« On m'accusera d'être trop peintre là où je narre plusieurs exploits d'amour » Casanova et l'écriture érotique

This article presents various aspects of ­Casanova’s erotic writing, focusing mainly on the Story of my life. The article analyses ­Casanova’s metadiscourse (particularly his prefaces and his letters, which outline a first theorisation of his erotic writing and its effects on the reader) in relation to some episodes of the Memoirs. A careful reading of the Story of my life leads us to identify some of the main ­contradictions and specificities of ­Casanova’s erotic writing: the role of the reader, the relationship between suggestion and description, the issue of obscenity, etc.