Parallèlement au pur amour pour Dieu, c’est le rêve d’une pure écriture que Fénelon semble poursuivre lorsqu’il rédige ses œuvres dévotes. Pour le mystique, parvenir à l’amour pur suppose d’anéantir totalement sa volonté pour ne laisser place, en soi, qu’à la volonté de Dieu. De même, pour l’écrivain, la pure expression est celle qui fait parler le « Verbe », tout en faisant taire « le bruit des créatures » (Lettre à la sœur Charlotte de Saint-Cyprien, 10 mars 1696). Nous avons donc mis au jour une analogie entre la recherche d’une écriture idéalement transparente au Verbe et la doctrine du pur amour pour Dieu, par le même effacement du moi. L’enjeu de ce travail de thèse a été d’analyser les phénomènes linguistiques ressortissant à cette analogie, ainsi que leurs présupposés théologiques, philosophiques, et même parfois psychanalytiques. Pour ce faire, notre travail suit la trajectoire stylistique singulière de Fénelon dans ses œuvres dévotes : du paradoxe à la répétition. L’association des deux figures, qui ne va pas de soi à première vue, informe, en effet, une réflexion en acte sur la pure écriture. Si le paradoxe est le moyen d’expression le plus pur pour les poètes baroques et mystiques dont Fénelon a été vu comme un continuateur, il est un procédé ignoré ou condamné par les logiques, rhétoriques et grammaires classiques. En outre, lorsqu’il est brillant et incisif - ce que nous nommons paradoxe rhétorique - le procédé ne satisfait pas le nécessaire effacement du moi requis par le pur amour. C’est pourquoi, la quête de la pure écriture passe de la difficile reprise du paradoxe baroque par le mystique du Grand Siècle à son échappatoire dans la répétition.Dans une première partie, après avoir étudié les différentes définitions du paradoxe selon les temps, les types de paradoxe, les disciplines de référence et selon les théoriciens, nous situons la position de Fénelon en le replaçant dans son contexte historique. Puis nous mettons au jour, dans une seconde partie, l’effort de Fénelon pour parvenir à une pure écriture, effort qui est pris dans une ambiguïté entre condamnation du paradoxe rhétorique comme instrument mondain de langage et expression du paradoxe mystique. Fénelon tente d’atténuer le paradoxe, soit qu’il essaie, en le transformant en pseudo-paradoxe, d’éliminer l’effet de violente surprise qu’il comporte, soit même qu’il cherche à prendre une distance avec le paradoxe mystique en le réduisant par l’abondance des explications, tout en cultivant l’effacement énonciatif. La dernière partie démontre comment cette abondance s’exprime à travers l’usage infiniment développé de la répétition, au sein duquel nous distinguons ce qui vient d’une pulsion de mort et ce qui s’origine dans une pulsion de vie, dans le pur amour d’un Dieu infini, foncièrement équivoque. / Besides pure love for God, Fénelon searches pure writing in his devout works.For the mystic, reaching pure love means to completely annihilate one’s will to leave room wholly to the will of God. Similarly, for the writer, the pure expression is the one that allows God to speak while silencing “the noise of creatures" (Letter to the sister Charlotte of Saint-Cyprien, 10 March 1696). Thus, we underlined the parallel between a writing perfectly transparent to God and the pure love for God, as the same deletion of the self is required in both. The aim of this thesis was to reveal and analyze the linguistic phenomena generated by this parallel between pure love and pure writing, and to review their theological, philosophical, and sometimes psychoanalysis presuppositions.To do so, our study follows the singular stylistic trajectory of Fénelon’s devout works: from paradox to repetition. The combination of the two figures - which is not obvious at first -, informs, indeed, a reflection on pure writing. As a matter of fact, the paradox is the purest expression for baroque and mystic poets among which Fénelon has been seen as a successor. It is, however, a process ignored or condemned by the classical theorists. Furthermore, when it is bright and sharp - what we call rhetorical paradox - the process does not meet the necessary erasing of the self, required by pure love. Therefore, Fénelon’s quest for pure writing moves from the difficult resumption of baroque paradox to his escape in repetition.In the first part, after considering the different definitions of paradox amongst times, types of paradox, fields and theorists, we situate Fénelon in his historical context. Then we study Fénelon’s effort to achieve a pure writing through the use of paradox. This effort lies in an ambiguity between the condemnation of the rhetorical paradox as a mundane instrument of language and the expression of the mystical paradox. Fénelon attempts to mitigate the paradox in two ways. On the one hand, he tries to turn it into a pseudo-paradox, by eliminating his effect of violent surprise. On the other hand, he seeks to distance himself from the mystical paradox by an abundance of explanations. The last part shows how this abundance is expressed through the infinite use of repetition. In that part, we distinguish between the repetition coming from a pulse of death – because of the mystical asceticism, and what was originally a pulse of life - because of the pure love of an infinite God.

