Lumières coloniales

Francois Regourd (1)

1 ESNA - Empires, Sociétés, Nations : Amériques et Méditerranée occidentale (XVe-XXIe siècles)

The fashion for theatre in 18th-century Paris was unprecedented, to the extent that one can say that theatricality was interiorised by high society. Crébillon's novel provides a significant example of this process. On the one hand, the author plays on dramatic or dramatised space, uses theatres as a background, as a trigger of speech (theatre) or as the scene of erotic contemplation (opera). On the other hand, he presents his characters as 'actors in society : accomplished, good or bad actors, but also apprentice actors learning about social interaction. Thus one can draw a parallel between this novel and Diderot's Paradoxe.

Domaines: Histoire

Francois Regourd. Lumières coloniales : Les Antilles françaises dans la République des Lettres. Dix-Huitième Siècle, 2001, 33, pp.183-200. ⟨hal-01656790⟩