Roland Mortier

Roland Mortier (21 December 1920 – 31 March 2015) was a prominent Belgian scholar, philosopher and academic,[1][2] known for his contributions to linguistics and literature.[3] Mortier obtained his PhD in Philology, specialisting in 18th century literature and Franco-German reports,[4][5] from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1946. He was a member of the Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique[4] and the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. In 1965, he was awarded the Francqui Prize on Human Sciences.[6]

Background

Mortier was born on the 21 December 1920 in Ghent, Belgium.[7] His family spoke primarily French, and he studied in Dutch at the Royal Athenaeum in Antwerp. Mortier extended his language skills further, learning German, when holidaying with his maternal grandmother in Luxembourg.[8]

In 1938, he enrolled at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.[8] However, in November 1941, the institution was forced to close its doors due to the occupier's ukase. Mortier then chose to attend a university in his hometown, Gent. In 1942, he successfully completed his degree in philosophy and literature, graduating with the highest distinction.[7]

His dissertation was on the Archives littéraires de l'Europe, a German-language journal of the First Empire. This work was later published in 1957. On the advice of his teacher Gustave Charlier, Mortier was struck by the fact that one of the editors of the journal, Charles Vanderbourg, had been unjustly forgotten. Mortier dedicated his doctoral thesis, which was defended in 1950 at the Université libre de Bruxelles, to Vanderbourg. The thesis was published in 1955 and titles Un précurseur de Madame de Staël: Charles Vanderbourg (1765-1827).

In addition to his teaching careers at Athénée Royal de Malines from 1944 and his assistantship at the University of Brussels, Mortier also participated in a research project headed by Charlier. The project, which was published in 1952, focused on the Journal Encyclopédique and its role in popularising the ideas of Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie.[9] Mortier went on to succeed Charlier and took a tenure as a professor at the University of Brussels.[10][7][8] Four years later, Mortier wrote a groundbreaking dissertation on Diderot's influence on German thought and literature, which was later published as Diderot en Allemagne (1750-1850). This work was recognised as a fundamental and influential contribution to the field and was translated to German in 1967, with an updated edition released in 1986.[7]

In 1965, Mortier's outstanding work was recognised by the Fondation Francqui as they awarded him with their triennial prize.[7]

Throughout his career, Mortier taught at various universities including the Université Libre de Bruxelles, the Katholieke Universiteir Leuven, and the Université de Liège. He was also invited to be a visiting professor at universities in Canada (including Toronto), the United States (including Yale, Princeton, Standford, Cleveland, Maryland), the United Kingdom (including Exeter and London), Paris-Sorbonne, Montpellier, Cologne, Pisa, Duisburg,[11] and Japan.[12]

On March 31, 2015, Mortier passed away at the age of 94 in Brüssel.[13]

Awards and Memberships

In recognition of his contributions to academia, Mortier received numerous honours and awards, including the Francqui Prize, the highest scientific award in Belgium. He was a member of several prestigious academic organisations including the Royal Academy of Flemish Language and Literature.

Awards

Francqui Prize (1965)

Prix Montaigne (1983)[11]

Prix Counson of the Académie royale de langue et littérature françaises de Bruxelles (1985)[11]

Prix de l'Union rationaliste (1992)[11]

Prix du Rayonnement de la langue et de la littéeature françaises (2001)

Grand Prix de la Francophonie (2006)

Memberships

Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises (1969)[5][11]

President of l'Association Internationale de littérature comparée (1976-1979)[14]

Member and Honorary President of l'Association Internationale des Études Françaises (1976)[15][11]

President of the Société internationale d'étude du XVIIIe siècle (1983-1987)

Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy (1984)[16][11]

President of the Comité d'honneur des Études staëliennes

Member of the Comité directeur des Œuvres complètes de Diderot[11]

Member of the Conseil consultatif des Œuvres complètes de Voltaire[11]

Foreign associate of the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques (1993)[11]

Honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences[11]

Member of the Academia Europaea[6]

Professor Emeritus of the University of Brussels[10]

Vice-President of the Institut des hautes études de Belgique[11]

President of the Honorary Committee of Stalinist Studies (Paris)[11]

Honorary Member of The Japan Academy (2012)[17]

Honorary Doctorates

He held honorary doctorates from the Universities of Montpellier, Göttingen and Jerusalem.[8][5][11]

