L’importance du religieux au siècle des Lumières n’est plus à démontrer, tant dans sa dimension historique que philosophique ou artistique. Mais il s’agit de savoir s’il existe une pensée du religieux au XVIII° siècle, i.e. des modes spécifiques de peser des sens qui ont à voir avec l’invisible, le surnaturel ou le divin. Plutôt qu’une idée en particulier, idée de bonheur, de nature, d’énergie ou d’inquiétude, nous étudions un rapport, une relation articulée entre l’homme et le symbolisable: comment une société donnée mesure ce rapport au surnaturel, et à travers quels médias. L’enquête privilégie la littérature d’idées, la production d’une pensée qui n’adhère jamais ni à l’identité ni au concept, mais qui est plutôt écart et mouvement, et qui par cela même peut s’aventurer sur des terra incognita ; elle privilégie aussi la peinture d’histoire, le genre où l’iconographie est par excellence cosa mentale, manifestation visuelle des méditations d’une pensée. Les analyses sémiostylistiques des œuvres sont orientées par deux pôles, l’intertextualité biblique et la praxis socio-théologique de la Querelle des refus de sacrements. Elles permettent de saisir les mutations du paradigme biblique, de la pensée rationaliste et de l’esthétique mimétique tout en mettant au jour les obstacles épistémologiques, les points de résistance, les skandalon. La pensée du religieux au XVIII° siècle, entre audace et effroi, apparait marquée par l’expérience et l’ethos, une esthétique du témoin qui doit beaucoup à la pensée janséniste du témoignage, ainsi qu’une remise en cause de la pensée rationaliste au profit d’une nouvelle philosophie du langage / The importance of Religion in the Age of the Enlightenment is no longer to be proven, whether it be historically, philosophically ar artistically. The question is to make out if there exists a way of thinking Religion in the XVIIIth century, i.e. specific modes of weighing meanings which are related to the invisible, the supernatural or the divine. Rather than one idea in particular (happiness, nature, energy, anxiety), we are studying a connection, an articulate relation between man and what can be symbolized : how a given society assesses this connection to the supernatural, and through wich media. Our investigation favours essays, the production of a thinking which never adheres to the identity or the concept, but which is rather a swerve, a movement, which allows it to explore terra incognita ; the investigation also favours history painting, the genre in which iconography is by essence cosa mentale, a visual manifestation of the mediations of a thinking. The semiostylistical analysis of the works are orientated by two poles, the biblical intertextuality and the socio-theological praxis of the quarrel over the refusal of sacraments. These analysis allow to grasp the mutations of the biblical paradigm, the rationalist thinking and mimetic aesthetics while they make light on the epistemological obstacles, the resistance points, the skandalon. Thinking Religion in the XVIIIth century, between audacity and dismay, appears marked by the jansenist thinking of testimony, as well as a questionning of rationalist thinking in favour of a new philosophy of language

Orientador: Jeanne Marie Gagnebin de Bons / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T06:16:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Izabel_TomazAmorimFernandes_M.pdf: 833041 bytes, checksum: 04d7fdf7ff0d2cf8f66ff045fe8ba341 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Este trabalho pretende compreender a especificidade da temporalidade nas narrativas do escritor tcheco Franz Kafka. Para isto, buscamos desenvolver o conceito de origem negativa e aplicá-lo ao romance O castelo (Das Schloß). Entende-se por origem negativa o movimento constante de negação operado pelo texto, em sua construção labiríntica, e pelos protagonistas e outros personagens em todo original, que em Kafka se encontra ausente ou danificado. No percurso do trabalho, narrativas curtas de Kafka serão comparadas a narrativas clássicas de temática semelhante, incluindo textos da Bíblia e da Odisseia. Diferentes abordagens críticas, como as de Walter Benjamin e Max Brod, serão apropriadas e criticadas em busca da formulação do conceito / Abstract: This work aims to comprehend the specificity of temporality in Czech writer Franz