Discussion Questions for "Rameau's Nephew"

Left: Portrait of Denis Diderot by Louis-Michel van Loo, 1767. The great humanties scholar Jacques Barzun writes of Diderot: "Diderot was one of history's born conversationalists, and his writings repeatedly fall into dialogue. A tale, an essay, a rebuttal will start out sedately in expository form and soon dash and question mark break up the line as a living or imaginary interlocutor doubts or denies -- it is interactive prose."(1) Rameau's Nephew takes this form.


Interpretive Questions

Why is the Nephew poor if he thinks so much about his own self-interest (cf. pp. 85, 97, 144)?

What is the significance of the Nephew's little "performances" (pantomimes, impersonations, "air violin," etc.?)

P. 95: "But, Master Philosopher, it is with universal morality just as with universal grammar: there are exceptions in each language that you learned people call ... idioms." Is an "idiom" really analogous to a lapse of morality?

P. 95: "The older the profession the more the idioms; the worse the times become, the more the idioms multiply." Agree or disagree?

Rameau says of his famous uncle (p. 73), "If he ever has done anything for anybody, it must be without knowing it." Is this remark meant to be sarcastic?

Why does the dialogue end with the Nephew stating "He who laughs last laughs best."? (p.144)

Why did Nephew's wife leave him, and what effect did this have on him?


Evaluative Questions

Is the Nephew correct when he asserts (p.114): "Vice offends men only from time to time; but the symptoms of vice offend day and night." How do "vice" and its "symptoms" differ?

What does this dialogue say about the artist's role in society? The philosopher's?

Do you think the Nephew benefitted or suffered because of his uncle's fame? Is the piece a commentary on fame? If so, what position does it take?

Why was this work never published in Diderot's lifetime?


For Textual Analysis

Pp. 95-98: From "Why resort to these vile little tricks?" to ... "outside of that, all is vanity."

Pp. 102-4, From "Virtue is praised, but hated" to ... "You can guess what harm so much uncertainty does to talent."

Pp. 119-21, From "Because it is a good deal less than right" to .. "abide by the terms of the contract aforesaid."

Pp. 127-29, From "The true, the good, and the beautiful will prevail" to "... man in a passion will supply the accent."

Pp. 130-131, From "How is it that with such fineness of feeling" to "But such parents do not exist."

*From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present, New York: HarperCollins, 2000.