04042nam 2200685 a 450 991045649580332120200520144314.00-8014-6234-710.7591/9780801462344(CKB)2550000000039579(OCoLC)732957108(CaPaEBR)ebrary10468025(SSID)ssj0000542249(PQKBManifestationID)11330262(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000542249(PQKBWorkID)10509828(PQKB)11573700(MiAaPQ)EBC3138146(MdBmJHUP)muse28946(DE-B1597)535296(OCoLC)1129207482(DE-B1597)9780801462344(Au-PeEL)EBL3138146(CaPaEBR)ebr10468025(EXLCZ)99255000000003957920090904d2010 uy 0engurcn|||||||||txtccrThe unfinished Enlightenment[electronic resource] description in the age of the encyclopedia /Joanna StalnakerIthaca [N.Y.] Cornell University Press20101 online resource (256 p.) Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph0-8014-4864-6 Includes bibliographical references (p. [219]-231) and index.Buffon and Daubenton's two horses -- Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's strawberry plant -- Diderot's word machine -- Delille's little encyclopedia -- Mercier's unframed Paris -- Description in revolution -- Conclusion : virtual encyclopedias.In The Unfinished Enlightenment, Joanna Stalnaker offers a fresh look at the French Enlightenment by focusing on the era's vast, collective attempt to compile an ongoing and provisional description of the world. Through a series of readings of natural histories, encyclopedias, scientific poetry, and urban topographies, the book uncovers the deep epistemological and literary tensions that made description a central preoccupation for authors such as Buffon, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Diderot, Delille, and Mercier. Stalnaker argues that Enlightenment description was the site of competing truth claims that would eventually resolve themselves in the modern polarity between literature and science. By the mid-nineteenth century, the now habitual association between description and the novel was already firmly anchored in French culture, but just a century earlier, in the diverse network of articles on description in Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie and in the works derived from it, there was not a single mention of the novel. Instead, we find articles on description in natural history, geometry, belles-lettres, and poetry. Stalnaker builds on the premise that the tendency to view description as the inevitable (and subservient) partner of narration-rather than as a universal tool for making sense of knowledge in all fields-has obscured the central place of description in Enlightenment discourse. As a result, we have neglected some of the most original and experimental works of the eighteenth century.French literature18th centuryHistory and criticismDescription (Rhetoric)History18th centuryEncyclopedias and dictionaries, FrenchHistory and criticismNatural historyFranceHistory18th centuryEnlightenmentFranceFranceIntellectual life18th centuryElectronic books.French literatureHistory and criticism.Description (Rhetoric)HistoryEncyclopedias and dictionaries, FrenchHistory and criticism.Natural historyHistoryEnlightenment840.9/005Stalnaker Joanna1029217MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910456495803321The unfinished Enlightenment2445501UNINA