New essays on Diderot / edited by James Fowler.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Fowler, J. E. (James E.)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Diderot, Denis, 1713-1784.

Diderot, Denis.

Physical Description:

xiv, 266 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Summary:

"The great eighteenth-century French thinker Denis Diderot (1713-1784) once compared himself to a weathervane, by which he meant that his mind was in constant motion. In an extraordinarily diverse career he produced novels, plays, art criticism, works of philosophy and poetics, and also reflected on music and opera. Perhaps most famously, he ensured the publication of the Encyclopédie, which has often been credited with hastening the onset of the French Revolution. Known as one of the three greatest philosophes of the Enlightenment, Diderot rejected the Christian ideas in which he had been raised. Instead, he became an atheist and a determinist. His radical questioning of received ideas and established religion led to a brief imprisonment, and for that reason, no doubt, some of his subsequent works were written for posterity. This collection of essays celebrates the life and work of this extraordinary figure as we approach the tercentenary of his birth"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction / James Fowler

Part I. Diderot the Philosophe: 1. Diderot and the ancients / Russell Goulbourne; 2. Diderot's earlier philosophical writings / Marian Hobson; 3. The Encyclopédie: innovation and legacy / Daniel Brewer; 4. Diderot, Rousseau and the art of craft / Angelica Goodden; 5. Diderot's anti-colonialism: a problematic notion / Anthony Strugnell; 6. Diderot's letters to Sophie Volland / Pierre Saint-Amand

Part II. Novels: 7. Les Bijoux indiscrets: transition or translation? / Anne Deneys-Tunney; 8. Jacques le fataliste et son maître: finding myself in the work of another / Joseph Breines; 9. La Religieuse: Diderot's 'Richardsonian' novel / James Fowler

Part III. Dialogues: 10. Eyes wide shut: Le Rêve de d'Alembert / Kate E. Tunstall; 11. Logics of the human in the Supplément au Voyage de Bougainville / Andrew Curran

Part IV. Plays and Dramatic Theory: 12. Diderot and Olympe de Gouges convert the tyrand and transform the family / Carol L. Sherman; 13. Diderot and Destouches: Le Philosophe marié in Est-il-bon? Est-il méchant? / Derek Connon

Part V. Music, Performance, Aesthetics: 14. Diderot's voice(s): music and reform, from the Querelle des Bouffons to Le Neveu de Rameau / Mark Darlow; 15. Diderot and the aesthetics of the Libretto / Béatrice Didier; 16. Ekphrasis and related issues in Diderot's Salons / Tom Baldwin.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 248-259) and index.

ISBN:

9780521769563

0521769566

OCLC:

671541676

Online:

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