LEADER 04042nam 2200685 a 450 001 9910456495803321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-8014-6234-7 024 7 $a10.7591/9780801462344 035 $a(CKB)2550000000039579 035 $a(OCoLC)732957108 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10468025 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000542249 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11330262 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000542249 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10509828 035 $a(PQKB)11573700 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3138146 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse28946 035 $a(DE-B1597)535296 035 $a(OCoLC)1129207482 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780801462344 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3138146 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10468025 035 $a(EXLCZ)992550000000039579 100 $a20090904d2010 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe unfinished Enlightenment$b[electronic resource] $edescription in the age of the encyclopedia /$fJoanna Stalnaker 210 $aIthaca [N.Y.] $cCornell University Press$d2010 215 $a1 online resource (256 p.) 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-8014-4864-6 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [219]-231) and index. 327 $aBuffon 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. 330 $aIn 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. 606 $aFrench literature$y18th century$xHistory and criticism 606 $aDescription (Rhetoric)$xHistory$y18th century 606 $aEncyclopedias and dictionaries, French$xHistory and criticism 606 $aNatural history$zFrance$xHistory$y18th century 606 $aEnlightenment$zFrance 607 $aFrance$xIntellectual life$y18th century 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aFrench literature$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aDescription (Rhetoric)$xHistory 615 0$aEncyclopedias and dictionaries, French$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aNatural history$xHistory 615 0$aEnlightenment 676 $a840.9/005 700 $aStalnaker$b Joanna$01029217 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910456495803321 996 $aThe unfinished Enlightenment$92445501 997 $aUNINA