ELIE LUZAC ET L’HOMME PLUS QUE MACHINE (1748): LA PAROLE DIALOGIQUE D’UN IMPRIMEUR DES LUMIERES

Abstract Early into his career as one of the most successful printerpublishers of the Dutch Republic, Elie Luzac (1721-1796) played a pivotal role in disseminating the materialist ideas of La Mettrie’s Homme machine (1747). This paper focuses on the dialogic voice (Bakhtine) in a publication by Luzac himself, which oscillates between asserting and refuting La Mettrie’s views. Descended from Huguenot refugees, Luzac condemns what he publishes and publishes what he condemns. This discursive ambiguity emerges in Luzac’s L’homme plus que machine (1748), a work which cites La Mettrie’s th...