Un siècle sous influence

Abstract

This article is written with the intention of proving that the notion of influence played a vital role throughout the 19th Century, dure to its interdisciplinary qualifies. Used by Mesmer right from the end of the Age of the Enlightenment, it generally served as a "scientific operator". But influence also allowed the mind to create new social space in which the power of ideas was asserted, and in which the influence of "men and women of letters " became more important. Influence also took an essential place in the language of literary criticism, as well as later, in comparative literature. Before becoming a sort of intellectual factotum of rather awkward nature, the notion was more necessary due to the passing from a logic of imitation (that of "beautiful nature ", or that of the Ancients) to a logic of passionate attractions. This enabled thought on the developing relationships between seduction and power within the "schools ", but also the social impact of literature, and last but not least, the relationships of counter-influence - of "impulsive" differentiation - which, in a "literary fieId" that had become particularly magnetic, were seen as original structural procedures.