LA POETIQUE DE VOLTAIRE D'APRES SA CORRESPONDANCE DE 1704 A 1757. (FRENCH TEXT)

This Dissertation is a reconstruction of Voltaire's poetics, as derived from his correspondence over a fifty-three year period (1704-1757). Its elucidation is based on the question: "What criteria does this author require for the writing of poetry, tragedy, comedy, and history?"--the four genres discussed in his letters.;The second chapter identifies the criteria Voltaire deems necessary for poetry, criteria born out of his taste and the ideal such criteria defines: a "poetry of finesse" in which the apollinian/dyonisian tension witnessed by the dichotomy inherent in the juxtaposition of the law of control, the part of the imagination and the emphasis on formal criteria, is resolved.;The third chapter is involved with the apprehension of the criteria, Voltaire demands for tragedy, on the basis of the public factor, and with the ideal they fix: "The tragedy of the speaking passions," created from the law of interest, the axioms, to follow the public taste, and to create an emotion, and their derivatives, all determined by the link the author chooses to set between man and the stage, rather than by the code of his taste.;The fourth chapter contains the elucidation of the criteria for comedy judged essential by Voltaire based upon an association of the two discriminating factors, a set of criteria which lead to the mere speculative definition of an ideal, for the lack of the author's interest and in the vein.;After defining the objective, the first chapter examines its originality and its justification through a confrontation with the critics, materials, themes, and perspectives, and with the introduction of the two categories under which all criteria fall: The code of the voltairian taste and the public factor.;History is the theme of the fifth chapter, the criteria of which rests upon a complete assimilation of the said factors, and upon a substitution of perspectives from the artist's to the philosopher's featuring the ideal of the "useful historical narration easily readable," born out of the law of utility and its various tenets.;Finally, the sixth chapter looks at the relationship between the criteria and the ideals defined, to identify Voltaire's poetical system and its ruling principle: The principle of reaction.