Kafka's narratives. In order to accomplish this, we will try to develop the concept of negative origin and apply it to the novel The castle (Das Schloß). By negative origin one understands the constant movement of negation operated, by the text itself through its labyrinthic construction and by the protagonists and other characters, on the presumptions of every original, which in Kafka is either absent or damaged. Throughout this work, short narratives from Kafka will be compared with classical narratives with similar themes, including texts from the Bible and the Odyssey. Different critical approaches, like that of Walter Benjamin and Max Brod, will be appropriated and criticized in search for the formulation of the concept / Mestrado / Teoria e Critica Literaria / Mestre em Teoria e História Literária

Sabemos que a querela entre Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) e Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) está sujeita a diferentes leituras, cujo interesse muitas vezes foi reduzido a um curioso anedotário ou a uma disputa produzida tão somente pelos humores de ambos. Nesta pesquisa, contudo, para além do relato biográfico e das conjecturas sobre as causas da rivalidade entre Rousseau e Rameau, intentamos priorizar uma análise que buscasse balizar os posicionamentos estéticos de um e outro, com ênfase nos argumentos expostos por Rousseau em sua contraposição ao sistema harmônico de Rameau. Ao longo deste debate, entendemos que, ao esquadrinhar e, posteriormente, criticar os escritos de Rameau, Rousseau teria encontrado ideias extraordinariamente férteis que favoreceram o desenvolvimento de seu pensamento musical. Para sustentar a tese da preeminência da melodia sobre a harmonia, assim contrariando os princípios do sistema ramista, o autor da maior parte dos verbetes sobre música da Enciclopédia, da Carta sobre a música francesa e do Dicionário de música, jamais deixaria de se referir ao sistema harmônico de seu rival. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo compreender a querela Rousseau-Rameau sob este aspecto, assim como apontar a relação da disputa assinalada com inflamados debates que também estiveram em pauta na França da segunda metade do século XVIII, a exemplo da Querela dos Bufões. Para tanto, além de examinar aspectos pontuais dos escritos musicais já mencionados, cotejando-os com alguns dos principais textos da vasta obra teórica de Rameau, procuramos nos deter na análise do texto de Rousseau intitulado Exame de dois princípios avançados pelo Sr. Rameau, cuja tradução apresentamos em anexo. / We know that the quarrel between Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and Jean- Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) is subject to different readings, whose interest has often been reduced to a curious collection of anecdotes or to a dispute produced only by the humors of both. In this research, however, beyond the biography and the conjectures about the causes of the rivalry between Rousseau and Rameau, we aim to prioritize an analysis that sought to mark the aesthetic positioning of one and the other, with emphasis on Rousseaus arguments as opposed to the harmonic system of Rameau. Throughout this debate, we understand that Rousseau, by scrutinizing and later criticizing Rameaus writings, would have found extraordinarily fertile ideas that favored the development of his musical thinking. To support the thesis of the preeminence of melody over harmony, thus contradicting the principles of the Rameaus system, the author of most of the articles on music at the Diderots Encyclopedia, of the Letter on French Music, and the Dictionary of Music, would never fail to refer to the harmonic system of his rival. The present research aims to understand the quarrel between Rousseau and Rameau in this aspect, as well as to point out the relationship of this dispute with inflamed debates that also were in agenda in France during the second half of the Eighteenth-Century, like the Quarrel of the Bouffons. Therefore, in addition to examining specific aspects of the musical writings already mentioned, comparing them with some of the main texts of Rameaus vast theoretical work, we seek to focus on the analysis of Rousseaus text entitled Examination of Two Principles Advanced by M. Rameau, whose translation into Portuguese we presented attached.

