Ancients against Moderns : Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de Siecle
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
In a bold and broad swipe, Joan DeJean's book Ancients Against Moderns attempts to draw out the parallels between the cultural debates that wracked France in the late 17th century and the contemporary arguments over virtue, values, taste, and tradition that now divide the United States. DeJean is a knowledgeable guide to the intricacies of the "Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes," focusing particularly on how the debate unfolded in the French Academy between Charles Perrault, an advocate of the Moderns, and Nicholas Boileau, the protector of staid, classical tradition. In describing this debate, DeJean also succeeds in tracing the development of new concepts and meanings, such as the notion of a public audience for literature and an alteration in the language of sentiment and emotion in French letters.
She also makes clear just how much was at stake in what may now seem a rarefied disagreement. In reality, matters of moral relativism, the mutability of political forms, and possibilities of social and scientific progress and discovery all hung in the balance. The author's attempts to draw parallels between the past and present debate about cultural change would have been strengthened if the book was not so centered on Gallic examples. Nonetheless, DeJean's book is a stimulating work that succeeds in making clear that ideas matter and history can repeat.
The New York Times Book Review, David Coward
Joan DeJean in Ancients Against Moderns ... reconsiders the "quarrel between the ancients and the moderns," which split French cultural loyalties between 1687 and 1715, and, arguing that there is more rotation than revolution in cultural matters, draws a bold parallel with America's new "culture wars." ...Ms DeJean, a professor of French at the University of Pennsylvania, is a nimble guide to the quarrel.
Ancients against Moderns : Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de Siecle
Ancients against Moderns: Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de Siecle,Joan DeJean,University Of Chicago Press,0226141381,17th century,20th century,Ancients and moderns, Quarrel of,France,General,History,History: World,Intellectual life,Literature - Classics / Criticism,Social Science,Social change,Sociology,United States,Social Science / General
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