The Je-Ne-Sais-Quoi in Early Modern Europe : Encounters with a Certain Something

## Abstract This book studies the je-ne-sais-quoi and its fortunes in early modern Europe. It examines the expression's rise and fall as a keyword and as a topic of debate, its cluster of meanings, and the scattered traces of its pre-history. It focuses on the je-ne-sais-quoi during the key period 1580-1680 but strays on either side of these limits to trace the expression's precursors and its later fortunes. The je-ne-sais-quoi is now assumed to be a quintessentially French phenomenon, but in the early modern period it also marks the cultures of France's neighbours, and this is reflected in the book's inclusion of Italian, Spanish, and English material. It is now assumed, too, that the je-ne-sais-quoi belongs purely to the realm of the literary, but in the early modern period it serves to articulate hitherto unrelated problems in the domains of natural philosophy, the passions, and polite culture, and for that reason it is examined here from an interdisciplinary perspective. Placing major literary and philosophical figures such as Montaigne, Shakespeare, Descartes, Corneille, and Pascal alongside some of their lesser-known contemporaries, this study argues that the je-ne-sais-quoi serves above all to trace a series of first-person encounters with a certain something as difficult to explain as its effects are intense, and which can be expressed only by being expressed differently. The book shows how the je-ne-sais-quoi comes to express that certain something in the early modern period, and suggests that it remains capable of doing so today. What is the je-ne-sais-quoi? How-if at all-can it be put into words? In addressing these questions, Richard Scholar offers the first full-length study of the je-ne-sais-quoi and its fortunes in early modern Europe. He describes the rise and fall of the expression as a noun and as a topic of debate, examines its cluster of meanings, and uncovers the scattered traces of its 'pre-history'. The je-ne-sais-quoi is often assumed to belong purely to the realm of the literary, but in the early modern period it serves to articulate problems of knowledge in natural philosophy, the passions, and culture, and for that reason it is approached here from an interdisciplinary perspective. Placing major figures of the period such as Montaigne, Shakespeare, Descartes, Corneille, and Pascal alongside some of their lesser-known contemporaries, Scholar argues that the je-ne-sais-quoi serves above all to capture first-person encounters with a 'certain something' that is as difficult to explain as its effects are intense. When early modern writers use the expression in this way, he suggests, they give literary form to an experience that twenty-first-century readers may recognize as something like their own

What is the je-ne-sais-quoi, if it is indeed something at all, and how can it be put into words? In addressing these questions, Richard Scholar offers the first full-length study of the je-ne-sais-quoi and its fortunes in early modern Europe. He examines the expression's rise and fall as a noun and as a topic of philosophical and literary debate, its cluster of meanings, and the scattered traces of its pre-history. Placing major writers of the period such as Montaigne, Shakespeare, Descartes, Corneille, and Pascal alongside some of their lesser-known contemporaries, Scholar argues that the je-ne-sais-quoi serves above all to trace a series of first-person encounters with a certain something as difficult to explain as its effects are intense, and which can be expressed only by being expressed differently. He shows how the je-ne-sais-quoi comes to express that certain something in the early modern period, and suggests that it remains capable of doing so today.

This is the concluding volume of a biography of William Empson, one of the foremost poets and literary critics of the twentieth century. It covers his turbulent years writing wartime propaganda for the BBC, through his return to China in the later 1940s to his time at Sheffield University, when he engaged all the more energetically in public controversy. - ;Following the acclaimed first volume, Among the Mandarins, this is the second and concluding volume of the authorized biography of William Empson, one of the foremost poets and literary critics of the twentieth century. Against the Christia. Scholar examines the rise to prominence of the phrase 'je-ne-sais-quoi' in authors such as Montaigne, Shakespeare, Descartes, Corneille and Pascal as a way of tracing first-person encounters with a certain something that can only ever be described by being expressed differently