Hostname: page-component-669899f699-7tmb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-27T17:11:57.525Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Between Fantasy and Philosophy: Saʿdi, Translator of Voltaire’s Zadig

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Margaux Whiskin
Margaux Whiskin*
Affiliation:
School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Warwick, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Zadig ou la Destinée opens on a preface supposedly written by Sadi (sic), who seems to suggest he is the translator of the story which is to follow. The article will investigate the role played by Voltaire’s reference to Saʿdi in Zadig as an Oriental prop for the narrative’s exotic setting, but also, more importantly, as participating in its philosophical content. Travelers’ accounts had brought growing interest in Persia, and Saʿdi would not have been unfamiliar to an educated public; the Orient more generally became an experimental space for Enlightenment thought. Playing on the notion of the translator as cultural bridge, the article examines the uses Voltaire makes of Saʿdi in Zadig and whether these correlate to the eighteenth-century French reader’s perceptions of the Iranian poet.

Keywords

VoltaireSaʿdiPersiaEnlightenmentZadig
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 5-6: Special Section: Saʿdi at Large , November 2019 , pp. 717 - 737
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Barbier de Meynard, Casimir. La Poésie en Perse. Paris: Leroux, 1877.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi K. “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse.” Chap. 4 in The Location of Culture. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor and Francis, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Billaz, André. “Voltaire traducteur de Shakespeare et de la Bible: philosophie implicite d’une pratique traductrice” [Voltaire translator of Shakespeare and of the Bible: implicit philosophy of a translation practice]. Revue d’Histoire littéraire de la France 97, no. 3 (1997): 372–80.Google Scholar
Brancaforte, Elio. “Persian Words of Wisdom Travel to the West.” Daphnis 45, no. 3‒4 (July 2017): 450–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chardin, Jean. Voyages du chevalier Chardin en Perse et autres lieux de l’Orient. Vol. 5. Paris: Le Normant, 1811.Google Scholar
Chaybany, Jeanne. Les Voyages en Perse et la pensée française au XVIIIe siècle. Tehran: Ministère de l’information d’Iran, 1971.Google Scholar
Cronk, Nicholas. “Voltaire and Authorship.” In The Cambridge Companion to Voltaire, ed. Cronk, Nicholas, 31–46. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cronk, Nicholas. “Voltaire: The Orient of the Enlightenment.” In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to World Literature, ed. Seigneurie, Ken. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, forthcoming, 2019.Google Scholar
Daulier Deslandes, André. Les Beautez de la Perse, ou la description de ce qu’il y a de plus curieux dans ce Royaume, enrichie de la Carte du Pais, & de plusieurs Estampes dessignées sur les lieux. Paris: Gervais Clouzier, 1673.Google Scholar
De Bruyn, Cornelis. Voyage par la Moscovie en Perse et aux Indes orientales. Amsterdam: Henry de Kronnvelt, 1698.Google Scholar
d’Herbelot, Barthélémy. Bibliothèque orientale, ou Dictionnaire universel, contenant généralement tout ce qui regarde la connoissance des peuples de l’Orient. Paris: par la Compagnie des Libraires, 1697.Google Scholar
Dieulafoy, Jane. La Perse, la Chaldée et la Susiane 1881‒1882. Paris: Hachette, 1887.Google Scholar
Foroughi, Hassan. “La Perse dans l’Encyclopédie” [Persia in the Encyclopédie]. Recherches sur Diderot et sur l’Encyclopédie, no. 40‒41 (2006): 127–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goulbourne, Russell. “Voltaire’s Masks: Theatre and Theatricality.” In The Cambridge Companion to Voltaire, ed. Cronk, Nicholas, 93–108. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hadidi, Javâd. De Saʿdi à Aragon, Le rayonnement de la littérature persane en France. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2018.Google Scholar
Hadidi, Djavad. “Les origines persanes de Zadig, roman philosophique” [The Persian origins of Zadig, philosophical novel] Luqmân, no. 1 (autumn‒winter 1987‒88): 51–68.Google Scholar
Graffigny, Françoise de. Lettres d’une Péruvienne. In Lettres Portugaises, Lettres d’une Péruvienne, et autres romans d’amour par lettres. Ed. Bray, Bernard and Landy-Houillon, Isabelle, 239–362. Paris: Flammarion, 1983.Google Scholar
Khanyabnejad, Adel. “Saadi et son œuvre dans la littérature française du XVIIe à nos jours.” PhD diss., Université de la Sorbonne nouvelle ‒ Paris III, 2009.Google Scholar
Les Mille et un Jours: contes persans. Translated by Pétis de, La Croix. Paris: C. Delagrave, 1879.Google Scholar
Longino, Michèle. “Acculturating the Audience: Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.” Chap. 3 in Orientalism in French Classical Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat. Lettres persanes. Paris: Gallimard, 1973.Google Scholar
Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat. Persian Letters. Trans. Davidson, John. London: George Routledge & Sons., 1891.Google Scholar
Saadi. Gulistan ou l’Empire des Roses. Trans. d’Alègre. Paris: la Compagnie des Libraires, 1704.Google Scholar
Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste. Les Six Voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier. Vol. 2. Paris: Gervais Clouzier and Claude Barbin, 1676.Google Scholar
Tork Ladani, Safoura. La Perse dans les récits de voyageurs français aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Limoges: Presses Universitaires de Limoges, 2011.Google Scholar
Tork Ladani, Safoura. L’Impact des Récits de Voyage en Perse sur les Oeuvres du Siècle des Lumières. Limoges: Presses Universitaires de Limoges, 2014.Google Scholar
Voltaire. Candide and Other Stories. Trans. Pearson, Roger. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Voltaire. Correspondence 1752-1753 (XIII). Vol. 97 of Les Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire. Ed. Besterman, Theodore. Geneva: Institut et Musée Voltaire, 1971.Google Scholar
Voltaire. Essai sur les mœurs et l’esprit des nations (IV). Vol. 24 of Les Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2011.Google Scholar
Voltaire. Essai sur les mœurs et l’esprit des nations (VI). Vol. 26A of Les Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2013.Google Scholar
Voltaire. Memnon, histoire orientale. London (Amsterdam): pour la Compagnie, 1747.Google Scholar
Voltaire. Œuvres de 1746‒1748 (II). Vol. 30b of Les Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2004.Google Scholar
Voltaire. Philosophical Dictionary. Vol. 10. Paris: E.R. DuMont, 1901.Google Scholar
Voltaire. Questions sur l’Encyclopédie (VIII). Vol. 43 of Les Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2013.Google Scholar
Voltaire. Romans et contes. Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1966.Google Scholar
Voltaire. Theatre 1766‒1767. Vol. 61B of Les Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2012.Google Scholar
Wilewski, Sarah. “Self-fashioned Voltaire ‒ ‘With a Name Like Yours, You Might Be Any Shape, Almost.’” MLN 126, no. 4 (Sept. 2011): 785–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar