« Avez-vous pas des passe-temps plus aisés ? » La dynamique de la confrontation dans le livre III des Essais

Montaigne often recounts confrontations of his in the Essais. Some of them are written down in a very lively manner. Contestations, objections or reproaches have a variable significance in the different chapters, but on the whole, they lend coherence to the enonciation and the elocutio of the book III. In the chapter “De la vanité”, for example, they even appear as the causa scribendi, and may articulate the discourse. They also contribute to shape the author’s persona.