N.2/2021 Filosofia e generi letterari nel XVIII secolo
Sade e la teoria del romanzo: una filosofia narrativa
Marco Menin
Published in December, 2021
Sade and the theory of the novel: a narrative philosophy.
![COVER GCSI 2_2021.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/543cf4_56110f8941964144bb27e6aec3436ba1~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_276,h_411,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/COVER%20GCSI%202_2021.jpg)
Abstract
Sade’s work has often been elided from the history of philosophy due to its literary form: it is not in fact composed of philosophical writings in the strict sense, but of fictional writings, especially novels. This article shows, starting from a detailed analysis of the essay Idée sur les romans (1800), how Sade developed a real philosophical theory of the novel, which leads to a narrative vision of philosophy. The peculiar definition that Sade offers of the novel genre – which leads him to question the traditional didactic role of the eighteenth-century novel – allows him to build a perfect synergy between literature and philosophy. The novel is not for him a banal transposition of philosophical discourse, but the mechanism of production of philosophical reflection itself.
Keywords
Sade, novel, literature, pornography, narrative philosophy.