Under what circumstances did the critic Philarète Chasles invent the observer/seer distinction, which structured the reading of Balzac during the twentieth century? This article shows that this distinction, conceptualized just after 1848, aimed at dehistoricizing observation in order to better politicize clairvoyance, through which Chasles attacks socialism.
CLIL theme: 4027 -- SCIENCES HUMAINES ET SOCIALES, LETTRES -- Lettres et Sciences du langage -- Lettres -- Etudes littéraires générales et thématiques