La littérature québécoise du XIXe siècle souffre de lourds préjugés que la critique contemporaine semble difficilement dépasser. Il est principalement reproché aux auteurs d’écrire de mauvais romans, privilégiant le fond au détriment de la forme. Pourtant, la lecture des œuvres publiées durant cette période indique clairement que certains écrivains font un usage massif de références à la culture classique. Ce recours intertextuel systématique leur permet d’inscrire le littéraire dans leurs œuvres tout en les rattachant aux genres épique et bucolique. Or, l’intertextualité gréco latine intervient précisément dans une période agitée par des querelles sur l’enseignement des œuvres classiques dans les collèges. Au cœur de cette polémique, une mouvance intellectuelle marquée par les idées de Monseigneur Gaume reproche à la littérature païenne de pervertir la jeunesse et prône un enseignement exclusif du latin chrétien. L’ampleur du débat dans la presse de l’époque est telle que les écrivains – qui ont tous été scolarisés dans des collèges classiques – ne pouvaient en aucun cas l’ignorer. La présente thèse étudie ainsi le dialogue intertextuel mené dans la production littéraire québécoise entre 1850 et 1870. Analysant l’image et la fonction de la culture gréco-latine dans les milieux littéraires québécois durant toute la querelle gaumiste, elle projette un nouvel éclairage sur les textes et met en évidence le savant travail littéraire effectué par leurs auteurs. / Nineteenth-century Quebec literature suffers from severe prejudice that contemporary critics seem unable to overcome. Authors are mainly criticized for writing bad novels, focusing on the content to the detriment of the form. However, the reading of works published during this period clearly indicates that some writers made an extensive use of references to classical culture. This systematic resort to intertextuality allowed them to introduce literary elements into their works while linking them to the epic and bucolic genres. But the Greco-Roman intertextuality intervened precisely in a time agitated by disputes over the teaching of classics in colleges. At the heart of this controversy, a movement of intellectuals influenced by the ideas of Monseigneur Gaume criticized pagan literature for perverting the youth, and promoted an exclusive teaching of Christian Latin. The extent of the debate in the press of the time is such that the writers – all of whom were educated in classical colleges – could by no means ignore it. Thus, the present thesis studies the intertextual dialogue conducted in Quebec’s literary production between 1850 and 1870. Analyzing the image and function of the Greco-Roman culture in Quebec’s literary circles during the entire Gaumist quarrel, it puts the texts under a new light and underlines the clever literary work performed by their authors.

No description available.

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans un mouvement de redécouverte et d’inscription dans l’histoire littéraire des femmes auteurs longtemps considérées comme mineures. Son objectif est d’étudier le statut d’une écrivaine au tournant du XVIIIe et du premier XIXe siècle français à travers la carrière littéraire de Constance de Salm (1767-1845) et l’analyse de celles de ses œuvres qui traitent directement de la condition de la femme écrivain. Nous avons étudié la position de l’écrivaine sur le statut de la femme auteur à travers son traitement d’un sujet antique (Sapho, 1794), sa prise de position face à un débat d’actualité (l’Épître aux femmes, 1797) et finalement à travers le regard qu’elle porte sur sa propre carrière littéraire dans son autoportrait en vers (Mes soixante ans, 1833). Notre but est de montrer les raisons de l’oubli puis de la redécouverte d’une écrivaine chez qui un féminisme précurseur contraste avec des pratiques littéraires qui sont en apparence désuètes, même de son temps. Cette étude nous a révélé l’originalité d’une femme auteur qui voyait et revendiquait les implications politiques de ses idées et de l’acte d’écrire. Par ailleurs, pour éclairer la place qu’occupaient la réflexion et les pratiques de Constance de Salm dans les milieux intellectuels nous avons tenue compte des différents états des textes et de leurs variantes ainsi que des articles et des comptes-rendus que lui a consacrés la presse contemporaine. L’ensemble de ces documents constitue les annexes réunis dans le deuxième volume de notre travail. / This dissertation is part of the rediscovery movement of women writers within literary history, who were long considered insignificant. Its aim is to study the status of a writer in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in France through the discovery and analysis of the life and career of Constance de Salm (1767-1845) whose works deal directly with the condition of the woman writers. The writer’s position is studied in relations to the status of the woman writers through her analysis of a subject from antiquity: Sappho (1797), the stance she took on a contemporary debate in the Epistle to the Women (1797), and finally the way in which she regards her own literary career in her autobiography in verse, My Sixty Years (1833). The goal is to show the reasons for which this writer was forgotten and then rediscovered, a writer whose avant-garde feminism contrasted with her literary practices that were considered antiquated even at the time. This study has revealed the originality of a woman writer who recognized and accepted the political implications embodied in her ideas and the act of writing. Furthermore, in order to clarify the position that Constance de Salm’s thoughts and actions occupied within intellectual circles of the day, we have reviewed texts in various states and their variants as well as articles and reports that the contemporary press dedicated to her. All these documents are attached as appendices in the second volume of this work.