Works

In addition to his linguistic research, Mortier was a well-respected literary critic and author.[18][19][20] He wrote extensively - the result of fifty years of teaching and research concluded in publication of Le Coeur et la raison (The Heart and Reason), in 1990, by the Voltaire Foundation[21] in Oxford. The publication brought together thirty-five of the two hundred and thirty articles Mortier published by that time.[7] In 2006 a further book was published, presenting twenty-four texts written by Mortier on the subject of the Enlightenment, to mark his eightieth anniversary.[22] The publication was entitled Les Combats des Lumières: Recueil d'études sur le dix-huitième siècle.[23]

Written works
  • Le journal encyclopédique, 1756-1793. (1952)[9]
  • Diderot en Allemagne: 1950-1850. (1954)[24]
  • Un precursor de Madame de Staël: Charles Vanderbourg (1765-1827). His contribution to intellectual exchanges at the dawn of the 19th century. (published Doctoral Thesis 1955)[25]
  • Les Archives Litteraires de L'Europe.[26]
  • Le "Hochepot, ou, Salmigondi des Folz" (1596): étude historique et linguistique suivie d'une édition du texte. (1959)[27]
  • Unité ou scission du siècle des lumières?, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century. (1963)[28][29]
  • Les Annees De Formation De F.H.Jacobi, D'Apres Ses Lettres Indedites a M.M. Rey (1763-1771) Avec Le Noble, De Madame De Charriere (ST). (1966)[30]
  • Diderot in Deutschland, 1750-1850. (1967)[31]
  • Clartés et Ombres du siècle des Lumières: Études sur le 18e siècle littéraire. (1969)[32]
  • Le "Tableau littéraire de la France au XVIIIe siècle": un épisode de la "guerre philosophique" à l'Académie française sous l'Empire 1804-1810. (1972)
  • La Poétique des ruines en France : ses origines, ses variations, de la Renaissance à Victor Hugo. (1974)
  • Histoire de la littérature française: la poésie : notes prises au cours du professeur R. Mortier. (1977)
  • Voltaire: les ruses et les rages du pamphlétaire. (1979)
  • L' Art nouveau: littérature et beaux-arts à la fin du 19e s. (1981)
  • Diderot et le grand goût : the prestige of history painting in the 18th century. (1982)
  • L'Originalité: une nouvelle catégorie esthétique au siècle des Lumières. (1982)
  • Diderot et son temps (catalogue d'exposition). (1985)
  • Denis Diderot, Le Pour et le Contre. (1987)
  • Mes écarts. (1990)[33]
  • Le Coeur et la raison. (1990)
  • Schnittpunkte: komparatistische Studien zur romanischen Kultur : gewidmet Peter-Eckhard Knabe. (1994)
  • Contes immoraux. (1995)
  • Un précurseur de Madame de Stäel: Charles Vanderbourg, 1765-1827; sa contribution aux échanges intellectuels à l'aube de XIXe siècle. (1995)
  • Anacharsis Cloots, ou, L'utopie foudroyée. (1995)
  • Denis Diderot, Pensées philosophiques. (1998)
  • Dictionnaire de Diderot. (1999)
  • Les combats des Lumières: recueil d'études sur le dix-huitième siècle. (2000)
  • Portraits de femmes. (2000)
  • Le XVIIIe siècle au quotidien .(2001)[34]
  • L'aube de la modernité 1680-1760 (2002)
  • Juliette de Robersart, une voyageuse belge oubliée. (en: Juliette de Robersart, a forgotten Belgian traveler) (2003)
  • Les Combats des Lumières: Recueil d'études sur le dix-huitième siècle. (2006)[23]
  1. "Kalliope | Verbundkatalog für Archiv- und archivähnliche Bestände und nationales Nachweisinstrument für Nachlässe und Autographen". kalliope-verbund.info. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  2. "Roland Mortier - Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek". www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  3. Mortier, R. (1920-2015) Mortier, Roland Fabien Jules (1920-2015)
  4. giantchair.com. "Roland Mortier - EUB". www.editions-ulb.be. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  5. "Roland Mortier". Babelio (in French). Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  6. "Academy of Europe: Mortier Roland". www.ae-info.org. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  7. "Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique : Roland Mortier". www.arllfb.be. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
  8. Chartier, Pierre (25 November 2015). "Roland Mortier". Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie (in French) (50): 7–13. doi:10.4000/rde.5281. ISSN 0769-0886.
