Claudia Moscovici
25.11.2019
Lucidity and Passion in Art
If Diderot’s Salons are such a pleasure to read hundreds of years later, it’s in part because of their conversational tone, inflections of humor and theatricality—all of the rhetorical and [...]
18.11.2019
Diderot’s “Traité du beau”
Diderot first broached the question of what is beauty in an article of the Encyclopédie that was published on January 21, 1752 entitled, appropriately enough, “Beauty.” He then edited and [...]
11.11.2019
Intellectual Conversations: The Enlightenment Salon and the „Salons”
The contemporary philosopher and art critic for The Nation, Arthur Danto, has stated that it’s nearly impossible to leave one’s mark upon culture as an art critic. If one looks at how few art [...]
04.11.2019
Between Two Worlds: Germaine de Staël’s De l’Allemagne
Novelist, philosophical essayist, political theorist, literary critic, salonnière and exile, Germaine de Staël represents the last éclat of the Enlightenment encyclopedic spirit, its faith in [...]
28.10.2019
Rousseau: Human Flourishing and Romantic Passion
At first glance, in La Nouvelle Héloïse love is sensual. The famous bosquet scene, where Julie, Saint-Preux and Claire share their first kisses, captures the enchantment but also the dangers [...]
21.10.2019
La Nouvelle Héloïse: The Novel’s Plot and Sources
Rousseau wrote La Nouvelle Héloïse at Monmorency. This novel was in part inspired by his love for Sophie d’Houdetot, who was in turn in love with the poet St.-Lambert. Published in 1761, La [...]
14.10.2019
A Kiss Sent By Mail: The Expression of Passion in „Julie”, ou „La Nouvelle Héloïse”
In 1837, Victor Hugo wrote to his friend, Juliette Drouet, “A letter is a kiss sent by mail.” Hugo’s brief phrase captures the essence of the rich tradition of epistolary novels in France. [...]
07.10.2019
Romantic aesthetics and the transition to Modernism: Diderot, Wordsworth and Baudelaire
Denis Diderot was known in his lifetime primarily for being the editor of the Encyclopédie. He is perhaps equally known in our times for his art criticism, which elegantly unites a philosophical [...]
30.09.2019
Romantic Epistemology: Mme. de Staël’s De L’Allemagne
The term ‘Romantic’ was imported to France by Germaine de Staël in De l’Allemagne (1810). Her book of critical essays on German philosophy, literature and society sought to capture the essence of [...]
23.09.2019
Romantic Ethics: Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), considered along with Goethe to be one of the fathers of Romanticism, can rightfully claim paternity to many other important concepts and movements in Western [...]
