Restricted Literature and Restricted Democracy: Looking Back at Victor Cousin

Literature does vary, both in a diachronic way and a synchronic way. Contextualizing these variations, we soon find that the absolute conception of literature itself is neither absolute or eternal : it has a history of its own, and as far as French literature is concerned, it dates back to the early 19th century, when a certain conception of democracy was beginning to be discussed too. In France, literature as an absolute notion was first theorized by Victor Cousin (from 1815 and in several books, including his Fragments philosophiques and Du Vrai, du Beau, du Bien). Going back in time to this original moment, we advocate the theory that could be summed up in the following phrase : limited democracy means limited literature.