Les mots et les choses: the obscenity of Pierre Bayle

Mara van der Lugt

doi:10.5699/modelangrevi.113.4.0714

Les mots et les choses: the obscenity of Pierre Bayle

Mara van der Lugt

School of History

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Pierre Bayle's Dictionnaire historique et critique (1696) was notorious not only for its irreligious doctrines, but also for its ‘obscenities’. In the second edition Bayle added an ‘Éclaircissement’, in which he defended himself against accusations of lewdness while providing a historical, philosophical, and literary analysis of what it means to write obscenity. This article discusses Bayle's ‘obscenities’ in the various editions of the Dictionnaire, as well as his self-defence and theory of transgressive speech, and analyses his distinction between words, things, and ideas. It marks the obscenities as a progressive political move in the Republic of Letters of Bayle's day.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	714-741
Number of pages	28
Journal	Modern Language Review
Volume	113
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5699/modelangrevi.113.4.0714
Publication status	Published - 1 Oct 2018

Keywords

Obscenity
Poetry
Words
Stoicism
Morality
Euphemisms
Censorship
Sexual self-stimulation
Apologetics
Cynicism

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10.5699/modelangrevi.113.4.0714

van-der-Lugt_2018_MLR_Obscenity_AAM-wcover
© 2018 Modern Humanities Research Association. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.5699/modelangrevi.113.4.0714
Accepted author manuscript, 577 KB

Mara van der Lugt
- mvdlst-andrews.acuk
- Philosophy - Lecturer in Philosophy
Person: Academic

Cite this

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Les mots et les choses: the obscenity of Pierre Bayle

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Mara van der Lugt

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