Voltaire and Clio : from history to story
This thesis proposes to examine Voltaire as 'literary' historian and to compare the theory and practice of his histories with those of contemporary historiographers and historians. The works selected for focus are Voltaire's Histoire de Charles XII (1730) and Le SiĂÂšcle de Louis XIV (1751). Section I, 'History Voices', centres on the enunciated theory and the actual practice of contemporary history. The prefatory writing of a selection of historians (from among Voltaire's sources) is analysed to identify a prefatory programme. This is subsequently compared to the contemporary practice of writing history and it reveals an intriguing degree of divergence concerning attitudes towards authority, objectivity and truth. Similar analysis is applied to Voltaire's theoretical writing on historiography, revealing a 'historian's voice'. While Voltaire and his contemporaries all discuss questions of the historical author, subject, style, truth, aims and reader, actual contemporary history (excluding Voltaire) discloses a monotonal texture, uniquely concerned with the chosen subject of history. Section II, 'Story Voices', focuses on Voltaire's use of different textual levels in his composition of the story of his histories,
Pierse, Siofra
Historiography; Textual analysis
Voltaire and Clio : from history to story. This thesis proposes to examine Voltaire as 'literary' historian and to compare the theory and practice of his histories with those of contemporary historiographers and historians. The works selected for focus are Voltaire's Histoire de Charles XII (1730) and Le SiĂÂšcle de Louis XIV (1751). Section I, 'History Voices', centres on the enunciated theory and the actual practice of contemporary history. The prefatory writing of a selection of historians (from among Voltaire's sources) is analysed to identify a prefatory programme. This is subsequently compared to the contemporary practice of writing history and it reveals an intriguing degree of divergence concerning attitudes towards authority, objectivity and truth. Similar analysis is applied to Voltaire's theoretical writing on historiography, revealing a 'historian's voice'. While Voltaire and his contemporaries all discuss questions of the historical author, subject, style, truth, aims and reader, actual contemporary history (excluding Voltaire) discloses a monotonal texture, uniquely concerned with the chosen subject of history. Section II, 'Story Voices', focuses on Voltaire's use of different textual levels in his composition of the story of his histories,
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