Disabled powers - Couverture souple

Howells, Robin

 
9789051835830: Disabled powers

Synopsis

This is a reading of the Romans et Contes of Voltaire in the light of Bakhtin's concept of the Carnivalesque. Part I of this study establishes a paradigm for the twenty-six Contes. It focuses on generic patterns and a thematics of disablement. Part II offers carnivalesque readings of two tales, Le Monde comme il va and Candide. The last Part considers successively six of the later Contes, including L'Ingénu and Jenni, and the historical changes in consciousness that they reflect. The shift towards bourgeois realism is evident in the rise of sentiment and the patriarchal family on the one hand, materialism on the other. These tales exhibit an increasingly deep ambivalence towards corporality. In conclusion the study traces the changing forms of the carnivalesque figure, from geometrical to vitalist, within the Contes as a whole.

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Présentation de l'éditeur

This is a reading of the Romans et Contes of Voltaire in the light of Bakhtin's concept of the Carnivalesque. Part I of this study establishes a paradigm for the twenty-six Contes. It focuses on generic patterns and a thematics of disablement. Part II offers carnivalesque readings of two tales, Le Monde comme il va and Candide. The last Part considers successively six of the later Contes, including L'Ingénu and Jenni, and the historical changes in consciousness that they reflect. The shift towards bourgeois realism is evident in the rise of sentiment and the patriarchal family on the one hand, materialism on the other. These tales exhibit an increasingly deep ambivalence towards corporality. In conclusion the study traces the changing forms of the carnivalesque figure, from geometrical to vitalist, within the Contes as a whole.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.