Vision du devenir historique et formes de la révolution dans les Lettres persanes

Abstract

Jean-Marie Goulemot : The Vision of historical development and revolutionary forms in the Lettres persanes. This article attempts to analyze the forms of revolution and the vision of historical development in the Lettres persanes, taking into account the work's structure, political statements and narrative strategies. A rigid law dictates the travellers' accounts and analyses, namely that everything is modified, develops and terminates in nothingness. This is true of political and social forms as of individual destinies, and of the past as of the future. It is the principle behind statements, analyses, events, and in general it is the principle on which the writing of the Lettres persanes themselves is based. It determines the different meanings of the word «revolution » and the political and ideological significance of the work, which is conceived as a form-meaning.