In the age of Enlightenment the concept of night evolved from being
a time of dread to a time for pleasure. Between the start of the
Regence (1715-1723) and the French Revolution the nocturnal and the
erotic became intrinsically connected: shadows and darkness were
reconfigured as the object of the philosophes' fascination, while
night was increasingly experienced as the realm of the self.
Nowhere is this paradigmatic shift better recorded than in French
libertine literature of the long eighteenth century. Marine
Ganofsky delves into the night scenes of libertine fiction to
analyse how the idea of night was reimagined and represented by
writers ranging from Crebillon to Sade. Her original analysis of
erotic encounters in pornographic novels, gallant stories and
sensual fairy tales reveals how they capture the period's
emancipation from superstitions and traditions. The nocturnal
settings of these libertine narratives were the primary means of
staging men and women's hitherto hidden sexual encounters and
innermost fantasies, and ultimately illustrate the conquest of
night-time terrors in favour of social encounters and amorous
intimacy. Libertine nocturnal scenes reflect above all the
Enlightenment's re-invention of shadows less as an obstacle than an
incentive to discover the mysteries they harbour. Through her
innovative research Marine Ganofsky presents the erotic nights of
libertine fiction as a sign that the siecle des Lumieres, free to
enjoy the charms to be found in, or under, the cover of darkness,
was also the siecle de la nuit.
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