The Sins of the Father: Colonialism and Family History in Diderots Le fils naturel

The self-abnegating, even self-flagellating, virtue promoted by the protagonist of Diderotʹs Le fils naturel is a function not of the textʹs incest plot, as critics have traditionally asserted it to be, but of the dramaʹs colonialist subtext. This essay highlights the involvement of the playʹs aging patriarch, Lysimond, in the slave-based commerce of the West Indies and suggests that the old manʹs son, Dorval, preaches a strict and selfless brand of morality in order to overwrite this shameful aspect of his family history. If, in the end, Dorval and his kinfolk prove unable to commemorate and celebrate their supposedly virtuous birthright, this result is due to the abiding, irrepressible specter of Lysimondʹs colonialist transgressions. (CW)