The authors of the 16 essays collected in this volume use a variety of approaches to study a broad range of what are now called 'ego-documents' from the Renaissance to the beginning of the 19th century.

Première partie : Suite sur l'écriture Deuxième partie : L'écriture et le bonheur Troisième partie : Le démon du faire, Rainer Maria Rilke, Marie Lenéru, Marcel Proust

L’Écriture est la peinture de la voix honours and celebrates the inestimable contributions that Professor Nicholas Cronk has made to our understanding of the Enlightenment. As director of the University of Oxford’s Voltaire Foundation, he has played a decisive role in eighteenth-century studies. In particular he has shaped our knowledge of Voltaire as a writer, celebrity and era-defining figure whose influence has continued to be felt through the centuries. Comprising essays by a host of internationally eminent scholars, this volume is a fitting tribute to the esteem and affection in which Nicholas Cronk is held as a colleague, teacher and mentor. These sixteen essays reflect his varied research interests, exploring questions central to the eighteenth century, such as the writing process, justice, revolution, as well as the legacy of the Enlightenment, and focussing on the central figure in Nicholas Cronk’s research: Voltaire. In sections devoted to Voltaire’s writing practices, to his involvement in political, literary and religious polemics, and finally to his legacy, the essays build on Nicholas Cronk’s scholarship and editorial achievements, opening up a new chapter in research on Voltaire. This volume is complemented by an online collection of essays which speak to other topics central to Nicholas Cronk’s interests, such as authorial identities, correspondence and aesthetics. Visit the MLO site for the other half of this festschrift project, https://modernlanguagesopen.org/collections/lecriture-nicholas-cronk

Through the ages, the pursuit of Happiness has been at the heart of the needs and desires each individual would seek to fulfill, while as a concept, Happiness has always resonated strongly in poetic as well as philosophical, sociological and psychological contexts. But what about Happiness today, in a world dominated by technology, driven by productivity and dictated by efficiency? Does Happiness still feature in contemporary fiction in any significant way? Or has it perhaps gone underground, adopting different guises? Would we still call that “duty of happiness” that Pascal Bruckner saw as “present at the second half of the twentieth century” a relevant force today? Or has it waned perceptibly? The articles brought together in this volume seek to work out answers to these and similar questions, creatively addressing the imminent risks but also eagerly following up the intriguing possibilities one encounters when interrogating Happiness in the contemporary novel. Originally based on an international conference organized at the University of Haifa, Israel, in May 2010, the volume is structured around the axes we found useful as a basis for the various approaches towards Happiness in Europe and the historical and social events that influenced the writing of Happiness as they defined the 20th century and have impacted on the 21st: the Holocaust, the Soviet dystopia, consumerism, postmodernism, “everyday life,” the various as yet unarticulated new modes of life they have given rise to, and so on. A new writing of happiness then? At the very least this volume targets the contemporary novel without wanting to solidify works, instead taking into account the fluctuations Happiness has been subjected to, and the diversity and especially the paradoxes it has created, while we have been keen to preserve a “precise” reading of the texts and have felt compelled to respect and preserve the particular features that make the writings of the authors we focus on stand out. Thème philosophique aussi bien que poétique, sociologique et psychologique, le bonheur s’édifie à la mesure de chacun. « N’est-il pas vrai que, nous autres hommes, nous désirons tous être heureux ? » (Platon). Or dans notre monde actuel dominé par la technique, la recherche à outrance du productif et de l’efficacité, qu’en est-il du bonheur ? Est-il encore présent aux écritures romanesques contemporaines ? Sous quelles formes se présenterait sa recherche ? Ce « devoir de bonheur propre à la deuxième moitié du XXe siècle » dont parle Pascal Bruckner, continue-t-il toujours à être d’actualité ? S’est-il renforcé ou, au contraire, s’est-il affaibli? Le projet d’un questionnement du bonheur dans le roman contemporain comportait de gros risques, mais il offrait en même temps des possibilités stimulantes. A la suite du colloque international organisé à l’université de Haïfa en mai 2010, les textes réunis dans ce livre, cherchent à élaborer des éléments de réponse à ces questions. Le volume offre un état des lieux du bonheur dans le roman depuis 1980 et présente une large diversité d’approches, de définitions, d’interrogations sur l’écriture du bonheur sur trois décennies. Le recueil s’articule autour d’axes qui ont servi de base aux différentes approches du bonheur en Europe et d’événements historiques et sociaux qui ont pu influencer l’écriture du bonheur aux différentes périodes du XXe et XXe siècles, telles que l’Holocauste, la dystopie en Russie, le postmodernisme et le consumérisme, le quotidien, les différents paradoxes du bonheur, les nouveaux modes de vie. Nouvelle écriture du bonheur? Du moins, ce volume vise-t-il le contemporain sans figer les œuvres, tout en tenant compte des fluctuations du sujet, de sa diversité, de ses paradoxes surtout, tout en conservant la lecture précise des textes et en respectant la particularité de l’écriture des auteurs traités.