ELIE LUZAC AND L’HOMME PLUS QUE MACHINE (1748): THE DIALOGIC VOICE OF AN ENLIGHTENMENT PRINTER

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 theses in order to contest them. Building on the succès de scandale of the English version of L’homme machine (Man a Machine, 1749), the English translation of L’homme plus que machine, Man more than a Machine, appeared in 1752. The present contribution examines how the translator’s Voice, which is defined as an enarrative voice, effaces the concealed claims of the original text and replaces them with a discourse whose explicit anti-materialist tenor contrasts with the vehement rhetoric of Man a Machine.摘要 伊莱·吕扎克（Elie Luzac，1721-1796）职业生涯伊始便已是荷兰共和国最成功的印刷出版商之一，他在传播拉·梅特里1747年著作《人是机器》（Homme machine）的唯物主义思想方面发挥了举足轻重的作用。本文聚焦于吕扎克本人一部作品中的对话性声音（dialogic voice，巴赫金），该作品在肯认与驳斥拉·梅特里的观点之间往复摇摆。作为胡格诺派难民后裔，吕扎克始终处于一种悖反状态：一边谴责自己所出版的内容，一边又刊印自己所谴责的作品。这种话语层面的歧义性，体现在吕扎克1748年的作品《人甚于机器》（L’homme plus que machine）中——该作品援引拉·梅特里的核心论点以对其进行辩驳。依托《人是机器》英译本（Man a Machine，1749）所斩获的“丑闻式成功”（succès de scandale），《人甚于机器》的英译本《Man more than a Machine》于1752年面世。本文旨在探析：被界定为叙事性声音（enarrative voice）的译者声音，是如何消解原文潜藏的主张，并以一种明确秉持反唯物主义基调的话语取而代之；此种话语与《人是机器》中激昂激烈的修辞风格形成了鲜明对照。