Ancients Against Moderns: Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de SiecleAs the end of the century approaches, many predict our fin de siècle will mirror the nineteenth-century decline into decadence. But a better model for the 1990s is to be found, according to Joan DeJean, in the culture wars of France in the 1690s—the time of a battle of the books known as the Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns. DeJean brilliantly reassesses our current culture wars from the perspective of that earlier fin de siècle (the first to think of itself as such), and rereads the seventeenth-century Quarrel from the vantage of our own warring "ancients" and "moderns." In so doing, DeJean shows that a fin de siècle taking place in the shadow of culture wars can be more a source of constructive cultural revolution than of apocalyptic gloom and doom. Just as the first fin de siècle's battle of the books served as the spark that set off the Enlightenment, introducing radically new sexual and social politics that laid the groundwork for modernity, so can our current culture wars result in radical, liberating changes—if we take an active stand against our own "ancients" who seek to stifle such reforms. |
Other editions - View all
Ancients Against Moderns: Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de Siecle Joan DeJean Limited preview - 1997 |
Ancients against Moderns: Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de Siecle Joan DeJean No preview available - 1997 |
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Abbé Académie Française affective Ancients and Moderns audience authors become Boileau canon civilization classical code noir concept conflict contemporary controversy criticism critique crucial Culture Wars Dacier debate decades defined Descartes dictionaries dominant Donneau de Visé early modern edition eighteenth century emotions Enlightenment example existence fact feel fin de siècle Fontenelle France French culture French language Furetière genre heart Histoire historians Homer Houdar Iliad initial intellectual interiority invented issues late seventeenth century Le Cid literary history literature Littré Louis XIV Madeleine de Scudéry marquise-marquis de Banneville ment Mercure galant Motte nation neogeography origin Parallèle Paris particular pedagogical period Perrault phenomenon Philippe Ariès played political precursor Princesse de Clèves provoked public sphere published quarrel querelle radically readers reading recent republic of letters role Scudéry Scudéry's semantic semantic drift sense sensibilité sentiment seventeenth century's end seventeenth-century taste theory tion tradition treatise usage Visé's vocabulary women