Sabemos que a querela entre Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) e Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) está sujeita a diferentes leituras, cujo interesse muitas vezes foi reduzido a um curioso anedotário ou a uma disputa produzida tão somente pelos humores de ambos. Nesta pesquisa, contudo, para além do relato biográfico e das conjecturas sobre as causas da rivalidade entre Rousseau e Rameau, intentamos priorizar uma análise que buscasse balizar os posicionamentos estéticos de um e outro, com ênfase nos argumentos expostos por Rousseau em sua contraposição ao sistema harmônico de Rameau. Ao longo deste debate, entendemos que, ao esquadrinhar e, posteriormente, criticar os escritos de Rameau, Rousseau teria encontrado ideias extraordinariamente férteis que favoreceram o desenvolvimento de seu pensamento musical. Para sustentar a tese da preeminência da melodia sobre a harmonia, assim contrariando os princípios do sistema ramista, o autor da maior parte dos verbetes sobre música da Enciclopédia, da Carta sobre a música francesa e do Dicionário de música, jamais deixaria de se referir ao sistema harmônico de seu rival. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo compreender a querela Rousseau-Rameau sob este aspecto, assim como apontar a relação da disputa assinalada com inflamados debates que também estiveram em pauta na França da segunda metade do século XVIII, a exemplo da Querela dos Bufões. Para tanto, além de examinar aspectos pontuais dos escritos musicais já mencionados, cotejando-os com alguns dos principais textos da vasta obra teórica de Rameau, procuramos nos deter na análise do texto de Rousseau intitulado Exame de dois princípios avançados pelo Sr. Rameau, cuja tradução apresentamos em anexo. / We know that the quarrel between Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) and Jean- Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) is subject to different readings, whose interest has often been reduced to a curious collection of anecdotes or to a dispute produced only by the humors of both. In this research, however, beyond the biography and the conjectures about the causes of the rivalry between Rousseau and Rameau, we aim to prioritize an analysis that sought to mark the aesthetic positioning of one and the other, with emphasis on Rousseaus arguments as opposed to the harmonic system of Rameau. Throughout this debate, we understand that Rousseau, by scrutinizing and later criticizing Rameaus writings, would have found extraordinarily fertile ideas that favored the development of his musical thinking. To support the thesis of the preeminence of melody over harmony, thus contradicting the principles of the Rameaus system, the author of most of the articles on music at the Diderots Encyclopedia, of the Letter on French Music, and the Dictionary of Music, would never fail to refer to the harmonic system of his rival. The present research aims to understand the quarrel between Rousseau and Rameau in this aspect, as well as to point out the relationship of this dispute with inflamed debates that also were in agenda in France during the second half of the Eighteenth-Century, like the Quarrel of the Bouffons. Therefore, in addition to examining specific aspects of the musical writings already mentioned, comparing them with some of the main texts of Rameaus vast theoretical work, we seek to focus on the analysis of Rousseaus text entitled Examination of Two Principles Advanced by M. Rameau, whose translation into Portuguese we presented attached.

La confrontation du théâtre et de la liturgie est un lieu commun de la pensée. Il est un motif rhétorique récurrent chez les pères de l’Église pour définir a contrario et par surenchère le bon ethos du chrétien à l’Église. Ce tour de pensée ecclésiastique, typique de la synthèse augustinienne de la rhétorique antique et du christianisme, n’est pas seulement un héritage livresque au XVIIe siècle. Il est particulièrement pertinent à la vue des enjeux auxquels est confrontée l’Église catholique : elle doit répondre aux accusations protestantes, qui traitaient la messe de farce ; le théâtre renouvelé de l’antique se rétablit grâce au soutien du pouvoir, se sédentarise et devient un divertissement régulier. Cette banalité nouvelle fait de la Comédie, aux yeux des augustiniens, le lieu d’une « représentation vive » et continuelle des passions du monde, particulièrement de l’amour et de l’honneur : le théâtre apparaît comme une liturgie inversée. Là où les pratiques de piété sont censées amoindrir les passions et nourrir la foi, le théâtre excite les passions et étouffe l’esprit de prière. La querelle de la moralité au théâtre montre non seulement une concurrence morale, mais aussi psychique et affective. Les deux représentations prétendent susciter la présence d’esprit et « toucher » le cœur, voire lui « imprimer des mouvements ». La messe est qualifiée de « représentation vive du sacrifice de la croix », pendant laquelle le fidèle doit