Le Fils prodigue de Voltaire et la parabole, ou « l’extension du domaine du sacré »

This article analyses L’Enfant prodigue, a comedy by Voltaire performed in 1736, underlining the place accorded in it to love and to the female character : human love appears central in the quest for happiness. The renewal of the sacred is thus founded on the individual and subjectivity, in line with contemporary reflections by Régis Debray.