L'Invention de la catastrophe au XVIIIe Siecle: du chatiment divin au desastre naturel (Bibliotheque Des Lumieres)

by Chantal Thomas, Chantal Thomas (Editor), Jeanne-Pierre Dupuy (Afterword)

While Jean Starobinski showed that the eighteenth century invented liberty, it also invented catastrophe. Linguistically, the word appears for the first time in its modern, non-theatrical, sense. Scientifically and philosophically, scholars and intellectuals liberated the notion of catastrophe from the purely religious arena. Politically and in the media, the history of catastrophes emerged at a time when people were trying to anticipate disasters. A new sensitivity to catastrophes was produced by new forms of journalism, provoking questions on the limits of voyeurism and the role of the media. Lastly, the arts questioned the legitimacy and different modes of representation of catastrophe, as well as the aptitude of language in the face of indescribable realities. Jean-Pierre Dupuy analyses in the postface to this collection how our own world is dominated by catastrophe. French text.

544 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2008

About the author

Chantal Thomas (born 1945 in Lyon) is a French writer and historian. Her 2002 book, Farewell, My Queen, won the Prix Femina and was adapted into a 2012 film starring Diane Kruger and Léa Seydoux.

Thomas was born in Lyon in 1945, and was raised in Arcachon, Bordeaux, and Paris. Her life has included teaching jobs at American and French universities (such as Yale and Princeton) as well as a publishing career. She has published nineteen works, including essays on the Marquis de Sade, Casanova, and Marie Antoinette.

In 2002, Thomas published Les adieux à la reine (Farewell, My Queen). The novel gave a fictional account of the final days of Marie Antoinette in power through the perspective of one of her servants. It won the Prix Femina in 2002, and was later adapted into the 2012 film Farewell, My Queen. The film stars Diane Kruger as the titular queen and Léa Seydoux as her servant Sidonie Laborde. Thomas co-wrote the screenplay,and it opened the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. Helen Falconer of The Guardian called the work "a well written slice of history" with "evocative, observant prose," but criticized it for creating a narrator who "merely provides us with a pair of eyes to see through rather than capturing our interest in her own right." While disagreeing in its classification as a novel, Falconer did however add that Farewell, My Queen "generates in the reader a real sense of being a fly on the wall, eavesdropping on the affairs of the great and the not so good."

Thomas is currently the director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

(from Wikipedia)