Abstract
Montesquieu’s Dismantlement of Oriental Despotism in Persian Letters.Montesquieu’s epistolary novel, Persian Letters, is often presented as a satire of the mores of the French under the reign of Louis XIV, and an early example of what became a well-established literary trope: the de-familiarizing perspective of the foreign visitor. Others have emphasized that the novel’s political horizon is best understood by taking into account Montesquieu’s later work, the Spirit of the Laws, and that the Persian letters anticipates insights that were to be more broadly developed in the author’s chef-d’oeuvre. While acknowledging the relevance and productivity of the latter perspective, the claim of the present work is that it is neither the particularities of France under the absolutist regime of Louis the XIV nor the despotism of the sultans and the shahs of the Orient that make up the novel’s central concern, but rather the demonstration of how despotism, by erasing the crucial political distinction between the domestic and public spaces, not only has nefarious consequences for the freedom and liberty of the citizens, but that it, in the final analysis, has a dramatic demographic impact that undermine the wealth and the power of the very nations in which it is the dominant political form.
Highlights
Montesquieu’s epistolary novel, Persian Letters, is often presented as a satire of the mores of the French under the reign of Louis XIV, and an early example of what became a well-established literary trope: the de-familiarizing perspective of the foreign visitor
Forskellene mellem dem bliver til gradsforskelle i Montesquieus analyse, for så vidt som denne i bund og grund angår de almene antropologiske og sociologiske dimensioner ved magtudøvelsen som despotens skikkelse kan bruges til at tydeliggøre
Eftersom Montesquieus fremstilling af den orientalske despot og det orientalske harem i Lettres persanes har karakter af afviklinger af de forestillinger og projektioner, som europæerne har gjort Orienten til genstand for, og eftersom hans interesse retter sig mod de almene antropologiske og sociologiske principper, som forestillingen om det orientalske despoti dækker over, må vi for en stund betragte disse forestillinger samt den blanding af fascination og aversion der var investeret i dem
Summary
Lettre CLIII, Usbek à Solim, au sérail d’Ispahan. Je te mets le fer à la main. Hos Aristoteles er termen altså først og fremmest knyttet til økonomien.[6] Montesquieu omtaler ikke den oprindelige betydning af termen i L’Esprit des Lois, men den rumsterer i Lettres Persanes siden despotiet her primært plasseres i en ”privatsfæremodel” (Usbeks harem) og kun sekundært i en mer traditionell politisk sammenhæng (regeringsudøvelse i Persien og i Frankrig). Så mens despoten er almægtig, er han også fritaget fra at beskæftige sig med statens anliggender – en situation, der ifølge Montesquieu har en skadelig virkning på despotens karakter: ”un homme à qui ses cinq sens disent sans cesse qu’il est tout, et que les autres ne sont rien, est naturellement paresseux, ignorant, voluptueux.” (II, 5) Efter denne dom over despotens moral skildrer Montesquieu i maleriske vendinger, hvordan de orientalske fyrster med deres harem ofte ikke engang ved at de er konger, så nedsunket lever de i dyriske lidenskaber. Forskellene mellem dem bliver til gradsforskelle i Montesquieus analyse, for så vidt som denne i bund og grund angår de almene antropologiske og sociologiske dimensioner ved magtudøvelsen som despotens skikkelse kan bruges til at tydeliggøre
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