La réception du théâtre de Voltaire dans les Provinces-Unies au XVIIIème siècle

Hageman, M. (2010)

Doctoral Thesis

The Reception of Voltaire’s theater in the Netherlands during the eighteenth century. Nowadays, when you think about Voltaire, you think about his “Tales”. Who does not know Candide or Zadig? However, in the XVIIIth century, he was famous and wanted to be celebrated for his theater. A few specialists already studied the reception of his theater in France. But what happened outside France? It seems that Voltaire as a dramatist was very appreciated in the Europe of the Enlightment. He is in the “United Provinces”, today the Netherlands, seen as the main figure of Classicism. Moreover, some aspects of his plays were found of particular interest: the exoticism of some of them, and specifically the patriotism often intensified in the translations. We talk about his tragedies like Zaïre, the best known, but we forget his comedies most of the time. However, the public loved them have been in a country, where despite the critics, the French culture has kept her Glory.

• XVIIIth century
• Classicism
• Exotism
• Morality
• Naturalisation
• Patriotism
• Reception
• Translation
• United Provinces-
• Voltaire

• All authors: Hageman, M.
• Supervisor: Menant, S.; Smith, P.J.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2010-09-15
• Court: LEI Universiteit Leiden