Pour une théorie de la description au 18e siècle

Denis Reynaud : For a theory of description in the isth century. Natural history in the 18th Century made description the supreme form of discourse, but it also profoundly rethought its functions and modes. It tried in particular to define what was specific about verbal description as compared to the power of pictural representation. The same preoccupation led to a divorce in the field of description between the 'history' of an object and its true 'description'. In their writings, scientists like Perrault, Réaumur, Buffon, Daubenton, Bonnet or Adanson were perpetually confronted with the problem of the order, limits and objects of description, and their answers to these literary questions concern literature as much as they do science.Reynaud Denis. Pour une théorie de la description au 18e siècle. In: Dix-huitième Siècle, n°22, 1990. Voyager, explorer. pp. 347-366