Spirits across the Channel. The Staging of Collective Mental Forces in Gabalistic Novels from Margaret Cavendish to Charles Tiphaigne de la Roche

Yves Citton (1)

1 LIRE - Littérature, idéologies, représentations, XVIIIe-XIXe siècles

When Charles-Georges-Thomas Garnier published in Paris the 39 volumes of his Collection des voyages imaginaires, songes, visions et romans cabalistiques, between 1787 and 1789, he gathered, in a section devoted to Cabalistic Novels, a number of works written by authors like Montfaucon de Villars, Henriette-Julie de Castelnau comtesse de Murat, Laurent Bordelon, Antoine Hamilton, Marie-Anne de Roumier- Robert and Jacques Cazotte. In spite of their diversity in styles and constructions, these texts seem united by their common reference to the "elementary spirits" presented, classified and discussed in the Comte de Gabalis ou Entretien sur les sciences secrètes, originally published by Montfaucon de Villars in 1670. This very particular imaginary, populated with sylphs, undines, gnomes and salamanders, was meant to have a deep impact on French literature for more than a century, even if it has remained largely in the shadow of the mainstream authors we usually identify with "the Enlightenment".

Domaines: Littératures

Yves Citton.  Spirits across the Channel. The Staging of Collective Mental Forces in Gabalistic Novels from Margaret Cavendish to Charles Tiphaigne de la Roche. Comparatio. Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, 2009, 1:2, pp.291-319. ⟨hal-00846508⟩