Lecture (in French) by Dr. Laurence Mall
on
Wednesday, December 1, 2010 at
4:45 p.m.
at Macalester College in Humanities 401.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010 at
4:45 p.m.
at Macalester College in Humanities 401.
"Louis Sébastien Mercier ou les Lumières au jour le jour"
ABSTRACT: Mercier's sprawling Tableau de Paris (1781-89), a fascinating description of pre-revolutionary Paris, can also be read as a a proto-sociological text. Along with most philosophes Mercier criticizes the Ancien Régime's weak administration and corrupt government, but his interest lies in the very concrete impact this weakness and corruption have on Parisians and their immediate environment. Work and everyday life will be highlighted as two domains where philosophical values, political criticism and sociological insight combine most remarkably.
BIO: Laurence Mall is an associate professor of French at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). She obtained a PhD in French in 1990 from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of two books on Rousseau. Her current research focuses on Louis Sébastien Mercier's Tableau de Paris and Le Nouveau Paris.
