Литераторы и философы: о месте интеллектуалов во французском обществе XVIII века

Abstract

In the Age of Enlightenment, there was an idea that a person who possesses knowledge and is able to distribute it among the reading public has a social mission to do so. The transformation of the public sphere entailed an increase in the role of cultural capital and its holders. In France, Turgot set them the task of educating citizens and the nation. Contemporaries used the concepts writer and philosopher to refer to intellectuals active in the public sphere. These terms were often used as synonyms, which was reflected in dictionaries and encyclopedias of the eighteenth century. Writers themselves declared they were people of a respected profession and spokesmen for the public opinion. But they did not receive official recognition as a professional group without forming a special corporation within the society of ranks. In the social hierarchy as described by the Capitation Tariff, they did not get a separate place, and it included only those who were on the king’s service. Writers depended on the state or on patrons for their salaries and, as a rule, could not live on literary work, since, according to the law, all rights to the opus belonged to the publisher. In the second half of the eighteenth century, authors, especially playwrights, began to fight for ownership of their works. Their demands turned into laws adopted during the French Revolution.