The "Stylistic Energy" and the formation of Modern Europe in the18th century.

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Rhetorical treatises in seventeenth-century France follow the thought of Port Royal. As Marc Fumaroli said, in this age, a “rapid style” that belongs to the ancient stoic tradition-especially to Seneque-was to be avoided. It was called “style serre” or “style coupe,” and knew as it risked making the expression unintelligible. However, in the following century, the rules changed significantly. In contrast, a “rapid” style started to be admired. The rapidity was thought to be a result of the “concentration” of style, realized by expressing rich contents within short expressions. In other words, in the age of enlightenment, clarity was sacrificed for the sake of density and rapidity.That “paradigm change” can be explained by the secularization of the system of representation. Some notions were considered as the elements that constitute the mystery of writing, such as “energy” or “sublime”, were separated gradually from their previoustheological connotation. Whereas in the seventeenh century, the mysterious force of writing was regarded as a product of the God’s power, in the eighteenth century, thethought developed that humans also use this power. And there, the stylistic power is the result of a succession of concise expressions.This transmutation in representation theory can be explained by the popularity of a rhetoric theory book entitled On the Sublime, translated by Boileau in 1674. After the publication of On the Sublime, the concept of “sublime” became one of the most important subjects of European intellectual society. While the sublime in the classical age belonged tothe theological force, Longinus’s treatise invoked that humanities education is needed to arouse the “stylistic energy” in writing.