English summary: Man never ceases to wonder why he is unhappy. Although pessimism has always existed, it seems to have flourished in certain periods of our history. The end of the French Revolution and of the Empire marked the return to an Ancien Regime which left little to be hoped for. Romanticism and Schopenhauer fuelled the despair and fed upon it. Byron, Leopardi, Chateaubriand, Poe and Baudelaire sang of the depression which accompanies passions, dejection, boredom and melancholy. The history of progress is that of ...
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English summary: Man never ceases to wonder why he is unhappy. Although pessimism has always existed, it seems to have flourished in certain periods of our history. The end of the French Revolution and of the Empire marked the return to an Ancien Regime which left little to be hoped for. Romanticism and Schopenhauer fuelled the despair and fed upon it. Byron, Leopardi, Chateaubriand, Poe and Baudelaire sang of the depression which accompanies passions, dejection, boredom and melancholy. The history of progress is that of disenchantment. Modernity was disowned as soon as it dawned. In a world in which God is dying, and man has turned evil, syphilis, urbanisation and industrialisation leave us feeling hopeless. Sustained by the most celebrated writers, pessimism invaded the 19th century from Southern to Northern Europe. It almost comes as a surprise that Freud and psychoanalysis should have emerged so late in a society in which anguish and depression had ruled unchallenged for so long, and more so in Paris than in any other capital. The 20th century would usher in an even more devastating apocalypse than the one anticipated by writers and philosophers. Germany may have had a pessimistic mindset, but France experienced it with passion and still stubbornly cultivates it for specific reasons that the author attempts to elucidate. He examines without compromise or militantism the causes of a phenomenon that shows no signs of abating. French description: L'homme ne cesse de se demander pourquoi il est malheureux. Si le pessimisme est de tout temps, il prospere pourtant a certaines epoques de l'histoire. La fin de la Revolution et de l'Empire marque le retour a l'Ancien Regime qui ne fait pas rever. Le romantisme et Schopenhauer alimentent le desespoir et s'en nourrissent. Byron, Leopardi, Chateaubriand, Poe, Baudelaire chantent le vague des passions, le spleen, l'ennui et la melancolie. L'histoire du progres est celle d'un desamour. La modernite est desavouee des sa naissance. Dans un monde ou Dieu se meurt et ou l'homme est au plus mal, la syphilis, l'urbanisation et l'industrialisation ne laissent guere de raisons d'esperer. Porte par les plus grands ecrivains, le pessimisme envahit le XIXe siecle du sud au nord de l'Europe. On s'etonne presque que Freud et la psychanalyse soient venus si tard dans une societe ou l'angoisse et la depression regnaient en maitres depuis longtemps, et a Paris plus que dans toute autre capitale. Le XXe siecle allait apporter une apocalypse pire que celle promise par les ecrivains et les philosophes. Si l'Allemagne a pense le pessimisme, la France l'a vecu passionnement et le cultive aujourd'hui avec obstination pour des raisons specifiques que l'auteur tente de percevoir. Sans complaisance et sans militantisme, il s'interroge sur les causes d'un phenomene dont rien n'annonce la fin. Jean-Marie PAUL a enseigne l'histoire des idees et la litterature allemande aux universites de Dijon, Nancy et Angers. Dans une perspective pluridisciplinaire, ses livres et les nombreux ouvrages qu'il a diriges tentent de retrouver une image de l'homme telle qu'elle se construit et evolue dans la longue duree tout en affirmant des traits permanents irreductibles a la contingence des temps.
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Add this copy of Du Pessimisme to cart. $41.00, new condition, Sold by ISD rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bristol, CT, UNITED STATES, published 2013 by Les Belles Lettres.
