Double Dialectics: Between Universalism and Relativism in Enlightenment and Postmodern Thought by Claudia Moscovici (review)

Abstract

244 Reviews Rhetoriqueurs, moving on to Marot and his contemporaries, showing how print culture brought about a new awareness of the power of the author, and new possibilities for him to manifest himself in his text. Stated another way, one might suggest, Marot and his generation were particularly good at self-advertisement and mutual congratulation in their texts and para-texts. If the demonstration in this chapter perhaps becomes a little heavy-handed, I found rather more interesting the discussion in Chapter 2 of the differentpersonae assumed by Marot in his poetry. Marot the buffoon is only one of many: Florian Preisig shows very pertinently the importance of the Marot/Maro parallel often used by the poet and his friends, which clearly conferred on him a singularly elevated status. Preisig also deals with the 'pastoureau chretien' persona, commenting interestingly on the religious dimension of Marot's poetry. The final chapter, 'De l'artisan au poete inspire', is perhaps the most impressive. It is centred on an extended reading of a poem that has not been much examined, the 'Eglogue au Roy, soubs les noms de Pan & Robin', and here Preisig really shines: one could have wished for more of this kind of focus on the actual poetry. He brings together comments on Marot's sources, his poetic formation, and the role of inspiration; in addition, he proposes a very plausible reading of Marot's request to the King?he is asking not just for a roof over his head, but for protection forhimself and his friends against religious persecution. Preisig is scrupulous in acknowledging his secondary sources?he clearly owes an enormous debt to both Gerard Defaux and Francois Rigolot?but he surely fails to give sufficientcredit to C. A. Mayer, whose thesis he largely takes on board. A poet with a considerable debt to the Rhetoriqueurs, despite his attempts to distance himself from them; a Renaissance evangelical humanist, for whom imitation of authors of antiquity was essential, but who believed in the importance of individual conscious? ness and conscience; an innovator, whose clothes were shamelessly stolen by Ronsard and the Pleiade: this is an interpretation of Marot which Preisig shares with Mayer. There are times, though, when he seems over-reliant on secondary sources: his know? ledge of Machaut, Deschamps, and Christine de Pizan, forinstance, appears to derive largely from an article by Jacqueline Cerquiligni. There are, finally,a number of bibliographical oddities. Charles de Sainte-Marthe is quoted only from a twentiethcentury anthology; the edition of Ronsard's works cited is the old Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, ed. by Gustave Cohen (Paris: Gallimard, 1950), now replaced in the same series by the two-volume edition by Jean Ceard, Daniel Menager, and Michel Si? monin (1993-94); and we find a number of errors, often in the spelling of anglophone items. Despite such reservations, however, this contribution to Marot studies is to be welcomed. It has a clearly argued and very convincing thesis, and it is well written and refreshinglyfree of fashionable jargon. University of Glasgow Christine M. Scollen-Jimack Double Dialectics: Between Universalism and Relativism in Enlightenment and Post? modern Thought. By Claudia Moscovici. Lanham, Boulder, New York, and Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield. 2002. viii+169 pp. ISBN 0-7425-1368-8. This work examines areas of common ground between eighteenth-century thought and twentieth-century reappraisals of eighteenth-century ideas. The aim ofthe book as stated is to 'juxtapose and examine the resonance between Enlightenment and postmodern speculations about the nature of knowledge and ethics' (p. 5). The rele? vance of Enlightenment intellectual debate to postmodern thought is emphasized by Claudia Moscovici from the outset, as she highlights the questions which preoccupied eighteenth-century thinkers: 'What is the nature of human knowledge? Can we MLR, ioi.i, 2006 245 know reality in itself,or is knowledge limited to our personal and human perspective? What is the basis of moral conduct? Are there any universal moral guidelines that should be followed by all human beings, or is ethics a matter of custom and even subjective opinion?' (p. 1). Moscovici explores the ideas of writers who posed and responded to these questions, examining in particular Kant's Critique ofPure Reason, D...