This thesis presents Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s novel Paul et Virginie (1788) as a synthesis of the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the theology of François de la Mothe-Fénelon. While the novel’s prominent themes of the goodness of nature and the corruption of society are clearly associated with Rousseau, Bernardin rejects Rousseau’s ideals of independence and self-sufficiency as the basis for his moral theory and preference of nature. Instead, his novel appears to Christianize Rousseau’s philosophy by stressing dependence on a personal, beneficient God who is revealed through nature, thereby associating the natural life with a God-centered life where happiness can be found through dependence on God and selfless service to others. In seeking to pinpoint Bernardin’s Christian influence, this paper goes on to acknowledge Bernardin’s hyperbolic praise for François Fénelon, which leads to an investigation concerning, first, which of Fénelon’s teachings can be found in Paul et Virginie, and second, how Bernardin manages to preserve such enthusiastic admiration for a Christian thinker while also denying several important tenets of Christian orthodoxy. This investigation reveals that Fénelon appealed to Bernardin de Saint-Pierre not only on the basis of what he emphasized, but also what he failed to emphasize. On the one hand, a number of Fénelonian ideas find expression in Paul et Virginie, ideas such as a conception of worship that privileges inner realities over external performances; a glorification of pure, disinterested love toward God; an ideal lifestyle of simplicity and harmony with nature; and an acknowledgement of the role of sentiment in gaining knowledge of the divine. On the other hand, this paper also proposes that Bernardin’s unhindered admiration for Fénelon was made possible by his ability to misinterpret two of Fénelon’s most well-known works, Télémaque (1699) and the Traité de l’existence de Dieu (p. 1718), whose silence on particular doctrines like original sin and the authority of the Scriptures allowed Bernardin to preserve his beliefs about natural goodness and the sufficiency of natural revelation. / text

The purpose of this thesis will be to examine closely James Joyce’s Ulysses with respect to François Fénelon’s The Adventures of Telemachus. Joyce considered The Adventures of Telemachus to be a source of inspiration for Ulysses, but little scholarship considers this. Joyce’s fixation on the role of teachers and mentor figures in Stephen’s growth and development, serving alternately as cautionary figures, models or adversaries, owes much to Fénelon’s framework for the growth of Telemachus. Close reading of both Joyce’s and Fénelon’s work will illuminate the significance of education and mentorship in Joyce’s construction of Stephen Dedalus. Leopold Bloom and Stephen’s relationship in Joyce’s Ulysses closely mirrors that of Mentor and Telemachus as seen in Fénelon’s The Adventures of Telemachus. Through these numerous parallels, we will see that mentorship serves as a better model for Bloom and Stephen’s relationship in Ulysses than the more critically prevalent father-son model. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

À la fin du XVIIe siècle, la dissolution du pacte allégorique semblait avoir à tout jamais disjoint la fable et le conte, la première prenant en charge seule un but didactique et le second se définissant comme un récit pur, sans intention de transmettre un quelconque message. Paradoxalement, de la fin du XVIIe siècle jusqu’aux années 1775, un nombre important de contes affichent, dès leurs seuils (titres, épigraphes, frontispices, préfaces), une fonction cognitive : on assiste à l’émergence d’une nouvelle catégorie du conte, qui se réconcilie avec les savoirs. Cette thèse vise à montrer que la portée philosophique et morale de ce sous-genre réside moins dans le message transmis que dans le mode de déchiffrement qu’il induit et dans la singularité de l’expérience qu’il fait vivre au lecteur. Les contes à visée morale et philosophique ne sont pas des illustrations d’une thèse préalable, ils déclenchent la réflexion du lecteur grâce à un dispositif narratif particulier, qui repose sur un pacte de lecture non plus allégorique, mais analogique : le lecteur est amené à faire des liens entre ce qui a priori est sans rapport, à prendre une posture critique à l’égard de tous les discours (notamment religieux, politiques, pseudo-scientifiques et même fictionnels), et à s’interroger sur lui-même, en somme à être philosophe, au sens où