Читать книгу Art in Theory - Группа авторов - Страница 143

Denis Diderot was the progenitor of the great Encyclopédie, the defining project of the European Enlightenment, which was published in Paris between 1751 and 1776. He was also a pioneering figure in the then new genre of art criticism. In the present selection, however, Diderot writes not about art but of the impact of European civilization on the peoples of Oceania. His ‘Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville’, which contains elements of the ‘noble savage’ thesis associated with Rousseau and others (cf. IIC2), takes the form of a series of dialogues in which Diderot predicts the dual programme of colonization and conversion with which the Europeans came close to destroying the indigenous cultures of Oceania. The ‘frame’ dialogue is between two ‘gentlemen’, identified only as ‘A’ and ‘B’, who are discussing Bougainville’s account of his voyage (cf. IIB3). Diderot focusses specifically on the account of Tahiti, embedding within the dialogue of ‘A’ and ‘B’ further imagined discussions between islanders and members of Bougainville’s company. In the present extracts, Diderot amplifies an incident recounted by Bougainville himself in which an old chief refrained from welcoming the Europeans while everyone else received them with friendship and gifts (pp. 141–2). Diderot has the chief denouncing to Bougainville in person the religious hypocrisy and physical violence of the Europeans, their spreading of sexually transmitted disease among the native people, and the deleterious consequences this will have for Polynesian culture. The first two parts of Diderot’s ‘Supplement’ were complete by late 1772, and it was circulated in manuscript form the following year. The extracts are taken from Denis Diderot: Political Writings, translated and edited by John Hope Mason and Robert Wokler, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 35–6 and 39–46. (Further extracts from the writings of Diderot and the Encyclopédie can be found in Art in Theory 1648–1815 IIIC7–9, 12–14, and IVA11, pp. 581–626 and 668–73.)

A –

[W]hat are you doing?

B –

I’m reading.

A –

Still the Voyage of Bougainville?

B –

Just so. […]

A –

… So what’s his assessment of savages?

B –

That the cruelty among them which has sometimes been observed is apparently due only to their daily need to defend themselves against wild beasts. The savage is innocent and gentle whenever his peace and security are left undisturbed. […] I’m quite sure of it. The life of the savage is so simple, and our societies are such complicated machines. The Tahitian is close to the origins of the world and the European near its old age. The gulf between us is greater than that separating the new‐born child from the decrepit dotard. The Tahitian either fails entirely to understand our customs and laws, or he sees them as nothing but fetters disguised in a hundred different ways, which can only inspire indignation and scorn in those for whom the love of liberty is the deepest of all feelings.

A –

Are you falling prey to the myth of Tahiti?

B –

It’s not a myth, and you wouldn’t doubt Bougainville’s sincerity if you knew the Supplement to his Voyage.

A –

And where can one find this Supplement?

B –

Right over there, on that table.

A –

Won’t you let me borrow it?

B –

No, but we can go through it together, if you’d like.

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