From the book
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordComique can name comic art or its quality, while comédie may refer to theatrical attendance as well as a genre.
- In JoubertThe truly comic produces joy, not merely cheerfulness, because it gives characters light and space and shows them whole.
- In this editionThe English translation preserves cheerfulness versus joy and the bodily movement of attention.
- A place to beginThe truly comic shows whole characters in light and space.
- English renderings
- the comic; writer of comedy; theater
Meaning
Comique can name comic art or its quality, while comédie may refer to theatrical attendance as well as a genre.
Use in the book
The truly comic produces joy, not merely cheerfulness, because it gives characters light and space and shows them whole. Attention can move around them as around bodies. A descriptive observation about gait and work-specific posture similarly makes visible behavior material for the painter and comic author. The Lesage remark uses comédie for the theater in an imagined scene, without identifying a play. These contexts distinguish the comic’s mode of apprehending character from a simple count of laughs or a blanket claim that comedy is unserious.
Places to read
- II, p. 592, entry 2, ¶1The truly comic shows whole characters in light and space.
- I, p. 75, entry begun p. 74, no. 2, ¶7Gait and posture offer material for a comic author.
- II, p. 830, entry 12, ¶1Comédie can mean a theater-going occasion.
Translation in this edition
The English translation preserves cheerfulness versus joy and the bodily movement of attention. “Writer of comedy” specifies the authorial role; the source account’s historical terminology about deafness belongs to its separate context and is not adopted as a modern classification.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 75; II, pp. 592, 830.