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The Rhetorical Use of Animals in Early Modern French Literature Brian The Rhetorical Use of Animals in Early Modern French Literature Brian Donovan Johnson A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance Languages (French). Chapel Hill 2014 Approved by: Hassan Melehy Dominique Fisher Dorothea Heitsch Walter Putnam Ellen Welch © 2014 Brian Donovan Johnson ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Brian Donovan Johnson: The Rhetorical Use of Animals in Early Modern French Literature (Under the Direction of Dr. Hassan Melehy) In his Essais, Montaigne presents a picture of humanity that destabilizes the conventional assumption of human preeminence. Borrowing from forerunners Sextus Empiricus, Lucretius, Plutarch, and other thinkers of antiquity, Montaigne uses animals as part of the process of destabilization. Nowhere is this more evident than in his “Apologie de Raimond Sebond,” in which comparisons between humans and animals underscore the affinity of the two. Humans are not semi-divine creatures, but animals who differ from other terrestrial creatures only in relative ability and not in essence. This concept of human nature served as a backdrop for future discussions on the relationship of humans and animals throughout the seventeenth century. It is the aim of this dissertation to show via the analysis of French texts from throughout the century that the focus of debate over the relative natures of humans and animals shifted as the century advanced. The hypothesis of this dissertation is that Descartes’s Discours de la méthode instigated this shift. This is important because the shift is indicative of the influence of Descartes on French thought in the latter half of the century and the continuing dissension amongst French thinkers regarding the relationship of humans and animals that Montaigne treats in his “Apologie.” Whereas Montaigne used animals to humble humanity by pointing out the presumptuousness of the prerogatives it claims, Descartes conceived of a clear demarcation iii between humans and animals that re-establishes human difference and superiority on the basis of the possession of an immaterial rational soul. Following the publication of the Discours, “la querelle de l’âme des bêtes” became the focal point of examinations into animal nature. Likewise, the nature of the animal soul moved from the background of discussions concerning the relationship of humans and animals to the forefront. This shift is not absolute, but an examination of representative works before (Montaigne’s “Apologie” and La Mothe Le Vayer’s Dialogues faits à l’imitation des anciens) and after (Cyrano de Bergerac’s L’Autre monde and Gabriel de Foigny’s La Terre australe connue) the publication of Descartes’s Discours de la méthode and Méditations métaphysiques reveal that a shift had taken place. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction......................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Montaigne’s “Apologie de Raimond Sebond”...............................................................9 Chapter 2: La Mothe Le Vayer’s Dialogues faits à l’imitation des anciens................................69 Chapter 3: Descartes’s Animal-Machine....................................................................................108 Chapter 4: The Gassendi-Descartes Controversy.......................................................................133 Chapter 5: Cyrano de Bergerac’s L’Autre monde.......................................................................170 Chapter 6: Gabriel de Foigny’s La Terre australe connue.........................................................219 Conclusion...................................................................................................................................271 Bibliography................................................................................................................................274 v INTRODUCTION This dissertation addresses certain representations and discussions of animals in early modern French literature, specifically in texts whose point is not so much to explain animal nature but rather to define human nature. Hence, the status of animals in these texts is primarily rhetorical, functioning in an argument or demonstration of something other that has little to do with animals in and of themselves, although sometimes the texts go into great detail about them. Works have been included because they illustrate a number of important aspects of the rhetorical use of animals, as well as a shift that occurs in the discussions following some major philosophical developments. The starting point is Michel de Montaigne, whose observations on and stories about animals do in fact offer enough material to construct a theory of animal nature. In the “Apologie de Raimond Sebond” (2.12), Montaigne outlines many animal abilities and provides an explanation of real animal behavior. For this reason, the “Apologie” is of primary importance. Descriptions of animal behavior and capabilities constitute a large part of the essay, but the goal of these passages is to demonstrate the commonality of human and animal nature. That arguments establishing a distinction between humanity and God constitute an even larger part of the “Apologie” indicates that situating humanity is Montaigne’s principal concern. I concur with Donald M. Frame that Montaigne’s “central concern” is “man and his life,” and that “from the first his subject was man” (9). The passages concerning animals in the “Apologie,” in addition to whatever other functions they fulfill, are one part of Montaigne’s larger project of defining humanity. 1 As for the change in the rhetorical use of animals that takes place in the seventeenth century, they follow on Descartes’ theories, which pose the question of animal reasoning abilities in order to establish an immaterial human soul and mark a clear distinction between humans and animals. Although she does not elaborate on the change in her work, Isabelle Moreau notes its essence in Guérir du sot: Dans le contexte des controverses suscitées par les théories cartésiennes, la question de l’accession éventuelle de l’animal à la raison et au langage articulé se transforme. Elle était jusque-là évoquée, dans la continuité de Montaigne et Charron, pour ôter à l’homme un peu de sa superbe ; elle en vient à bousculer les critères de la spécificité ontologique de l’homme. La radicalité des thèses de Descartes provoque, en effet, une cristallisation du débat sur la nature de l’âme humaine en termes de matérialité/spiritualité de la pensée. (GS 452) The purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate the rhetorical nature of the animal examples in each of the works under examination, which extends beyond the animal language and reasoning abilities Moreau mentions, and to reveal how each supports Moreau’s claim that a change in the nature of the debate on the human soul took place. In addition to chapters on Montaigne’s Essais and Descartes’s notion of the animal- machine, this dissertation addresses the Gassendi-Descartes controversy, La Mothe Le Vayer’s Dialogues faits à l’imitation des anciens, Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac’s L’Autre monde, and Gabriel de Foigny’s La Terre australe connue. The first two chapters display examples of the rhetorical use of animals to humble humanity. Montaigne is the starting point since his “Apologie” encapsulates the ancient tradition of using animal nature to define human nature and initiates early modern dialogue on human-animal comparisons. The Essais and La Mothe Le Vayer’s Dialogues faits à l’imitation des anciens are not the only works that use animals to combat the notion of human superiority, but are general examples of this style of use. La Mothe Le Vayer rather than the example 1 Moreau mentions, Pierre Charron, receives a chapter because Charron’s role as disciple of Montaigne is already well established and his De la sagesse well known. His animal examples also lack the literary creativity of La Mothe Le Vayer, who infuses his Dialogues with great wit and humor while exhibiting a remarkable imagination. The Dialogues are also noteworthy because they contain debate on the nature of the human soul with little recourse to animal examples, and thus provide contrast to works following the publication of Descartes’s Discours de la méthode. The chapters on Descartes’s animal-machine and the Gassendi-Descartes controversy outline the source of the shift in the rhetorical use of animals toward an emphasis on the question of the nature of the human soul. Descartes sparked the shift in 1637 with the publication of the Discours de la méthode in which he makes a clear distinction between humans and animals on the basis of the possession of an immaterial soul. Gassendi cemented the connection between animal nature and the nature of the human soul by referring to animal examples in his Disquisitio Metaphysica to confound Descartes’s arguments for an immaterial soul. Both are using real animal behavior to make their points, and Descartes’s theories provide a broad definition of animal nature, but the primary purpose of animal examples in each case is to illuminate the nature of the human soul. The emphasis Descartes and Gassendi place on animal nature as they probe the question of the human soul influences later authors. The two remaining chapters substantiate this influence. Moreau correctly notes that the “cristallisation
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