The Noises of the World in Diderot
If critics have already brought to light the essential place that sound and music occupy in Diderot’s work, mainly through the great metaphor of the harpsichord-man, the present study is more restricted, more suggestive than exhaustive, and aims to analyze some "world noises," in opposition to but also contiguous with those of the human body or musical sounds. The study consists of two moments: firstly, an analytical inventory of some topoï taken essentially from narrative fictions (Jacques le fataliste, Le Neveu de Rameau, La Religieuse, Les Bijoux indiscrets, the “Promenade Vernet” of the Salon de 1767), and then some elements of a sound theory from Diderot’s work that borrows from the author’s philosophical and aesthetic work. First, the “picturesque noises” that constitute a kind of sound background for the Diderotian narrations are highlighted: ringing bells, gunshots and thunder, horses’ footsteps, roaring waters, slamming doors. The second part focuses on the place of sound in a complex system of synesthetic sensory expression.