« Le charme des sentiments [et] l’analyse des idées » De la littérature ou l’invention d’une critique éloquente

Germaine de Staël’s œuvre upsets the borders which traditionally lie between work and criticism. A synonym for “philosophy” – understood as the necessary engagement of the work with knowledge about humanity and the exploration of the mysteries of society – the latter becomes literature and demands the discovery of a language which equals these new ambitions : what is a “critical” literature ? How can readers in the wake of the Terror be reconciled with reason ?