Imagology and Exoticism in Montesquieu’s Persian Letters

• Authors: Yousefi Behzadi Majid
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article aims at highlighting the specificities of Gaston Bachelard’s «La poétique de la rêverie» (The Poetics of Reverie), seen as the pivot of Motesquieu’s imaginary creation in Persian Letters. The Same and the Other are two essential terms when trying to find the place imagology plays in an intercultural approach where France and Persia are associated with an enchanted exoticism. Criteria such as space, taste, the marvellous and verisimilitude will be examined in order to analyse the images vehiculated by the perceived society (France) and by the perceiving one (Persia) and to evaluate Montesquieu’s genius for social irony.

Keywords

EN

Imagology; France; Exoticism; Persia; Montesquieu; Reverie; Alterity

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human and Social Studies
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 113-123

Dates

published

2013-10-01

online

2013-10-26

Contributors

author

Yousefi Behzadi Majid

• Islamic Azad University of Teheran, Iran

References

• Becq, Annie. Lettres persanes de Montesquieu. Paris: Gallimard, 1999.
• Blanc, André. Lire le classicisme. Paris: Dunod, 1995.
• Dominique de Courcelles. Littérature et exotisme. Paris: École des Chartes, 1997.
• Moura, Jean-Marc. Lire exotisme. Paris: Dunod, 1992.
• Moura, Jean-Marc. L’Europe littéraire et l’ailleurs. Paris: PUF, 1998.
• Montesquieu. Lettres persanes. Paris: Hatier, 2005.
• Montesquieu. OEuvres complètes. Paris: Gallimard, 2001.
• Montesquieu. Persian Letters. translated by John Davidson, London: George Routledge and Sons Ltd, 1981.
• Pageaux, Daniel Henri. La littérature générale et comparée. Paris: Armand Colin, 1994.
• Puzin, Claude. Lettres persanes. Paris: Hatier, 2004.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/hssr-2013-0014