Open AccessLykken i tilbagetrækningen
Author(s) -
Michael Høxbro Andersen
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
k and k/kandk
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2246-2589
pISSN - 0905-6998
DOI - 10.7146/kok.v44i121.23723
Subject(s) - happiness , contemplation , opposition (politics) , topos theory , politics , aesthetics , sociology , philosophy , psychology , social psychology , epistemology , law , political science , literature , art
The concept of happiness becomes of great political importance in France during the Great Revolution. But 19th century French literature will question the possibility of producing a truly modern happiness through society. Withdrawing from post-revolutionary society then becomes a topos of the novel. As I argue in my paper, this is the case in the novels of Stendhal in particular. Inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s modern concept of otium, Stendhal articulates an opposition between an attitude that is strategic and histrionic, and a withdrawal into contemplation, with only the latter procuring any happiness: a happiness of sensation.