Welch - A Taste for the Foreign: Worldly Knowledge and Literary Pleasure in Early Modern French Fiction

A Taste for the Foreign

A Taste for the Foreign

Worldly Knowledge and Literary
Pleasure in Early Modern French Fiction

Ellen R. Welch

University of Delaware Press

Newark

Published by University of Delaware Press

Co-published with The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

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Copyright 2011 by Ellen R. Welch

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

Welch, Ellen R.

A taste for the foreign : worldly knowledge and literary pleasure in early modern French fiction / Ellen R. Welch.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-61149-062-6 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-61149-063-3 (electronic)

1. French literature 16th century History and criticism. 2. Exoticism in literature. 3. French literature 17th century History and criticism. 4. National characteristics, French, in literature. 5. French literature 18th century History and criticism. 6. Literature and globalization France History. I. Title.

PQ145.7.A2W45 2011

843'.40911 dc22

2010053746

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992

Printed in the United States of America

At the beginning of a book that explores the intersection between knowledge and pleasure, it is a privilege to be able to thank the many people who made researching it a joy. First and foremost, I thank Joan DeJean, who nurtured this project from its earliest stages and provided unflagging support and encouragement throughout its development. I can only strive to follow her example of scholarly passion, generosity, and high intellectual standards. No one could wish for a better mentor. The advice and insights of Lance Donaldson-Evans and Roger Chartier made this project richer and broader. Barbara Fuchs, Gerald Prince, and Bethany Wiggin influenced the shape of my thinking more than they probably realize. Tom DiPiero offered transformative comments on one chapter. Sahar Amer, Hassan Melehy, and Roland Racevskis helped me articulate the aims of this final incarnation of the project. Two anonymous readers for the University of Delaware Press helped refine it with their perceptive criticisms. My arguments have also benefited from the questions and remakrs of countless colleagues who listened to parts of this project at meetings of the North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature, the Society for Interdisciplinary Studies on the Seventeenth Century, the Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, and the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. I am grateful to John Pollock for answering all kinds of unexpected questions. Juan Carlos Gonzlez Espitia generously shared his editorial insights.

An earlier version of part of chapter 3 appeared previously as Cultural Capital: Paris, Cosmopolitanism and the Novel in Jean de Prchacs LIllustre Parisienne, Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 9, no. 2 (2009):124. I thank Indiana University Press for permission to reprint that material.

This project began in Paris and Philadelphia and was completed in Chapel Hill. I owe an enormous debt to the colleagues who made those geographical and professional transitions easy. I especially wish to thank all my colleagues in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, particularly Sahar Amer, Martine Antle, Lucia Binotti, Dominique Fisher, Dorothea Heitsch, Hassan Melehy, and Larry King, as well as Michle Longino of the Department of Romance Studies at Duke University. Finally, I dedicate this book to my parents and my sister with gratitude for their moral support and unfailing good humor.

Throughout this book, I have modernized the spelling of my transcriptions for early modern French texts. All translations are my own unless otherwise noted and aim to reproduce the original French texts as accurately as possible, even though the long and winding sentences of early modern prose can seem alien to modern ears.

A Taste for the Foreign