Professor of French John C. O'Neal presented a paper at the conference “Consuming Passions: Economies of Desire in French Literature and Arts, 1100-1815,” held at Washington University, Oct. 3-5.
His paper titled “Moderating “La Passion de Parler” in Seventeenth-Century France” discussed the work of French moralists such as Descartes, Pascal, La Bruyère, La Rochefoucauld, and Molière as well as theoreticians of conversation like Mlle de Scudéry, the chevalier de Méré, Vaumorière, and Bellegarde who all sought to curtail the passions arising from conversation.