l’entendait le XVIIIe siècle. Après avoir repéré les constantes structurelles et thématiques de ces textes, aussi divers soient-ils, nous étudions l’entremêlement des discours philosophiques et moraux et de la fiction, dans les contes de Fénelon, Montesquieu, Saint-Hyacinthe, Crébillon, Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire et Marmontel. / At the end of the seventeenth century, the dissolution of the allegorical pact had seemed to separate the fable from the tale for ever, the first supporting only a didactic purpose while the second is defined as pure storytelling, without intending to convey any message. Paradoxically, from the end of the seventeenth century to the 1775s, a large number of tales claim straight away - in their titles, epigraphs, frontispieces, prefaces- to have a cognitive function: we are witnessing the emergence of a new category of tales, which is reconciled with knowledge. This thesis aims to show that the philosophical and moral implications of this sub-gender are not so much the message conveyed as the type of deciphering that it induces and the uniqueness of the experience it brings to life. Tales which have a moral and philosophical aim are not illustrations of a prior thesis, they trigger the reflection of the reader with a particular narrative device, based on a reading pact that is not allegorical, but analogical: the reader is led to make connections between what is a priori unrelated, to take a critical stance towards every kind of speech (including religious, political, pseudo-science and even fiction itself), and to question himself, in short to be a philosopher, in the sense understood in the eighteenth century. After identifying common thematic structures of these texts, while taking into account their differences, we study the entanglement of philosophical and moral discourse and fiction in the tales by Fenelon, Montesquieu, Saint-Hyacinthe, Crebillon, Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire and Marmontel.

Orientador: Carlos Eduardo Ornelas Berriel / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T06:03:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Brito_TarsillaCoutode_D.pdf: 3083107 bytes, checksum: 65aa076e7788c2f35e1f9bbc6341c129 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Quando Fénelon decidiu escrever um espelho de príncipe literário para instruir o neto de Luís XIV nas artes de governar, não imaginou que seu texto fosse causar celeuma, muito menos que se produziria uma fortuna crítica tão vasta e multifacetada. Para além das leituras de caracteres com que o público da época se divertiu descobrindo as figuras reais por detrás das personagens, um dos problemas permanentes para a interpretação de As aventuras de Telêmaco é sua classificação. O livro não se enquadra perfeitamente na narrativa antiga, nem no romance. A despeito da função moralizante-educacional do texto, o personagem Telêmaco ganha autonomia ao ser, nos primeiro livros, narrador de si mesmo. Com isso, temos acesso a uma subjetividade inteiramente nova para um texto que se pretendia pedagógico. O caráter exemplar da epopéia homérica que inspira as aventuras é minado pelas armadilhas criadas pelos sentimentos do próprio herói na missão difícil de despojar-se de si mesmo. Por outro lado, o objetivo de seu texto prende-o às narrativas antigas de caráter moralizante - formar um reicristão. As aventuras de Telêmaco permanecem inscritas em um "tempo sem tempo", em que vemos as transformações sucederem-se umas às outras, sem podermos situá-las numa linha cronológica como no romance. A discussão sobre utopia vem, assim, renovar a discussão do gênero dessas Aventuras. Defendemos que a presença de um "país de nenhum lugar" nessa ficção pedagógica organiza sua estrutura narrativa e orienta seus procedimentos miméticos em função dos espaços visitados. Dividida em duas partes, a presente Tese busca, em um primeiro momento, descrever o texto literário Les aventures de Télémaque de Fénelon. Em termos estritamente literários, tratamos de sua estrutura narrativa, organizada em função de modelos e de antimodelos de governo; de sua linguagem mítico-alegórica que veicula um conteúdo moral e espiritual cristão; e de seu gênero literário. Com uma revisão bibliográfica, esboçamos as razões que fizeram da publicação do Telêmaco um escândalo; e ainda as alterações de sentido e modos de interpretação que o texto sofreu ao longo de uma fortuna crítica de 300 anos. Na segunda parte, nos dedicamos à análise de Salento, o último reino visitado pelo personagem principal, como uma utopia que propõe