ABSTRACT
In some respects, the emergence of prose poems in the eighteenth century and the surrounding controversy tell the story of the instrumentalization of poetry to promote a certain vision of the Enlightenment, accessible to all people. Likewise and perhaps more obviously, translation became instrumentalized to import a poetic aesthetic that carried a similar vision of openness. Authors experimenting with the new form of prose poems shared with authors of epistolary novels a common strategy to authenticate their text: pseudo-edition and/ or pseudo-translation. Having established his text's authenticity, the pseudo-translator then focused on its nature and genre. Marking the transition between the two parts of the preface, between the establishment of a reading pact via translation, and comments pertaining to the author's newly minted genre. After Fenelon inaugurated an epic poem in prose, the translator Anne Le Fevre Dacier turned out to be the second author to use prose in a narrative previously expected to be written in verse.
