Title: Intellectual Life in the French Eighteenth Century: History of the Book and Ideas
Lecturer: Lise Andries (Director of Research in French Literature, National Centre for Scientific Research;Senior Associate of the French Centre for Literary and Linguistic Studies of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Université de Paris-Sorbonne; Current President of International Society of 18th-century Studies)
Chairperson: YUAN Xiaoyi (Professor and Director, School of Foreign Languages, East China Normal University)
Date: 1:30 pm, October 28th, 2016 (Friday)
Venue: Room 5303, Building of School of Humanities, Minhang Campus, ECNU
Sponsor: Si-mian Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, ECNU
Abstract of the Lecture:
The paper first deals with the distribution of books, the question of censorship and the level of literacy in Eighteenth Century France. It then focuses on the many social networks which existed at the time, Parisian salons and cafés, scholarly circles etc. The birth and development of a public opinion in Eighteenth Century France is set in such a perspective. It resulted in new channels of thoughts and ideas, as well as new aesthetic trends. In France, Eighteenth Century was a period during which great genres like philosophy, theatre and novels were promoted. While the rococo style and the charming fantasy of the « fêtes galantes » triumphed in Watteau’s paintings in the 1720s’, more serious endeavours arose as time moved on. The publication of the Encyclopédie by Diderot and d’Alembert was a turning point in the century: it served to propagate the controversial ideas of the French Enlightenment and brought forward a rational order in a world dominated by man instead of God.
Brief Introduction of the Lecturer:
Lise Andries is Director of research in French literature, National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS),senior associate of the French Centre for literary and linguistic studies of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (CELLF), Université de Paris-Sorbonne. She serves as President of the International Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (ISECS). Lise Andries has published over 60 articles on various aspects of popular literature, chapbooks, almanacs and engravings in early modern France. Her books include La Bibliothèque bleue au 18e siècle. Une tradition éditoriale, Oxford, Voltaire Foundation, 1989; Le Partage des savoirs XVIIIe-XIXe siècles, Lyon, PUL, 2003; La Bibliothèque bleue en collaboration avec G.Bollème, Paris, Laffont, 2003; Cartouche, Mandrin et autres brigands du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, Desjonquères, 2010; Intellectual journeys: the translation of ideas in Enlightenment England, France and Ireland, Lise Andries, John Dunkley, Frédéric Ogée, Darach Sanfey éd.,Voltaire Foundation, Oxford, 2013.