Description
Book SynopsisFrançois Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai (1651–1715) exerted a considerable influence on the development and spread of the Enlightenment. His most famous work, the Homeric novel Les Aventures de Télémaque, Fils d’Ulysse (1699), composed for the education of his pupil Duc de Bourgogne, was, after the Bible, the most widely read literary work in France throughout the eighteenth century. It was also translated and adapted into many other European languages. And yet oddly enough, the question as to why Fénelon’s ideas resonated over such a wide span of space and time has as yet found no coherent and comprehensive answer. By taking Fénelon’s intellectual influence as a matter of ‘cultural translation’, this anthology traces the reception of Fénelon and his multifaceted writings outside of France, and in doing so aims to enrich not only our understanding of the Enlightenment, but also of the thinker himself.
Trade Review“The essays collected here resist the lure of Saint-Simon’s neat but reductive formula while endeavouring to render some of the contradictions in Fénelon’s life and work more intelligible. This volume offers a number of fresh insights as well as some useful correctives to persistent but misplaced beliefs. It displays due balance and caution throughout and is a very welcome contribution to scholarship.” - Nicholas N. Hunter, University of Birmingham, in: Modern Language Review 111.2 (2016), pp. 527-528 “Informationen zu den Beiträgern sind ebenso vorhanden wie ein Register. Das gelungene Buch bzw. einzelne seiner Beiträge sind vor allem für Aufklärungsforscher von Interesse, die sich mit Rezeptions- und Austauschprozessen zwischen den Nationen beschäftigen, die weitaus komplizierter ausfallen, als bloße „Einflüsse“, die aus einer Kultur in die andere wirken. Neben Literaturwissenschaftlern, Übersetzungswissenschaftlern und Kulturhistorikern sind die Beiträge des Bandes insbesondere auch für Religionshistoriker bzw. Theologen von Interesse.” - Till Kinzel, in: Informationsmittel für bibliotheken IFB