se remémorer vivement le sacrifice christique et sa signification grâce à une lecture allégorique, et se l’appliquer à lui-même. Par la considération et l’accomplissement de cérémonies, par la vocalisation des psaumes, le fidèle est invité à produire des « actes » du cœur pour s’unir à Jésus-Christ. Ce rapport au texte comme trace à suivre, et ce rapport au corps et à la voix comme media pour s’auto-exciter, expliquent pourquoi les comédiens professionnels sont condamnés par les dévots : ils excitent en eux les passions contraires à l’Esprit saint, ils rappellent des sentiments qu’un pénitent ne pourrait pas se remémorer sans « horreur ». La « représentation » est alors conçue comme un effort de remémoration.Le rétablissement du théâtre à l’antique nécessitait un discours pour en éclairer les visées et en légitimer l’existence dans une société chrétienne et monarchique. Traduire la mimesis aristotélicienne par « représentation » plutôt que par « imitation » rendait le théâtre beaucoup plus proche de la liturgie et lui ajoutait les connotations de vue, de présence et de mémoire. Le débat entre plaire et instruire est un débat entre théâtre-divertissement et théâtre-cérémonie. Incomber au théâtre la fonction d’instruire, c’était le rapprocher d’une prédication et de la messe, car instruire, signifiait instruire chrétiennement. L’échec de sanctification du théâtre des années 1640 fit conclure à une incompatibilité du théâtre avec la folie et la modestie chrétienne, mais la possibilité d’une instruction civique par le théâtre émerge à la fin du siècle. Le théâtre participe de la construction d’une morale laïque. / The confrontation between liturgy and theater is a topos of the discourses which reveal deeply-rooted issues of representation in the seventeenth century. This commonplace had been a recurrent rhetorical device in the patristic sermons, where it emphasized the differences between Christianity and paganism. It is vigorously reactivated in seventeenth-century France as the Catholic Church faces its Calvinist critics, who accuse mass of being a comedy. Profane theater becomes a regular and professional kind of entertainment in the city and at the court, thanks to the protection of the royal power. This is why it is seen by Augustinians as a recurrent “lively representation” of the values of the world, such as love and honor, which are contradictory to the celestial Christian spirit. Treatises against Comedy written by Christian zealots reveal not only a moral, but also an emotional and psychological competition between liturgical practices and theater. Both “representations” try to force the presence of the mind and to touch, or even to print, the heart. The mass is then qualified as the “lively representation” of the Passion of the Christ, during which Catholic prayers must commemorate the mystery of divine sacrifice. By considering and acting out ceremonies, by vocalizing prayers, the believer is invited to produce certain acts of the heart and to unite with Christ, applying the Christ’s sacrifice to himself. Thus, the believer can be assimilated to an existential comedian on the divine stage : he actively involves his sensibility in the imitation of the great Christian model, by entering into the spirit of the psalms. This relationship to the text as a vestige to follow, this use of the voice and the body as mediums to excite devotion, explain the condemnation of the professional comedian by the Christian zealots (dévots). Indeed, the comedian is seen as someone who excites his own passions, playing a dangerous game with his heart and reminding himself of former worldly passions which can only lessen his faith.The reestablishment of theater questions the legitimacy, the definition and the goals of this art in a Christian society. Translating mimesis by “representation” and not “imitation” brought the theater closer to the liturgy. The discourses on theater in the 1620s and 1630s show that the authors tended to see a memorial, reiterative and visual dimension in theater that was not present in Aristotle. The debates finally conclude on the definition of theater as an honest form of entertainment rather than as a living form of instruction, namely because the latter was the responsibility of predication and mass. Saint Thomas could justify theater as a way of merely releasing the mind without interesting the heart or touching the soul ; at that time, indeed, instruction meant Christian instruction. In the 1640s, to please the devout Spanish queen Anne of Austria, several playwrights did attempt to call back the theater to its former institutional position by assimilating it with religious ceremony and creating sanctified tragedies. But this attempt failed for both poetic and political reasons. The disposition of the spectators in the city was not to be instructed. The theater was finally recognized as incompatible with Christian folly and modesty, but slowly participated in the formation of a secular morality in a new civic sphere.

