Lumières et ombres dans le XVIIIe siècle français : perspective théorique et interprétative
Lights and shadows in the 18th century France. Theoretical and hermeneutical approach

Summary/Abstract: The French eighteenth century is traversed simultaneously by the influence of light(s) and by the current ideology of ideas called Illuminationism. Trying to describe the Age of Enlightenment through these trends and ideologies who coexist, even merge and the role they have played in the history of political ideas and, particularly, in the literary history of France is not an easy task, even for philologists or historians. The difficulty to display a full picture of this century and have therefore an overview of the different contexts mentioned above lies not only in its many disparate facets crossed by various internal contradictions, but most importantly in the varied and rich aspects that this century offers to us. The Enlightenment is the age of radical thinkers such as Descartes, Wolf, Voltaire, d'Holbach, Fontenelle, Bayle, Condorcet, but also of Malebranche, Diderot, Swedenborg, Saint-Martin, Eckartshausen, Rousseau, Joseph de Maistre and Madame de Staël. Curious or not, in the “Crocodile’s stomach” will coexist, at least for a time, people searching for “the light of prosperity”, people looking for “the light of lights” and “people guided by the senses”. Does this junction of opposites - century of reason and century of hedonism - cause indigestion to the “Crocodile ” or not? This is what we want to bring into light in our article. The analysis of the Enlightenment and also of the Age of Enlightenment cannot lose sight of the complex issues surrounding the evolution of the term “light” with all its turns, ambivalences, contradictions and conversions on new meanings that it incurred. Highlighting the complexity of the evolution of this term, whose independence is beyond doubt, it will help us to better explain the relationship established between current trends of the 18th century ideologies. Our intention is, of course, to give a broad vision of this century, seen that it could represents the subject of a thesis, but rather to provide an overview, while selecting and integrating the aspects and the most revealing reflections able to allow us a more accurate and successful positioning in relation to the concepts mentioned above: light, lights and enlightenment.

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