Elena Casanova

Academic CV

Plutarch through the eyes of Montaigne: the deconstruction of the principle of authority by the means of irony and quotations

My doctoral project explores Montaigne’s deconstruction of the principle of authority throughout the Essays by the means of irony and quotations. Montaigne’s interaction with authority is ever-changing, polysemic and contradictory; my dissertation analyzes on the one hand the stylistic and textual means which are deployed by the author in order to face literary authority and, on the other, their function within the discursive economy of the essays. The starting point of my research is indeed the conception of the comparative act in Montaigne, who admits that “nul art peut arriver à la similitude” (III, 13), seen in the context of the relation between the author and the classical tradition, and the principle of authority that this tradition conveys. Such a relation cannot escape complexities, precisely in virtue of the unattainability of the perfect similitudo. Throughout this enquiry I focus at first on the relation between Montaigne and his historiographic source par excellence, Plutarch. Through an analysis of Montaigne’s re-use of Plutarch’s works, I examine the deconstruction of the principle of authority that occurs by means of Montaigne’s writing style. I would argue that this principle is respected only on a formal and explicit level of writing. Thereafter, I consider the way Montaigne relates to authority, with a primary focus on two implicit means of literary communication: irony and quotations. These communicative instruments are intended to problematize the relationship with authority and are in fact no simple expressive means that are ‘affirmative’ of the author's perspective, but they are rather subversive elements of a literary discourse. My attention will hence shift to Montaigne’s silent dialogue with the past, which moves from an explicit and verbalized literary level to an underlying level, which is conveyed by the author’s own writing style, and which moves subversively from within, weakening and dissolving the classic auctoritas.