uma volta no tempo, de modo que afirmamos seu caráter conservador. Nossa proposta de estudo leva em consideração que o Telêmaco de Fénelon não é composto apenas de idéias políticas e religiosas, mas de um conflito entre diferentes concepções de história / Abstract: when Fenelon decided to write a literary mirror for princes to instruct Louis XIV's grandson in the arts of governing, he did not imagine that his text would cause a stir, or that it would produce such a vast and multifaceted critical fortune. Apart from the readings of characters which amused the audience that would try to discover the actual figures behind the characters, one of the perennial problems for the interpretation of The Adventures of Telemachus is its classification. The book does not fit neatly into the ancient narrative, neither into the novel. Despite the moralizing and educational function of the text, the character Telemachus gains autonomy being the narrator of him in the first book. With this, we access an entirely new subjectivity in a text that was intended to be pedagogical. The exemplary feature of the Homeric epic that inspires the adventures is undermined by the traps created by the hero's own feelings while he deals with the difficult task of divesting himself. Moreover, the purpose of the text - to form a Christian king - connects it with the moralizing ancient narratives. The Adventures of Telemachus remains enrolled in a "time out of time" in which we see the transformations following each other, being impossible to place them on a timeline like we do in the novel. The discussion of utopia has thus renewed the discussion about the genre in these adventures. We argue that the presence of a "country of nowhere" in this pedagogical narrative organizes its structure and guides its mimetic procedures according to the spaces visitEditora Divided in two parts, this thesis seeks, at first, to describe Fénelon's literary text, Les aventures de Télémaque. In strictly literary terms, we deal with its narrative structure, organized around government's models and antimodels; its mythical-allegorical language that conveys a moral and spiritual Christian content; and its literary genre. Through a bibliographical review, we outline the reasons that made Telemachus' publication a scandal, and also the changes of meaning and modes of interpretation that the text has suffered over a 300 years old critical fortune. In the second part, we are dedicated to the analysis of Salento, the last kingdom visited by the main character, as a utopia that offers a return on time, so we affirm its conservative feature. Our proposed study takes into consideration that Fénelon's Telemachus consists not only of political and religious ideas, but also of a conflict between different conceptions of history / Doutorado / Historia e Historiografia Literaria / Doutora em Teoria e História Literária

À la fin du XVIIe siècle, la dissolution du pacte allégorique semblait avoir à tout jamais disjoint la fable et le conte, la première prenant en charge seule un but didactique et le second se définissant comme un récit pur, sans intention de transmettre un quelconque message. Paradoxalement, de la fin du XVIIe siècle jusqu'aux années 1775, un nombre important de contes affichent, dès leurs seuils (titres, épigraphes, frontispices, préfaces), une fonction cognitive : on assiste à l'émergence d'une nouvelle catégorie du conte, qui se réconcilie avec les savoirs. Cette thèse vise à montrer que la portée philosophique et morale de ce sous-genre réside moins dans le message transmis que dans le mode de déchiffrement qu'il induit et dans la singularité de l'expérience qu'il fait vivre au lecteur. Les contes à visée morale et philosophique ne sont pas des illustrations d'une thèse préalable, ils déclenchent la réflexion du lecteur grâce à un dispositif narratif particulier, qui repose sur un pacte de lecture non plus allégorique, mais analogique : le lecteur est amené à faire des liens entre ce qui a priori est sans rapport, à prendre une posture critique à l'égard de tous les discours (notamment religieux, politiques, pseudo-scientifiques et même fictionnels), et à s'interroger sur lui-même, en somme à être philosophe, au sens où l'entendait le XVIIIe siècle. Après avoir repéré les constantes structurelles et thématiques de ces textes, aussi divers soient-ils, nous étudions l'entremêlement des discours philosophiques et moraux et de la fiction, dans les contes de Fénelon, Montesquieu, Saint-Hyacinthe, Crébillon, Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire et Marmontel.

