Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Engagements pastoraux et utopiques au XVIIe siecle

2005; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 120; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/mln.2005.0064

1080-6598

A. M. Le Clerc,

Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis

The Astree by Honore d'Urfe and different utopian novels from the end of the seventeenth century (such as La Terre australe connue by Gabriel de Foigny or L'Histoire des Sevarambes by Denis Veiras) offer models of hypothetical societies. This article attempts to show that these texts do not propose easily identifiable counter-values and that their "engaged" nature lies more in the fact that they propose ambiguous and problematic statements provoking an interpretative work from their readers. In this point of view, the paradoxal nature of both pastoral and utopian spaces undermines the validity and the viability of an authoritarian model of thought, acting as engaged works of the time.