The Progressive Poetics of Confusion in the French Enlightenment

Download or read book The Progressive Poetics of Confusion in the French Enlightenment written by John C. O'Neal and published by University of Delaware. This book was released on 2011-03-14 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing largely on the etymological meaning of the word 'confusion' as the action of mixing or blending, John C. O'Neal traces the development of a progressive poetics of confusion in the French Enlightenment. This project, he claims, aimed to reject dogmatic thinking in all of its forms and to recognize the need to embrace complexity. Eighteenth-century thinkers used the notion of confusion in a progressive way to reorganize social classes, literary forms, metaphysical substances, scientific methods, and cultural categories such as taste and gender.