En 1906 le royaume de Perse connut une révolution constitutionnelle qui lui a donné la première constitution écrite du pays. Durant les années où la révolution se prépare, la société civile ouvre un grand champ d’émergence des concepts modernes du droit public. L’œuvre de l’assemblée constituante de 1906, qui a donné naissance à la constitution et à son complément, en est un exemple par excellence. Dans cette thèse nous allons procéder à l’exploitation de l’œuvre de l’assemblée constituante pour y suivre la genèse et l’évolution des concepts de droit public. Nous allons chercher à travers les concepts principaux du droit public - représentation, égalité civique et égalité devant la loi - la conception qu'avaient les constituants de la Constitution. Nous allons aussi observer la notion de constitution à certains moments décisifs de la révolution, où par exemple les révolutionnaires appelleront le roi au serment pour protéger la constitution. Dans cette thèse nous assisterons aussi à un processus qui par le biais de la redéfinition des anciens concepts de droit public, fait naître les concepts modernes du droit public. Cette thèse en se référant à l’histoire constitutionnelle du pays vise à relever un défi du droit constitutionnel d’aujourd’hui en Iran. Un droit constitutionnel qui, dès sa naissance, ne prend pas au sérieux l’histoire de la discipline. Par cette thèse nous voulons mettre en valeur l’importance et la nécessité des études historiques dans l’enseignement ainsi que dans l’étude du droit constitutionnel. / In 1906 the Persian Kingdom witnessed a constitutional revolution which gave it its first written constitution. In the early years of the revolution, civil society opened a great field for the emergence of modern concepts of public law. The work of the Constituent Assembly of 1906, which gave birth to the Constitution and its Supplement, is a unique illustration of this. The present thesis proceeds to explain the work of the Constituent Assembly in order to follow the genesis and evolution of the principles of public law in Iran. Referring to the principal concepts of public law - representation, civic equality and equality before the law - we will attempt to find the particular conception that the constituents of the Constitution had of these concepts. We also explore the notion of constitution at certain key moments of the revolution, where, for example, the revolutionaries called the King to give oath for the safeguard of the Constitution. Further, the thesis explains the process by which modern concepts of public law were given birth through a redefinition of ancient concepts. By referring to constitutional history, the present study aims to expose the challenges to constitutional law in Iran today, a constitutional law which has failed to seriously account for the history of the discipline. The present study therefore aims to show the importance of, and need for, historical studies in the teaching and study of constitutional law in Iran.

Cette thèse montre comment s’est constituée la figure du génie en France au cours des XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, en mettant en évidence les paradoxes qui lui ont permis de devenir l’une des notions fondamentales de la modernité. Cette analyse s’articule autour de trois axes principaux. D’abord, il s’agit d’interroger les circonstances de l’invention du terme « génie » dans la langue française, en insistant sur son bagage culturel gréco-latin. La notion de génie apparaît alors comme intimement liée au génie de la langue française et à son histoire. Ensuite, l’analyse s’intéresse au rôle que la notion de génie joue dans le cadre régulateur de la théorie poétique à la fin du XVIIe siècle. Le génie, qui se définit alors comme une aptitude naturelle à l’exercice d’une régularité normée du faire, n’a cependant de valeur que si cette régularité est transgressée, dépassée. Cette relation fait apparaître le paradoxe social que représente le génie, considéré à la fois comme exceptionnel et exemplaire. Ce paradoxe du génie est ensuite analysé dans le cadre du développement des théories esthétiques au XVIIIe siècle, fondées sur une expérience communautarisante du beau. Cette problématique est étudiée au regard de l’intérêt des philosophes sensualistes pour le problème que constitue le génie, en particulier quant aux mécanismes de l’invention et de la découverte. À l’issue de ce parcours, il apparaît que le génie est à la fois problématique pour les théories qui tentent de le circonscrire et unificateur pour la communauté qu’il permet d’illustrer. / This dissertation shows how the figure of the génie was constituted in France over the course of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, by highlighting the paradoxes which allowed such a figure to become the fundamental notion of modernity. The analysis revolves around three main lines. First, the circumstances for the invention of the very term génie in the French language are examined by focusing on the Greco-Latin cultural background it carried along. As a result, the notion appears as intimately connected to the genius of the French language and its history. Secondly, the analysis focuses on the role this notion played within the normative framework of poetic production at the end of the 17th century. Paradoxically, the value of the génie, which was then defined as the natural ability for the exercising of a regulated technique of poesis, was inconceivable without the transgression of such a normative framework. This social paradox underscores the fact that a génie was, at once, considered both as exceptional and exemplary. Finally, this very paradox his analyzed further within the trajectory of the development of aesthetic theories, during the 18th century, which were founded on a community-defining experience of beauty. This specific issue his examined with reference to the interest sensualist philosophers displayed, in particular, for the mechanisms of invention and discovery. The investigation comes to the following essential conclusion: the génie was, at the same time, problematic for the theories that attempted to circumscribe it and unifying for the communities which were illustrated through it.