Le dérèglement poétique à l’âge des Lumières

This article aims to analyse the meaning attributed to the term « enthusiasm » in England, France and Italy during the 16th and 17th centuries. First, we will illustrate how the term was used to identify certain radical Protestant movements during the Wars of Religion. Then, we will focus on the philosophical categories adopted by intellectuals to understand the phenomenon of “private inspirations”, deemed almost pathological. Taking into account the thought of Locke and Shaftesbury, who both envisioned a positive notion of “enthusiasm” if limited to the domain of art, we will describe how that concept was conceived by early 17th-century French aestheticians and by Voltaire : as a theory of classicistic poetic madness, which shared common traits with the ritual possession.