Literary notes about savant (AI summary)
In literature, “savant” is a multifaceted term that designates a person of specialized, often scholarly, knowledge while sometimes implying a degree of aloofness or pretension. At times the word is used to contrast practical ability with academic expertise—for instance, a craftsman is distinguished from a learned individual [1]—while in other contexts it denotes authority or even an overreliance on pedantic, formal reasoning [2], [3]. There are also passages where being called a savant signifies admirable, even celebrated, competence in scientific or intellectual pursuits [4], yet this excellence can be tinged with isolation or eccentricity, as if deep knowledge distances one from everyday experience [5]. Thus, the term “savant” operates as a literary device that both praises erudition and subtly critiques its potential shortcomings.
- Ariste (2 syl .), brother of Chrysale (2 syl .), not a savant , but a practical tradesman.
— from Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer - But I allow neither the bootmaker nor the architect nor the savant to impose his authority upon me.
— from God and the State by Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin - But have you reached the point, great savant as you are, of no longer believing in science?”
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo - In 1894 that eminent savant Lord Rayleigh brought before the British Association his discovery of a hitherto unknown constituent in the atmosphere.
— from Great Britain and Her Queen by Annie E. Keeling - I've heard of him as a savant, but what sort I don't know.”
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
