelle Rhétorique to effectively discuss the exercise in the form of an essay which, in itself, fits within the precise model of the twentieth century’s Honnête Homme opposed by Perelman’s system.

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