Skip to content

Classiques Garnier

“Justifier Voltaire” - Staël’s reassessing of polemical writing

  • Journal: Cahiers staëliens - Germaine de Staël et le Groupe de Coppet
    2020, n° 70    . Le Groupe de Coppet et l’écriture polémique
  • Array
  • Array
  • Abstract: Voltaire is traditionally considered a counter-model for Staël: the famous denunciation of “persiflage” in De l’Allemagne confirms to what point the author of Candide represents not only a philosophy far away from Staël’s values and principles, but also a taste for controversy that she cannot approve for ethical reasons. The question, though, might be trickier because Staël, always questioning Voltaire, thinks controversy rather than she blames it.
  • Number of pages: 159
  • ISBN: 978-2-406-11081-1
  • ISSN: 2540-3680
  • DOI: 10.15122/isbn.978-2-406-11081-1.p.0013
  • Publisher: Classiques Garnier
  • Array
  • Keyword: Germaine de Staël, Voltaire, philosophy, Enlightenment, Controversy, Candide, irony, materialism
Copyright © Classiques Garnier