DIDEROT IRONISTE (FRANCE).
Item
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Title
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DIDEROT IRONISTE (FRANCE).
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Identifier
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AAI8401908
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identifier
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8401908
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Creator
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SANTALIS, FRANCOISE.
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Contributor
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Prof. Renee Waldinger
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Date
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1983
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, Comparative
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Abstract
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Our purpose in this study is to try to clarify the concept of irony starting from its Greek origin and finishing with an illustration of irony found in Diderot's La Religieuse and Jacques le Fataliste.;We will try to bring out the numerous factors inspiring irony in the individual.;In La Religieuse, Diderot through Suzanne with an ingenuous combination of truth and psychological sensibility gives us a moving picture of the social and religious life in the 18th century.;In Jacques le Fataliste, Diderot becomes public while still remaining anonymous. Diderot uses the "anonymity" as a means of criticism for the different levels of society using anecdotes in which he mixes the real and the unreal, the definite and the indefinite. Thus Diderot utilizes the two novels to express the fluctuations of his mind.;We will observe that a constant preoccupation characterises the various works of Diderot, and that this particular preoccupation becomes an obsession.;In La Religieuse for example it is the liberty of the individual. Instead of getting directly into the subject, he uses irony, his silent weapon in order to move the public, forcing it to call for social and family reforms. His irony becoms thus the flexible weapon calling for modifications in the system.;In our conclusion we note that in Diderot's work, the use of irony becomes a constant game contrasting appearance and reality. Therefore we can say that it is the proper choice of words which constitute the appearance in order for the implicit message to become reality.;It is with an extraordinary diplomacy that Diderot told the truth about his time in his literary writings, and it is with his acute ironic intelligence that Diderot demonstrates that power can never take over the intellectuals.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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French