  9. "[PDF] Le journal encyclopedique, 1756-1793 by Gustave Charlier, Roland Mortier · 623173810 · OA.mg". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. "Roland MORTIER | Académie française". www.academie-francaise.fr. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  11. "Roland Mortier". Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques (in French). 20 June 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  12. "Roland Mortier客員の逝去について | 日本学士院". www.japan-acad.go.jp. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  13. "Roland Mortier – Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften". www.bbaw.de. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  14. "CTHS - Association internationale de littérature comparée (AILC) - PARIS". cths.fr. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  15. "Liste des membres de l'Association Internationale des Études Françaises". Cahiers de l'AIEF. 28 (1): 422. 1976.
  16. "Professor Roland Mortier FBA". The British Academy. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  17. "Deceased Honorary Members (Alphabetical Order) | The Japan Academy". www.japan-acad.go.jp. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  18. Swaffield, Bruce Carl (2009). Rising from the Ruins: Roman Antiquities in Neoclassic Literature. Cambridge Scholars. ISBN 9781443815857.
  19. Macfarlane, Robert (2007). Original Copy: Plagiarism and Originality in Nineteenth-Century Literature. OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780199296507.
  20. Matytsin, Anton M.; Edelstein, Dan (2018). Let there be enlightenment: the religious and mystical sources of rationality. Stanford university. Baltimore (Md.): Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-2601-3.
  21. Mortier, Roland; Pomeau, René (1990). Le cœur et la raison: recueil d'études sur le dix-huitième siècle. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation [u.a.] ISBN 978-0-7294-0395-5.
  22. "Centre International d'étude du XVIII siècle: Roland Mortier, Les Combats des Lumières". c18.net. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  23. Mortier, Roland; Darnton, Robert (2000). Les combats des Lumières: recueil d'études sur le dix-huitième siècle. Publications du Centre International d'Étude du XVIIIe Siècle. Ferney-Voltaire: Centre International d'Étude du XVIIIe Siècle. ISBN 978-2-84559-005-2.
  24. Mortier, Roland (1954). Diderot en Allemagne, 1750-1850. Presses Universitaires De France. ASIN B01MRUXGTE.
  25. Mortier, Roland (1955). Un précurseur de Madame de Staël : Charles Vanderbourg : 1765-1827, sa contribution aux échanges intellectuels à l'aube du XIXe siècle. Paris: M. Didier ; Impr. de Groeninghe.
  26. Mortier, Roland (1957). Les "Archives littéraires de l'Europe" (1804-1808) et le cosmopolitisme littéraire sous le Premier Empire. Gembloux, Belgique: J. Duculot.
  27. Mortier, Roland (1959). Le "Hochepot, ou, Salmigondi des Folz" (1596): étude historique et linguistique suivie d'une édition du texte. Académie Royale de Belgique.
  28. Meijer, Annemieke (1998). The pure language of the heart: sentimentalism in the Netherlands 1775-1800. Textxet. Amsterdam: Rodopi. p. 32. ISBN 978-90-420-0370-5.
  29. Mortier, Roland (1969). Clartés et ombres du siècle des lumières: Études sur le 18e siècle littéraire. Droz. ISBN 9782600034951.
  30. American Philosophical Society (1974). Proceedings, American Philosophical Society (vol. 118, No 3, 1974). American Philosophical Society. ISBN 9781422371114.
  31. Mortier, Roland; Mortier, Roland (1972). Diderot in Deutschland: 1750 - 1850. Metzler Studienausgabe (Textl. unveränd. Studienausg ed.). Stuttgart: Metzler. ISBN 978-3-476-00120-7.
  32. Mortier, Roland (1969). Clartés et ombres du siècle des lumières: Études sur le 18e siècle littéraire. Droz. ISBN 9782600034951.
  33. Ligne, Charles Joseph de (1990). Mortier, Roland (ed.). Mes écarts. Espace nord. Bruxelles: Éd. Labor. ISBN 978-2-8040-0524-5.
  34. Mortier, Roland, ed. (2002). Le XVIIIe siècle français au quotidien: textes tirés des mémoires, des journaux et des correspondances de l'époque. Bibliothèque Complexe. Bruxelles: Éd. Complexe. ISBN 978-2-87027-879-6.
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