Diaphanous bodies: projections of ecstasy, insolence, and yearning in Les États et Empires du Soleil by Cyrano de Bergerac

Abstract

AbstractIn Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac’s (1619–55) tale of a voyage to the sun, Les États et Empires du Soleil, a cosmic traveller’s physical body, as well as his light-propelled spacecraft, undergo eerie transformations. After the vehicle shines like enamel and gold in blazing sun rays, it fades to transparency. Meanwhile, the narrator’s body becomes diaphanous, revealing inner organs that gleam in hues of scarlet, vermillion, and garnet. This article develops a close reading of this passage. The authors analyse the passage’s narrative descriptions, first alongside Neoplatonic metaphors of saintly bodies as prisms for divine light, then in relation to early modern discourse about optics, magnetism, and anatomy, and finally as burlesque allusions to an infant’s conception and birth. At length, the authors suggest that these descriptions can inspire feelings of ecstasy, insolence, and yearning in readers, and that this array of sentiments can facilitate an experience of freeing the imagination.KEYWORDS: Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–55)États et Empires du Soleilfictionnarrationimagerytransparencyprojection Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 S. Cyrano de Bergerac, Les États et Empires de la Lune et du Soleil, ed. by Madeleine Alcover, Champion Classiques Series: Littératures (Paris: Champion, 2004), p. 205.2 ibid., p. 2293 ibid., p. 2294 ibid., p. 2295 ibid., p. 2296 ibid., pp. 227–287 ibid., pp. 228–298 A. Torero-Ibad, Libertinage, science et philosophie dans le matérialisme de Cyrano de Bergerac, Libre pensée et littérature clandestine Series (Paris: Champion, 2007), p. 14.9 N. Gengoux, Une Lecture philosophique de Cyrano. Gassendi, Descartes, Campanella : trois moments du matérialisme, Libre pensée et littérature clandestine Series (Paris: Champion, 2015), pp. 11–13.10 B. Parmentier, ‘Présentation,’ in Cyrano de Bergerac, Les États et Empires du Soleil (Paris: GF Flammarion, 2003), pp. 19–48, p. 23.11 ibid., p. 2412 J. Prévot, Cyrano de Bergerac : Écrivain de la crise, Biographies et Mythes historiques Series (Paris: Ellipses, 2011), pp. 268, 274.13 F. Aït-Touati, Fictions of the Cosmos: Science and Literature in the Seventeenth Century, trans. by Susan Emanuel (Chicago: Chicago UP, 2011), p. 68.14 J.-C. Darmon, ‘L’Imagination de l’espace entre argumentation philosophique et fiction, de Gassendi à Cyrano,’ Études littéraires, 34.1–2 (2002), 217–40, p. 234.15 I. Moreau, ‘Guérir du sot’: Les stratégies des libertins à l’âge classique, Libre pensée et littérature clandestine Series (Paris: Champion, 207), p. 176.16 F. Balique, ‘La Métaphore, figure de l’insolence dans Les États et Empires de la lune de Cyrano de Bergerac,’ in Styles, genres, auteurs, Vol. 4, ed. by Gérard Berthomieu and Françoise Rullier-Theuret (Paris: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2005), pp. 67–80.17 D. Worden, ‘Projection and Recasting of the Self in États et Empires du Soleil by Cyrano de Bergerac,’ Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature, 48.95 (2021), 269–76.18 J.-C. Darmon, Philosophie épicurienne et littérature au XVIIe siècle en France : Études sur Gassendi, Cyrano de Bergerac, La Fontaine, Saint-Évremond, Perspectives littéraires Series (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1998), pp. 261–62.19 Cyrano, p. 20520 M. Alcover, Notes to Les États et Empires de la Lune et du Soleil, by S. Cyrano de Bergerac, Champion Classiques Series: Littératures (Paris, Champion, 2004), p. 205.21 Cyrano, p. 20522 ibid., p. 20523 ibid., p. 20624 ibid., p. 20525 ibid., p. 20626 ibid., p. 20527 ibid., p. 20528 ibid., p. 20529 ibid., p. 20430 ibid., pp. 227–2831 M. Ficino, On Dionysius the Areopagite, ed. and trans. by Michael J. B. Allen, Vol. I: Mystical Theology and The Divine Names, Part I, I Tatti Renaissance Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2015), p. 95.32 Ficino, p. 9533 ibid., pp. 3–534 Lucian, Selected Dialogues, ed. and trans. by C. D. N. Costa, Oxford World Classics Series (Oxford, Oxford UP, 2005), p. 57.35 Cyrano, p. 22936 A. Furetière, Dictionaire universel, contenant generalement tous les mots français, tant vieux que modernes, & les termes de toutes les sciences et des arts […]. The Hague and Rotterdam, 1690.37 Worden, pp. 269–7638 Cyrano, p. 22939 ibid., p. 23040 ibid., p. 23041 Ficino, pp. 5–742 Cyrano, p. 22743 ibid., p. 23044 ibid., p. 23045 ibid., p. 23046 ibid., p. 23247 Balique, p. 6848 ibid., p. 6849 ibid., p. 6850 ibid., p. 6851 Cyrano, p. 23052 ibid., p. 23053 ibid., pp. 228–2954 ibid., pp. 228–2955 Cyrano, p. 23056 ibid., p. 23057 ibid., p. 23058 ibid., p. 23059 Furetière.60 Cyrano, p. 23061 ibid., p. 230Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Office of Undergraduate Research at Furman University, under grants for three Undergraduate Research Fellowships; and by Furman University’s Humanities Center, under a grant from the South Carolina Humanities Bridge Relief Fund. The authors also wish to express their great gratitude to the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Furman University, whose support throughout the project has been invaluable.Notes on contributorsDaniel J. WordenDaniel J. Worden is an Assistant Professor of French in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. His publications have appeared in journals including Configurations; Papers in French Seventeenth Century Literature; and Cahiers du dix-septième; and in the collection Literature in the Age of Celestial Discovery: From Copernicus to Flamsteed, edited by Judy A. Hayden. He also collaborated with Hayden on a critical edition, Aphra Behn’s ‘Emperor of the Moon’ and Its French Source, ‘Arlequin, Empereur dans la lune’ by Anne Mauduit de Fatouville, published in the MHRA Critical Texts series. His current research explores how early modern optics helped shape an emerging literary tradition that would later be dubbed science fiction.Caitlin FacelloCaitlin Facello earned a bachelor’s degree with a major in French and a minor in linguistics at Furman University in 2021. She has since served in the Teaching Assistant Program in France.Gracey GrecoGracey Greco earned her bachelor’s degree in art history and French at Furman University in 2021. She now works at a major art auction house in New York City.Scarlett HoltonScarlett Holton graduated magna cum laude from Furman University with a bachelor’s degree in French and in political science and international affairs. While an undergraduate at Furman, she received the David Wells Morgan Award for Excellence in French. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree in law.