This collection of essays investigates the darker aspects of Diderot, writer, art critic, philosopher and encyclopediste. The chapters focus on the schism between positive images of the Enlightenment and an undercurrent of disorder, transgression and clandestine intellectual and social practices. Diderot's role in this fissure is critically scrutinised through an analysis of the interface between Enlightenment and its dark side. In his reticence before authority and censorship, in the richness and complexity of his literary and philosophical works, in the emotional conflict of his theatre, or in his innovative aesthetic vision, Diderot consistently evokes the darker side of the Enlightenment. Cet ouvrage interroge l'aspect plus sombre de Diderot, ecrivain, critique d'art, philosophe et encyclopediste. Les contributeurs traitent du clivage entre d'un cote, les images positives des Lumieres et, de l'autre, le desordre, la revolte, la transgression, les pratiques sociales et intellectuelles clandestines qui en constituent son corollaire parfois sous-jacent. Le role de Diderot au coeur de ce clivage sera analyse dans le cadre d'une interrogation plus large du couple Ombres/Lumieres. Diderot incarne - dans ses reticences devant les autorites et la censure, dans la richesse et la complexite de ses ouvrages litteraires et philosophiques, dans les conflits affectifs de son theatre, ou encore dans sa vision esthetique innovatrice - une alternative, plus sombre, a la marche des Lumieres triomphantes.

What is turmoil? How may it be captured? What were its manifestations in the eighteenth century? Why does it feel so familiar, even urgent, nowadays? This volume proposes a completely new ontology of turmoil through study of its incidence and impact in the eighteenth-century francophone context. The interdisciplinary essays in this bilingual volume provide multiple illustrations of eighteenth-century instability and insecurity, as well as subsequent adjustments to a post-turmoil new normal. Each instance illuminates human resilience and the mechanisms of post-turmoil elasticity and adaptation in Enlightenment, revolutionary and post-revolutionary writing by female authors Charriere and Monbart, in publications by male authors Beaumarchais, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Chamfort, Dupaty, Raynal, Sade and Voltaire, and also in writing by relatively unknown authors, journalists and critics, who capture the turmoil of the global francophone eighteenth-century world. The topics explored emerge as universal ones, familiar to a modern readership: textual and visual revisionism, symbolism within natural disasters, realignment of beliefs, instability of memory, repositioning of historical narratives, female insecurity, attacks on public figures, post-revolutionary resilience and the impact of exile. Through its unique identification of three key generative indicators for turmoil -phenomenon, paradigm shift, elasticity of adaptation- this volume's contributors deliver a distinctive, rich and new ontology of turmoil.