The richardsonian parody in marquis de sade’s justine: on the use of intertextuality in late enlightenment

Abstract

The paper deals with the employment of parody in Donatien Alphonse François de Sade’s Justine, ou Les malheurs de la vertu as a mean to criticize both the Christian worldview and Samuel Richardson sentimental novels. We depart from a brief approach to the formal innovation brought about by Richardson’s Pamela, or Virtue rewarded to the culture of the novel, analyzing how Sade frustrates the expectations of his historical readers. Finally, we bring to the fore some remarks by Georges Bataille and Pierre Klossowski on the singularity of Marquis de Sade’s thinking within the philosophical milieu of the Late Enlightenment, pondering how this disruptor of genres and doctrine can be deemed as a substantial character in the tradition of the modern novel.