Catherine II, E. R. Dashkova and Marquise Ferté-Imbault

The article is devoted to the interpretation of Catherine II's “The Societies of Ignorance, Everyday Notes”. This text was published in the journal of the Empress and of E.R. Dashkova “Companion of Lovers of Russian Letters&8j1;. Previously, it was suggested that this text was written to mock the “formal” and “superficial” meetings of the Dashkova’s Russian Academy; according to another scholarly hypothesis, “The Societies of Ignorance, Everyday Notes&8j1; was an “anti-Masonic&8j1; text. However, we show that “The Society of the Unknowing Daily Note” — similar to “The stories and Fables, and Polemical Notes Connected to Them”, which was also published in the “Companion”, — should be analyzed in the broad context of the Catherine the Great’s new concept of the court society. The literary project of Catherine II was based on the principles of court wit and habit to “play” on the verge of “art&8j1; and “life&8j1;. At the same time, the empress was constructing the identity of the new Russian honnête homme, being guided by French examples of court culture. The immediate context of “The Notes” is provided by the famous story of the conflict between Madame Joffren and her daughter Marquise Ferté-Imbault. The latter created the “Order of Lanturelus” to make fun of the “academicians”, “pedants” and “scientists”

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Epistemology · Everyday life · Ignorance · Linguistics · Literature · Sociology · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Philosophy