French Literature Reviews - 2026

Yves Citton, Altermodernités des Lumières
Other Literary Studies

Today, it is common practice to enlist eighteenth-century thought in a clash of civilizations that forces us into binary positions. Enlightenment or anti-Enlightenment, Republic or communitarianism, secularism or fanaticism, moderns or anti-moderns: we are seemingly expected to choose a side.

This book seeks to undermine these belligerent demands by outlining an alternative reading framework and exploring other corpora. It calls for the rediscovery of some of the minor voices that invigorated eighteenth-century literature (Bordelon, Mouhy, Bibiena, Graffigny, Charrière, or Potocki) but were suppressed by our literary canon because they did not fit its reassuring dichotomies. Through sylphs, werewolves, philosophical monkeys, financial magicians, crap-merchants, feminist Peruvian women, or Islamist conspirators, these eccentric, bizarre, queer voices resonate strongly with our current concerns, provided we reframe them from the perspective of alter-modernities that have always already exceeded the worn-out confrontation between moderns and anti-moderns.

Far from any nostalgia, tuning into the alter-modernities of the Enlightenment invites us to recognize the presence among us of alternative forms of religion, economy, and sociality—harbingers of modernities without coloniality, subjects without masters, and commons without sovereigns.

Read the book's introduction on Fabula…

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Yves Citton studies and teaches literature at Paris 8 University and co-directs the journal Multitudes. He has published Pour une écologie de l’attention (2014), Médiarchie (2017), and Générations collapsonautes (2020) with Éditions du Seuil. This book brings together his research on the eighteenth century conducted over the past thirty years.

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Table of Contents

Introduction: Opening the Door to Alter-Modernities

Part One: Alter-Modernities

Enlightenment and Alter-Modernity

Para-Scientific Alter-Modernities: From Rationalism to Pluralism

Para-Materialist Alter-Modernities: From Organisms to Spirits

Para-Religious Alter-Modernities: From Figure to Ground

Para-Aesthetic Alter-Modernities: From Immersion to Ambivalence

Para-Political Alter-Modernities: From Citizen to Terrestrial

Parallel Alter-Modernities: From Radicality to Lyannaj

Part Two: Alter-Religions

Chapter One – The Enlightenment of Islam (Henri de Boulainvilliers's The Life of Muhammad)

The Life of Muhammad, a Eulogy to Human Intelligence – (Endlessly) Rewriting a Theological-Political Treatise – Religion-Providence – The Alter-Modern Enlightenment of Islam

Chapter Two – The Belief Machine (Laurent Bordelon's Monsieur Oufle)

Two Barbarians in the Land of Modernity – The Occupations of the Mind – The Communication of Affections – The Springs of Transmutation – The Production of Reality Through Fiction – Media Circulation – Religio sive media

Chapter Three – Sylphic Magic (Jean Galli de Bibiena's The Doll)

From Learned Treatise to Sylph Tale – An Exemplary Doll – Marvels of Religious Information

Chapter Four – Behind the Scenes of Fetishes (Charles de Mouhy's Lamekis)

A Challenge to Intelligence – The Agonies of De-individuation and the Privilege of Intelligence – The Writing Machine – The Power of Aspects, the Force of Respect – The Dynamics of Fetishes and Cabal Conspiracies

Part Three: Alter-Economies

Chapter Five – The Stinking Secrets of Marketing (Le Marchand de merde, a Parade)

A Delirious Farce – A Structural Discrepancy – The Price of Cheapness and the Veil of Publicity – Making/Shitting – Innovation Marketing

Chapter Six – The Marvelous Accounts of Finance (Jean-François Melon's Mahmoud le Gasnévide)

An Oriental Tale – A Lesson in Financial Magic – Miscalculations and Marvels – The Chimeras of Computation

Chapter Seven – Toward an Economy of Friendliness (Marivaux's The Life of Marianne and Journals)

Coquetry as a Social Science – The Virtue of Friendliness and the Friendliness of Virtue – "The Science of the Human Heart" – The Equality of Intelligences vs. Neuro-Economics – Affective Economy: The Shared Science of the Commons – Assistance and Presence

Part Four: Alter-Socialities

Chapter Eight – Domestic Sorrows and the Ethical Concerns of Care (Françoise de Graffigny, Isabelle de Charrière)

Domestic Sorrows – The Depressive Underbelly of Philosophy – The Agonies of Inegalitarian Interdependence – Laws of Men, Natural Disorder, and Housework to Be Done

Chapter Nine – Scales and Regimes of Agglobulation (Jacques-Antoine Grignon des Bureaux's Tintinnabulum Naturae)

Lineaments, Globes, Regimes – An African and Trans-Specific Decentering – From Globalization to Agglobulation

Chapter Ten – Twists of Law and Communities of Study (Jean Potocki's The Manuscript Found in Saragossa)

The Islamist Machination – A Multiplication of Aporias – From Prejudice to Conscience: A Series of False Leads – Flight Forward into the Logic of Spectacle – The Machine for Twisting the Law – Individual Disintegration and Community of Study

Conclusion: Shifting the Perspective

Coloniality, Transmodernity, and the Secularocene – Enlightenment from the Black Radical Tradition and the Perspective of the Undercommons – History Emerging from the Hold

Bibliography

Index

Detailed Table of Contents

The eighteenth century is frequently characterized by rigid intellectual binaries, such as the opposition between secular rationalism and religious tradition, or the tension between modern progress and anti-modern reaction. This period was marked by a proliferation of philosophical, scientific, and literary experimentation that frequently defied these later categorizations. By focusing on writers like Bordelon, Mouhy, and Graffigny, this work engages with the broader scholarly effort to recover voices that were marginalized by the traditional literary canon. Readers interested in eighteenth-century intellectual history may find these perspectives on alternative social and economic models relevant.

The study explores how literature from this era—ranging from tales of sylphs and werewolves to early economic treatises—can be read through the lens of alter-modernities. This framework seeks to move beyond the standard confrontation between moderns and anti-moderns, suggesting that the Enlightenment contained diverse trajectories of thought regarding religion, sociality, and the economy. By analyzing works such as The Life of Muhammad or The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, the text investigates how these narratives addressed themes of coloniality, human intelligence, and the complexities of the commons, re-evaluating the period's multifaceted legacy.