LEAVING HOME: GEOGRAPHY IN VOLTAIRE'S PHILOSOPHICAL TALES: ZADIG, MICROMÉGAS, CANDIDE, AND L'INGÉNU By KATHRYN E. FREDERICKS A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2012 1 © 2012 Kathryn E. Fredericks 2 To Matt, my very best friend 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my dissertation adviser, Dr. Brigitte Weltman-Aron, for her continued support and guidance throughout this project and throughout my time at the University of Florida. Dr. Weltman-Aron taught me how to believe in my work and in myself, and I am grateful for all that I have learned from her during our time together. I would also like to thank the members of my dissertation committee, Dr. William Calin, Dr. Rori Bloom, and Dr. Edward White for all of their helpful insights and suggestions. I am thankful for the many opportunities that I have had while working for the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Florida: as Instructor of French at the 1000 level under the direction of Dr. Theresa Antes, and as Instructor of French at the 2000 level under the direction of Dr. Héloïse Séailles; as Research Assistant to Dr. William Calin, Graduate Research Professor of French; and most recently as Program Assistant and Instructor of French at the UF Paris Research Center under the direction of Dr. Gayle Zachmann. I would also like to acknowledge my professors from my previous schools and universities for introducing me to the world of French culture and for always encouraging me to continue with my studies: Mrs. Vicki Bruning (Orchard Park High School), Dr. Henrik Borgstrom (Niagara University), Ms. Bernadette Brennan (Niagara University), Dr. Gérard Bucher (SUNY Buffalo), Dr. Maureen Jameson (SUNY Buffalo), Dr. François Paré (University of Waterloo and SUNY Buffalo), Dr. Jeannette Ludwig (SUNY Buffalo), Mr. Grant Douglas (l'Université Catholique de Lille), and Mme. Christine Desmaret (Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres de Lille). And finally, many heartfelt thanks to my family: my parents MJ and Ned Hunter, for always believing in me and being there for me; my brother, Dan Hunter, for always 4 knowing how to make me laugh; and my grandmother, Livia Czajka, for her unconditional love, and for initially sparking my interest in and appreciation for European culture. A very sincere thank you to my uncle, Jim Czajka, Architect, for his never ending support, encouragement, positivity, advice, and for teaching me how to be a citizen of the world. Most importantly, I would like to acknowledge my husband, Matt Fredericks, my very best friend, and my biggest support and source of inspiration. Matt was absolutely essential in helping me achieve my goal (along with Minou!), and I look forward to where life brings us together. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: A TIME AND PLACE FOR SPACE............................................ 10 Spatializing the Eighteenth Century, Spatializing Voltaire....................................... 10 The Production of Space and Voltaire .................................................................... 16 2 GEOGRAPHY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: L'ENCYCLOPÉDIE AND LES QUESTIONS SUR L'ENCYCLOPÉDIE ........................................................... 22 Geography in the Eighteenth Century ..................................................................... 22 Jean le Rond d'Alembert and "la mappemonde" ..................................................... 29 "Géographie" in the Encyclopédie .......................................................................... 37 Voltaire's "Géographie" in the Questions sur l'Encyclopédie .................................. 44 3 GEOGRAPHY AND FICTION: THE PLACE OF THE VOLTAIRIAN PHILOSOPHICAL TALE ......................................................................................... 57 Geography and Literature ....................................................................................... 57 The Voltairian Philosophical Tale ............................................................................ 66 4 WRITING SPACE IN VOLTAIRE'S PHILOSOPHICAL TALES ............................... 85 Space Writing ......................................................................................................... 85 The Figure of the Nomad in Zadig .......................................................................... 86 The Immutable Ingénu and Natural Law ................................................................. 93 Candide's Garden ................................................................................................. 102 Out in Space: Micromégas' Intergalactic Voyage .................................................. 109 5 LEAVING HOME: ETHICS, ALTERITY, AND THE FEMININE IN VOLTAIRE'S PHILOSOPHICAL TALES ..................................................................................... 120 A Space for Ethics ................................................................................................ 120 Geography, the Feminine, and the Eighteenth Century ........................................ 124 The Feminine in Voltaire's Philosophical Tales ..................................................... 128 The Relationship of the Self to the World.............................................................. 137 6 CONCLUSION: THE SPACES BEHIND AND THE SPACES AHEAD ................. 146 6 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 156 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 168 7 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy LEAVING HOME: GEOGRAPHY IN VOLTAIRE'S PHILOSOPHICAL TALES: ZADIG, MICROMÉGAS, CANDIDE, AND L'INGÉNU By Kathryn E. Fredericks August 2012 Chair: Brigitte Weltman-Aron Major: Romance Languages In this project, I provide a reading of four of Voltaire's philosophical tales – Zadig (1748), Micromégas (1751), Candide (1759), and l'Ingénu (1767) – through the analysis of Henri Lefebvre's "production of space" (La Production de l'Espace (1974); The Production of Space (1991)). Drawing from Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert's Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (1751-1772) and some of Voltaire's philosophical essays such as the Dictionnaire philosophique (1764) and the Philosophie de l'Histoire (1765), as well as his lengthy, yet relatively unknown work the Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770-1772), I show how space is "produced" in the four tales, that is, how man occupies space and for what purposes. Voltaire's philosophical tales, and these four in particular, are fictional stories which deal with philosophical issues such as happiness, Providence, government and power structures, politics and society, and scientific inquiry. While the "voyage" has often been used as the principal analytical tool from which to examine the tales, in my project I offer a close reading of select spaces in each tale, and discuss how the 8 characters (male and female) live in these spaces. I explore what these "lived spaces" signify both for Voltaire during the Enlightenment, and for our twentieth-century understanding of conceptions of space and place. 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: A TIME AND PLACE FOR SPACE Spatializing the Eighteenth Century, Spatializing Voltaire The Enlightenment conceived itself as a critique aiming at changing "la façon commune de penser," as Diderot wrote in the article "Encyclopédie" of his Dictionnaire raisonné. That purpose was not limited to Europe, but spanned several continents. It is thus considered to be "an international movement that included French, English, Scottish, American, German, Italian, Spanish, and even Russian schools" (Kramnick x). In Les géographies de l'esprit, Marc Crépon explores the history of what he calls "la diversité humaine" (23), diversity existing among people's customs, languages, and religions, and begins in the context of German and French philosophers, specifically in the eighteenth century with Leibniz and continuing until Hegel. Many studies on modern history commence with a study of Enlightenment, for it is best known as a revolution of ideas that opened avenues to new forms of knowledge. Special attention must be paid to the philosophe François Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778), for as John Leigh states in The Search for Enlightenment: An Introduction to Eighteenth Century French Writing: "Voltaire is the author most responsible for guiding the eighteenth century out of the seventeenth, for giving it new directions while embodying its propensity to look back. Like many of his contemporaries, Voltaire often appreciated the methods of his illustrious predecessors without approving of the conclusions to which those methods led" (15-16). Voltaire is often considered as the philosophe most representative of the period, even being referred to as an "apotheosis of the personification of the Enlightenment" (O'Brien 21). Along with his contemporaries he wrote extensively on