Liberal thinkers have suggested different theories that legitimise the state's various processes, institutions, and use of coercive power. However, their theories cannot account for those motivations that cause men to put their lives in danger when standing against political oppression. The study of Montesquieu's theory of government can aid liberalism's incomplete account of the political motivations that incline men to defend their liberty. Toward this end, this thesis studies Montesquieu's notions of virtue and honour, and challenges the meaning they have been accorded in previous studies. This thesis suggests that Montesquieu combined these notions in order to conceive a type of motivation that inclines individuals to defend their liberty against encroachment. In order to recover this type of motivation, this study will adopt an approach of close textual analysis with attention to the context. Virtue and honour play a crucial role in Montesquieu's political thought because they foster the preservation of government. Virtue inclines citizens in republics to act with self-sacrifice. However, that virtue does not aim toward the attainment of excellence or of God's grace; rather, Montesquieu conceived virtue in relation to public utility. Honour inclines the subjects of monarchy to pursue their selfish desires in order to derive public benefits. However, Montesquieu did not conceive honour in connection with the liberal motif of the invisible hand; rather, he conceived honour in connection with the pursuit of glory. By combining honour and virtue, Montesquieu conceived a type of motivation that can foster the preservation of liberty in modernity. This motivation enables individuals to enjoy their liberty in times of peace by pursuing their selfish desires; in times of crisis, it inclines them to perform great actions in order to defend that liberty against political oppression. Considering Montesquieu's type can aid liberalism's account of political motivations in the contemporary debate.

Andrew Michael Ramsay fut un intellectuel écossais du Siècle des Lumières, à la fois "aventurier religieux", auteur politique et franc-maçon. Élevé dans le protestantisme, il rechercha un équilibre spirituel et une doctrine plus conformes à ses vœux. Il voyagea dans de nombreux pays pour atteindre ce but et finalement trouva auprès de Fénelon, archevêque de Cambrai, et de Madame Guyon, adepte du "Pur Amour", un père et une mère spirituels. Sous leur influence, il finit par adhérer à un catholicisme de nature gallicane caractérisé par un appel constant à l’intériorité. De son œuvre, émergent quatre traités : l’Essai sur le gouvernement civil(1721) dans lequel il démontre que la meilleure forme de gouvernement est la monarchie absolue, héréditaire, de droit divin. Fervent jacobite, il espérait le retour de la dynastie Stuart sur le trône d’Angleterre. L’Histoire de la vie de Fénelon (1727) traite principalement des péripéties de sa conversion par le prélat; Les Voyages de Cyrus (1727), roman didactique, apologétique et politique, raconte la formation d’un jeune prince accompli, rempli de sagesse et de piété. Son ouvrage central, Les principes philosophiques de la religion naturelle et révélée (1749), communément appelé le "Great Work" ne parut qu’après sa mort. Le franc-maçon perçait alors sous le philosophe. Son Discours (1737) fait remonter les origines de l’Ordre aux croisades et, surtout, fixe les obligations auxquelles est soumis tout franc-maçon, qui lui sont rappelées au moment de son initiation. Cet homme, complexe, mystique et politique réussit l’exploit de faire changer radicalement cette organisation très attachée à ses traditions qu’est la Franc-maçonnerie. / Andrew Michael Ramsay was a Scottish intellectual of the Enlightenment and was at the same time a "religious adventurer", a political author and a freemason. Born into a Protestant family, he undertook a search for spiritual stability and for a doctrine more in line with his aspirations. In this quest, he journeyed through several countries, and he eventually found in the company of Fénelon, archbishop of Cambrai, and of Madame Guyon, an advocate of the doctrine of "Pure Love", a spiritual father and mother. Inspired by them, he finally converted to a Gallican variety of Catholicism which was at the root of his call to a life of constant soul-searching. From his work four treatises emerge: An Essay upon Civil Government (1721), in which he sought to show that the best form of government is an absolute, hereditary monarchy, based on divine right. As a zealous Jacobite, he longed for the return of the Stuarts to the British throne. The Life of Fénelon (1727) deals mainly with the various stages leading up to his conversion by the prelate. The Travel of Cyrus (1727) is a didactic, apologetic and political novel which relates the education of a young accomplished prince endowed with wisdom and piety. His most considerable work is The Philosophical Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion (1749), commonly called the "Great Work", which was published posthumously. Here the freemason can be seen beneath the philosopher. His Discourse (1737) traces the origins of Freemasonry back to the crusades, and also sets out the obligations that every freemason must adhere to and which he is reminded of during his initiation. His success in radically changing this organization so deeply attached to its customs remains the lasting legacy of this complex, mystical and political figure who is Andrew Michael Ramsay.