No Peace for the Wicked: Conflicting Visions of Peacemaking in an Eleventh-Century Monastic Narrative

The Confessions of Montaigne

“…But since this is an arduous and hazardous undertaking, I wish fewer people would meddle with it‖ ( [5], p. 337; [6], p. 244). 16 Yet Montaigne's decision to write, to take an inventory of himself in different moments and in different settings, helps him in the end get at something more fixed: -In modeling this figure upon myself,‖ he writes, -I have had to fashion and compose myself so often to bring myself out, that the model (le patron) itself has to some extent grown firm and taken shape. Painting myself for others, I have painted my inward self with colors clearer than my original ones….Have I wasted my time by taking stock of myself so continually, so carefully?…”

“…15 Following Brody [24], Strier, argues that this passage does not imply, as many scholars suggest, that Montaigne's view of the self as fluid or postmodern, but Strier's reading of -soit que je sois autre moymesme, soit que je saissie les subjects par autres circonstances et considerations‖ flattens the subtle interplay of a relatively fluid self embedded in Montaigne's French ( [25], p. 218). 16 -Of the inconsistency of our actions‖. 17 -Of Giving the Lie‖.…”