A Philosophe’s Call for Enlightenment: How Voltaire Used Images of an Idealized Other to Advocate Reform in France
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
-
Sanders, Michael
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History
- Abstract
- This thesis discusses how Voltaire depicted non-French, and frequently non-European others across multiple genres. It argues that Voltaire’s presentations of otherness do more than represent the philosophe tradition that he embodied, they represent how the philosophes responded to censorship in eighteenth-century France by using commentaries on other cultures to critique French popular attitudes and promote reforms within France itself. More broadly, they make us reconsider the rhetorical purpose of otherness altogether as it operated within eighteenth-century Europe.
- Date of publication
- spring 2018
- Keyword
- French Enlightenment
- Intellectual History
- Republic of Letters
- Écraser l'infâme
- Les Guèbres ou la tolerance
- Essai sur les moeurs
- Lettres Philosophiques
- 18th-century France
- Cross-cultural transfer
- Philosophes
- Enlightenment
- Universal History
- Voltaire
- Letters Concerning the English Nation
- Censorship
- The Other
- Ancien Régime
- Transnational History
- Old Regime
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Advisor
- Kramer, Lloyd
- Degree
- Bachelor of Arts
- Academic concentration
- History
- Honors level
- Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Graduation year
- 2018
- Language
- English
Relations
- Parents:
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