The goal of this literature course is to examine the problematics of liberty and licentiousness through the study of the specific role of the subversif author. In the classical period, the word « libertine » is an insult, designating those who are reproached with an extreme liberty of conduct as well as thought. The work of « libertines » is thus always controversial: it must sidestep the different forms that repression or censureship might take, using forms of publication that avoid the mainstream and using irony to disguise intent. A variety of intellectual and philosophical references, styles and literary genres serve the “libertines”: lyrical works, novels, comedies, tragedies, travel narratives, pamphlets, philosophical essays or treatise. The study of the « libertine » allows for a singular point of view on a certain number of central notions: pleasure vs. moral code, order and disorder, rules and liberty, truth, plausibility and fiction, sensualism and eroticism, skepticism, etc.

In the light of these literary forms adopted by the “libertines”, our reflection will be organised chronologically and according to the literary genre rather than by theme, making it obvious that it is the writing that reveals the subversive message, while proposing a cultural and ironic complicity capable of concealing the great libertine themes.
We will base our study on
– a tragedy in verse: Les Amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbé de Théophile de Viau (photocopies)
– an imaginary travel in prose : Les Etats et Empires de la Lune de Cyrano de Bergerac (GF),
– a comedy in prose : Dom Juan de Molière (GF),
– libertine tales in verse : Jean de La Fontaine, Contes libertins (Librio)
– and one novel : Les Liaisons dangereuses de Laclos (Poche).
Excerpts from texts by Rabelais, Casanova, and Sade will complete our overview.
The goal of this literature course is to examine the problematics of liberty and licentiousness through the study of the specific role of the subversif author. In the classical period, the word « libertine » is an insult, designating those who are reproached with an extreme liberty of conduct as well as thought. The work of « libertines » is thus always controversial: it must sidestep the different forms that repression or censureship might take, using forms of publication that avoid the mainstream and using irony to disguise intent. A variety of intellectual and philosophical references, styles and literary genres serve the “libertines”: lyrical works, novels, comedies, tragedies, travel narratives, pamphlets, philosophical essays or treatise. The study of the « libertine » allows for a singular point of view on a certain number of central notions: pleasure vs. moral code, order and disorder, rules and liberty, truth, plausibility and fiction, sensualism and eroticism, skepticism, etc.
In the light of these literary forms adopted by the “libertines”, our reflection will be organised chronologically and according to the literary genre rather than by theme, making it obvious that it is the writing that reveals the subversive message, while proposing a cultural and ironic complicity capable of concealing the great libertine themes.
We will base our study on
– a tragedy in verse: Les Amours tragiques de Pyrame et Thisbé de Théophile de Viau (photocopies)
– an imaginary travel in prose : Les Etats et Empires de la Lune de Cyrano de Bergerac (GF),
– a comedy in prose : Dom Juan de Molière (GF),
– libertine tales in verse : Jean de La Fontaine, Contes libertins (Librio)
– and one novel : Les Liaisons dangereuses de Laclos (Poche).

Excerpts from texts by Rabelais, Casanova, and Sade will complete our overview.