IMAGES DE LA NOBLESSE ET DE LA BOURGEOISIE, DES ANNEES 1750 A 1830. (FRENCH TEXT) (VOLTAIRE, DIDEROT, LACLOS, STENDHAL, BALZAC

In this dissertation, I propose to show, by studying certain acknowledged literary masterpieces, that there is an essential link between ideology and French literature during the period from the 1750's to the 1830's. While similar links may be found at other times and in other countries, the one I shall examine is of particular interest because of the bitter struggle between the nobility and the bourgeoisie which brought on the Revolution of 1789, shaped many of the convulsive events of the Empire and the Restauration, and was superseded by feuds within the bourgeoisie itself, as it rose to power in the decade that followed the Revolution of 1830. The works that I have chosen reveal a striking reciprocity of meaning, on the ideological plane, between literature and history--more particularly between the novel and prevalent sociopolitical thought.;These works are: (1) Candide and L'Ingenu by Voltaire. In the first, Voltaire attacks an extravagant optimism--a metaphysic whose arguments served the powerful--and proposes instead a set of bourgeois values and activities. In the second, he directs a satire against the vices of the court of Louis XIV and the inanity of religious quarrels during the ancien Regime. (2) Jacques le Fataliste, by Denis Diderot. In this short novel, or philosophical tale, Diderot uses the devices of parody to mirror his ideas on the respective powers of the nobility and the third estate. (3) Les Liaisons dangereuses, by Choderlos de Laclos. This undisputed masterpiece of the epistolary novel analyzes individual perversions of mind and heart, and depicts the decadence of the nobility on the eve of its downfall. (4) Armance, by Stendhal. Here Stendhal weaves the study of a psychological case (the hero suffers from sexual impotence) into the fabric of the post-Revolutionary aristocratic society, which he views as effete and decadent. (5) Cesar Birotteau, by Honore de Balzac. This 1837 novel makes a veritable tragedy out of a lower middle class drama. In it, Balzac portrays the difficulties encountered by small merchants of Paris in their struggle to rise above poverty and shows the conflicts within the bourgeoisie as it was achieving greater power.