Portrait of Chateaubriand as an Eighteenth-Century Author

While Chateaubriand (1768-1848) is often perceived as one of the most consequential authors of the nineteenth century and the father of French romanticism, we tend to forget that he was alive when key figures of the Enlightenment, such as Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, Sade, Beaumarchais, d’Holbach, Laclos, and Condorcet were still at work. More importantly, he was also an avid reader of eighteenth-century French literature and philosophy–Lahontan, Montesquieu, and Marmontel being some of the authors whose work left a deep mark on his own intellectual production. Moreover, while the publication of most of his books took place during the first decades of the nineteenth century, Chateaubriand wrote a significant part of his work during the French Revolution: not only Atala and René, but also the Essai sur les Révolutions, the Génie du Christianisme, the Voyage en Amérique and Les Natchez. The goal of this panel consists in rediscovering a different Chateaubriand–Chateaubriand as an Eighteenth-Century author, whose work connects with the Enlightenment tradition. Papers could address the influence of eighteenth-century literary models on Chateaubriand’s early work; parallels between Chateaubriand and eighteenth-century authors (such as Lahontan, Rousseau, or Sade); as well as the pairing of Chateaubriand’s work with an eighteenth-century influence (such as Les Natchez and The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis, or the Essai sur les Révolutions and L’Esprit des lois by Montesquieu, etc.).

The 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies will take place in St. Louis, Missouri, March 9–11, 2023, at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch. 

Oragnizer : Benjamin Hoffmann, The Ohio State University, hoffmann.312@osu.edu 

To submit a proposal (in French or English) for this panel, please use the following link : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdtl9cr9H0cMQFyDmvJWqHB3tBXzGBV4sr2uyIU2KOM7QRceQ/viewform

Submissions are due Monday Oct. 3. Acceptances will be sent out early November.