Le territoire du vide

Alain Corbin

Publié par Flammarion

407 pages

Résumé

Once seen as a dark and sinister force, the domain of monsters, the sea was associated with catastrophe and fear by many Europeans prior to the eighteenth century. Alain Corbin's engaging book reveals how attitudes toward the ocean gradually began to shift from the negative to the positive, so that by the mid-1800s our present-day salubrious notion of the seashore had come into being.Going back to ancient times, Corbin describes conceptions of the sea in relationship to how people thought and felt about their place in the world. He then shows how the Enlightenment and changing attitudes in science, literature, and art affected notions of the sea. Ocean bathing came to be seen as therapeutic, the sea was linked with the creation of life, and the shore became a locale for self-exploration and reverie. Discovery of the seaside had political, economic, and social effects, too. The shore as a place of pleasure led to the rapid growth of British coastal towns such as Brighton, followed by other resorts in Europe. All of this Corbin lays out in wonderful detail, blending history, theory, and anecdote into an absorbing whole.The Lure of the Sea suggests the fashioning of a modern sensibility in the West's discovery of the shore--one that is health-conscious and intent on regeneration through vigorous contact with nature. Written by one of today's most literate and imaginative historians, it offers an inviting cultural excursion for scholars and general readers alike.

Le territoire du vide - l'occident et le desir du rivage, 1750-1840

1515 et les grandes dates de l'histoire de France revisitées par les grands historiens d'aujourd'hui

Les immortels du Sénat, 1875-1918. Les cent seize inamovibles de la Troisième République

Le ciel et la mer

La fraîcheur de l'herbe - Histoire d'une gamme d'émotions de l'antiquité à nos jours

1515 et les grandes dates de l'histoire de France: revisitées par les grands historiens d'aujourd'hui

Les filles de rêve

Le miasme et la jonquille - L'odorat et l'imaginaire social. XVIIIe-XIXe siècles

Critiques