Abstract EN:

My dissertation reconsiders La Bruyère’s Caractères as an original reflection on the literary landscape of its time. Looking at theoretical debates about character writing and other genres that frame this text, I demonstrate that the form of discourse chosen by La Bruyère allows him to explore the fundamental implications of the act of writing. Deeply implicated in the esthetics of the salons, but also resolutely modern in his conception of theater, La Bruyère envisions the text as a battleground where notions of truth and trust are undermined by a preoccupation with textual effects and dynamics. Les Caractères constructs a figure of the author as a philosopher or an “homme d’esprit” that proves to be the exact opposite of the ethos of the virtuous orator. Hence La Bruyère, in his depiction of vices and virtues, presents his own act of writing as morally compromised and Les Caractères can be seen as a fictionalized self-portrait, somewhere between Montaigne and Rameau’s nephew.