The Attractions of Instability
Diderot’s Rameau’s Nephew
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23406239 |
|---|---|
| Authors | G E R Lloyd (0000-0003-2626-4082, corresponding author), Genevieve Lloyd |
| Year | 2013 |
| Pages | 127-139 |
| Publication date | 2013-07-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Enlightenment Shadows (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669561.003.0008 |
| OpenAlex | W2486640601 |
| ISBN | 9780199669561 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
Diderot’s work Rameau’s Nephew is a fictional exploration of a form of consciousness dominated by mental fluidity rather than stability. The chapter discusses Hegel’s interpretation of the character in his Phenomenology of Spirit, and Foucault’s in his History of Madness. The reading offered here emphasizes what the work shows about the tensions between the attractions of an unstable flow of consciousness and, on the other hand, the stabilizing force of objective judgement. It focuses on Diderot’s celebration of imagination in its various forms, and the vulnerabilities that accompany it. Also discussed are themes related to eighteenth-century debates about music, opera, and drama, and about the origins of language.
Aesthetics · Art · Consciousness · Drama · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy) · Judgement · Literature · Nephew and niece · Phenomenology (philosophy) · Psychoanalysis · Historical and Literary Analyses · Historical and Literary Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |