LA SATIRE ET L’HUMOUR : PROCÉDÉS SCRIPTURAUX OU VERTUS CORRECTIVES CHEZ VOLTAIRE
SATIRE AND HUMOR: SCRIPTURAL PROCESSES OR CORRECTIVE VIRTUES WITH VOLTAIRE

Summary/Abstract: To expose injustices or vices, one can either directly provoke horror and indignation by stating the facts, or use satire, which consists of making people laugh so that the reader will condemn the facts. Voltaire favours the second solution. Humour, irony, comedy are his main means. To fight against prejudice and fools, they must be ridiculed, i.e., belittled, downtoned, made to seem external and absurd. But, at the same time, the comic must not prevail, otherwise we would laugh without giving it any further thought. The banter should simply underline the taunt. Voltaire's tales count therefore as irony by their very nature: he teaches us not to be fooled, not even by the literary devices that underlie irony.

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