Neo-classical French Drama



Faced with the world's misery, Heraclitus wept, and Democritus laughed: two facets, two masks, tragical and comical. Nowadays, the notion of "the tragic" often refers to a philosophical category involving issues of destiny and liberty; in the 17th century, its main function was to express a representation of humankind as a "theatre" of bloody horrors, whose display was meant to "purify" spectators by instilling in them a sense of terror and pity. This course aims to study formal characteristics of Early Modern French tragedy as a genre, including both the spectacle of impossible dilemmas in the manner of Corneille, and the poetical ceremony of fatal disasters induced by human passions as represented in the plays of Racine.

Whereas, in the 17th century, tragedy appeared as the undeniably dominant "grand genre," comedy, traditionally held as a lower form, underwent a crucial transformation through the contributions of Molière, who managed to elevate the genre from the farcical to the high comedic social satire. This comedy of manners bridged the gaps between old-fashioned farce, conventional satire, and a new formula of theatrical invention in which comedic form and tragic content could be reconciled. Our approach will combine generic, historical, literary and ideological perspectives, with an analysis of filmed productions of neo-classical plays.

Required texts:

Corneille, Le Cid, ISBN : 2290099066,

Corneille et Racine, Tite et Bérénice et Bérénice, ISBN : 2710382776

Racine, Phèdre, ISBN : 2290121495

Molière, Tartuffe, ISBN : 2290110361, Dom Juan, ISBN : 2081309378