Projekt Razsvetljenstva Tzvetana Todorova
Tsvetan Todorov’s Enlightenment Project

Author(s): Marko Stanojević
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Philology, Theory of Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Национално издателство за образование и наука „Аз-буки“
Keywords: Enlightenment; Tsvetan Todorov; literary theory; Immanuel Kant; Albert Camus
Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on the work The Spirit of Enlightenment, a text written by Bulgarian-French philosopher Tzvetan Todorov in 2006. It strives to overview Todorov's text, his understanding of Enlightenment and his answers concerning the main question he poses: on what kind of an intellectual and moral foundation do people want to live nowadays, and further, what kind of a conceptual frame do people have to choose, in order to achieve that the chosen frame will substantiate our words and, more importantly, our actions. The article moves from one chapter of Todorov's text to another, trying to emphasize the most important in each of them, while also trying to partly correspond with the essay Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?, written by Immanuel Kant in 1784. Some thoughts from Hannah Arendt's book The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951, are used in the article, in order to outline certain arguments and explanations from Todorov, while some quotes from the extended essay Reflections on the Guillotine, written by Albert Camus in 1957, are used with intention of showing similarity of opinions between him and Todorov, when discussing unacceptability and absurdity of the death penalty, which is sadly still practised by many modern day countries.

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