1570-1700: Challenges to Fortune and the Emergence of Chance

Document Type

Book

Role

Contributor

Publication

Figures of Chance I: Chance in Literature and the Arts (16th–21st Centuries)

Publisher

Routledge

Standard Number

9781003329053

First Page

97

Last Page

167

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

The seventeenth century has been seen as a transitional period for chance: the notion had been elaborated upon in the previous century but had yet to be enriched by the scientific theories that emerged during the next, despite major breakthroughs in probability theory. Chance was what escaped divine or human intentionality, and attempts were made to explain it, if not to eliminate it, using old intellectual paradigms (providentialism) or new ones (rationalism). Fictionalised and addressed in literature, chance seems to have been seen not only as a factor of coherence but also as a vector of tension.

The chapter shows that fictional treatments of chance are not only the reflection or the sounding board for the ideas of their time, and that they occupy more than an ancillary position, offering perspectives that are both critical and complex. Studying narrative motifs and singular cases arising from various literary genres highlights the efficacy and originality of fictional treatments of chance in the seventeenth century.

Comments

Original french text available at https://books.openedition.org/editionscnrs/89107

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