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The Seducer as Friend: The Disappearance of Sex as a Sign of Conquest in Les liaisons dangereuses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Dawn Marlan
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Abstract

Lex liaisons dangereuses neither celebrates pure cynicism nor confirms Rousseauesque sentiment. Instead, the problem that this novel traces takes the form of a question: how is it possible to reconcile the desire for power, in the form of seduction, with the desire to overcome power in friendship? The answer to this question is embedded in the relationship between Valmont and Merteuil, who develop a new model for friendship, one that is merged with seduction. Because sex does not turn out to be a sign of conquest in the relationship between seducers, conquest can begin to operate invisibly. Les liaisons dangereuses points toward the emergence of a new representational possibility—that of invisible conquest—in the literary history of seduction.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 116 , Issue 2 , March 2001 , pp. 314 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2001

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