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 wordLittérature names the field of literary writing and cultivation, with intellectual and ethical demands that are not identical to those of other practices.
- In JoubertImagination is declared necessary in literature as in life, even for those who decry it.
- In this editionThe English translation preserves often and only in the reply to Bonald.
- A place to beginLiterature cannot dispense with imagination.
- English renderings
- literature
Meaning
Littérature names the field of literary writing and cultivation, with intellectual and ethical demands that are not identical to those of other practices.
Use in the book
Imagination is declared necessary in literature as in life, even for those who decry it. The remark about literary ignorance then refuses a defense available in morals: here ignorance is itself a fault, not simply a mitigating circumstance. Against literature understood as society’s expression, Joubert adds studies, mood and personality as alternative sources, with a local preference for the last. These observations keep the field connected to learning, imaginative apprehension and personal character without reducing it to any one of them.
Places to read
- I, p. 283, entry 9, ¶1Literature cannot dispense with imagination.
- II, p. 652, entry 5, ¶1Literary ignorance is judged differently from moral ignorance.
- II, p. 798, entry 1, ¶1The social account of literature is set beside personal expressive sources.
Translation in this edition
The English translation preserves often and only in the reply to Bonald. Its damaged quotation closure remains unresolved, and the final reference can point to personality or its expression. These are qualifications of the reading, not reasons to omit the argument.
Source note
Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 283; II, pp. 652, 798.