The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment (Utopianism Adn Communitarianism)

In the first major reinterpretation of the French Enlightenment in twenty years, Dena Goodman moves beyond the traditional approach to the Enlightenment as a chapter in Western intellectual history and examines its deeper significance as cultural history. She finds the very epicenter of the Enlightenment in a community of discourse known as the Republic of Letters, where salons governed by women advanced the Enlightenment project "to change the common way of thinking." Goodman details the history of the Republic of Letters in the Parisian salons, where men and women, philosophes and salonnieres, together not only introduced reciprocity into intellectual life through the practices of letter writing and polite conversation but also developed a republican model of government that was to challenge the monarchy. Providing a new understanding of women's importance in the Enlightenment, Goodman demonstrates that in the Republic of Letters men and women played complementary - and unequal - roles. Salonnieres governed the Republic of Letters by enforcing rules of polite conversation that made possible a discourse characterized by liberty and civility. Goodman chronicles the story of the Republic of Letters from its earliest formation through major periods of change: the production of the Encyclopedia, the proliferation of a print culture that widened circles of readership beyond the control of salon governance, and the early years of the French Revolution. Although the legacy of the Republic of Letters remained a force in French cultural and political life, in the 1780s men formed new intellectual institutions that asserted their ability to govern themselves and that marginalized women. The Republic of Letters introduces provocative explanations both for the failure of the Enlightenment and for the role of the Enlightenment in the French Revolution. Library Journal Goodman (history, Louisiana State Univ.) aims to re-create the social and cultural context in which the ideas of the Enlightenment were created and spread. Drawing from the work of Jrgen Habermas (The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, MIT Pr., 1989), she traces the creation of a public intellectual community in France from the 17th century and explains its development through the French Revolution. Challenging traditional Enlightenment historiography, Goodman describes the Enlightenment as a set of social practices in which both men and women participated. She argues that historians have not taken a positive or serious view of the role of the salonnires. The 1780s, however, saw the emergence of new intellectual institutions in which women were not as central, and an age of "masculine self governance" was born. A difficult but important book that will appeal to scholars of French history and culture.-Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., N.J. In the 1st major reinterpretation of the French Enlightenment in 20 years, Goodman moves beyond the traditional approach to the Enlightenment as a chapter in Western intellectual history & examines its deeper significance as cultural history. She finds the very epicenter of the Enlightenment in a community of discourse known as the Republic of Letters, where salons governed by women advanced the Enlightenment project "to change the common way of thinking." Goodman details the history of the Republic of Letters in the Parisian salons, where men & women, philosophes & salonnieres, together not only introduced reciprocity into intellectual life thru the practices of letter writing & polite conversation but also developed a republican model of government that was to challenge the monarchy. Providing a new understanding of women's importance in the Enlightenment, Goodman demonstrates that in the Republic of Letters men & women played complementary & unequal roles. Salonnieres governed the Republic of Letters by enforcing rules of polite conversation that made possible a discourse characterized by liberty & civility. Goodman chronicles the story of the Republic of Letters from its earliest formation thru major periods of change: the production of the Encyclopedia, the proliferation of a print culture that widened circles of readership beyond the control of salon governance & the early years of the French Revolution. Altho the legacy of the Republic of Letters remained a force in French cultural & political life, in the 1780s men formed new intellectual institutions that asserted their ability to govern themselves & that marginalized women. The Republic of Letters introduces provocative explanations both for the failure of the Enlightenment & for the role of the Enlightenment in the French Revolution. Frontmatter ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (page ix) A NOTE TO THE READER (page xiii) Introduction: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment (page 1) 1 The Rise of the State: The Republic of Letters and the Monarchy of France (page 12) 2 Philosophes and Salonnières: A Critique of Enlightenment Historiography (page 53) 3 Governing the Republic of Letters: Salonnières and the Rule(s) of Polite Conversation (page 90) 4 Into Writing: Epistolary Commerce in the Republic of Letters (page 136) 5 Into Print: Discord in the Republic of Letters (page 183) 6 Masculine Self–Governance and the End of Salon Culture (page 233) Conclusion: The Enlightenment Republic of Letters and the French Revolution (page 281) BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES (page 305) WORKS CITED (page 313) INDEX (page 329)