Le déclin du mythe du bon sauvage: Volney et les Lumières tardives

In the Éclaircissements du Tableau du climat et du sol des États-Unis (1803), Volney refuses to contribute to the topos of the ‘savage’ and makes him an object of rigorous observation, a concrete human being whose morals can be assessed and criticised for. By examining the customs of American savages, he is able to question the ideas set out by Rousseau in his Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes, in particular his view of the corruption of civilisation and of private property. Based on these premises, this paper looks at Volney’s discussion of ‘savages’ in his work about the United States. It shows that his depiction of the Amerindians does not tend to idealise them, but rather to highlight the negative passions (envy, hatred, spirit of vengeance) that characterize their societies, based on a description of their physical features, psychological characteristics and customs. It also highlights the fact that, in Volney’s writing, the savage condition is not interpreted as a mythical past and that it is linked to civilisation in a complex way.