Literature and uneasiness: the discussion of the romanesque form in Jacques le fataliste et son maitre

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to present some reflections on the book Jacques le fataliste et son maître (1778), by the French author Denis Diderot (1713- 1784), in order to show how this book, in a very characteristic way, represents one of the tendencies of the eighteenth century novel: the realistic line, which emphasizes the description of the bourgeois society’s lifestyles newly formed. We also took into account the fact that the philosopher’s main literary work aims to discuss its own genre, showing in the tissue of his narrative how the novel, contrary to what the criticism intended, constitute itself as fiction, as an intellectual product of the author who has at his disposal some techniques and procedures which allow him to perfectly construct a believable and fictional plot.