La littérature française du XVIIe siècle/French Literature of the 17th century
Titles of the Individual Presentations in a Panel
1. Onomastic Deviations and Metaliterary Consequences in the Gascon Extravagant (Melinda A. Cro) 2. Meurs, Octave !: Corneille’s Cinna and the Theatrical Representation of the Sovereign Double Body (Polly Mangerson) 3. Mariages d’amour, mariages de raison dans l’Astrée d’Honoré d’Urfé (Tatiana Kozhanova)
Subject Area
French and Francophone Studies
Abstract
Title: “Onomastic Deviations and Metaliterary Consequences in the Gascon Extravagant”(Melinda A. Cro)
In his article, Les pérégrinations du Gascon extravagant, Emmanuel Desiles proposes that the intent of the comic novelist in the seventeenth century is « mettre en garde le lecteur sur la fiction du langage, et plus généralement des signes » (330). Such a thesis seems reinforced by what we know of the comic novelist of the period. The conception of the « lecteur discret, » proposed by Aléman in his preface to Guzmán de Alfarache and echoed by Sorel in his « Advertissement aux lecteurs, » is inherent in the comic novelist’s literary imagination. In Claireville’s Gascon extravagant, the reader’s literary awareness is tested more than in perhaps any other comic novel of the period. The novel’s structure is complex, comprising various intercalated narratives that are woven together in a fragmentary tale that lacks a conclusion and puts the very nature of the comic novel into question. Through various onomastic deviations, the fictionality of the tale is continuously renewed and the reader is challenged by the metaliterary consciousness of the author. These onomastic deviations and the intercalated structure underscore the “signs” to which Desiles refers that punctuate the fictional language of the genre. It is the purpose of this paper to examine these signs, to evaluate the influence of said signs upon the structure of the text itself, and how the reader is intended to react. Claireville makes of his “roman en procès” a métaroman that at its core explores the very nature of the genre to which it belongs.
« Meurs, Octave ! » : Corneille’s Cinna and the Theatrical Representation of the Sovereign Double Body (Polly Mangerson)
With the rise of the absolute monarchy during the reigns of Louis XIII (1610-1643) and Louis XIV (1643-1715), the concept of sovereignty played an important role in the development of seventeenth-century French literature. This is particularly true in theater, since all “official” theatrical performances were part of the permanent endeavor to glorify the king. This paper seeks to explore the link between sovereignty and theater using one of Pierre Corneille’s more well-known tragedies, Cinna (1642), in order to demonstrate how the representation of kingship was used to create powerful and successful drama. First, to summarize the idea of sovereignty as it was understood in seventeenth-century France, I will refer to several theoretical texts that were written during the 16th and 17th centuries – Les six livres de la république by Jean Bodin (1576), the Traité des seigneuries by Charles Loyseau (1610), De la souveraineté du roi by Cardin Le Bret (1632), and Le monarque ou les devoirs du souverain by François Senault (1661). These texts all imply that a king possesses a double body – physical (le corps physique) and political (le corps politique). His physical body is subject to human weakness and passions, whereas his political body embodies the law and is only capable of doing good. In order to fulfill his duty as sovereign and reign effectively, a true monarch must reject the desires of his physical body and act in accordance with his political body. In Cinna, the king-character Octave experiences this separation of corps politique from corps physique onstage, abandoning his emotional attachments and choosing mercy over revenge, which ultimately enables him to become the emperor Auguste. This transformation elicits a positive emotional response from the audience as is required in neoclassical theater. Through this portrayal of Octave/Auguste’s double body, Cinna presents itself as a sterling example of the influence of the principles of sovereignty on dramatic literature.
Mariages d’amour, mariages de raison dans l’Astrée d’Honoré d’Urfé (Tatiana Kozhanova).
Les cercles précieux du milieu du XVIIe siècle aussi bien que le roman de la même époque renient le mariage et situent la vie du couple marié dans les terres inconnues de la Carte de Tendre. À leur tour, les romanciers de la fin du siècle à l’instar de madame de La Fayette choisissent comme personnage principal une jeune femme mal-mariée souvent contre son gré. De même, le roman satirique à partir de Charles Sorel s’inspirant de la tradition médiévale des fabliaux parle des côtés purement négatifs de la vie familiale (de l’adultère, de la tyrannie des maris, des femmes méchantes etc.) ce qui, d’ailleurs, trouve écho dans la réalité historique dépeinte dans les chroniques du temps comme Les Historiettes de Tallement des Réaux ou le Mercure Galant. Le but de notre communication est d’étudier la représentation du mariage dans l’Astrée d’Honoré d’Urfé qui en donne une vision plus diversifiée et plus optimiste que celle de ses contemporains et de ses successeurs.
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Brief Bio Note
BIO : Melinda Cro (Ph.D. 2010, The University of Georgia) is currently an Assistant Professor of French and French Language Program Coordinator at Kansas State University. Her research focuses on the development of the pastoral mode in Early Modern France and Italy and, more generally, upon the relationship between literature and the visual arts as well as notions of alterity, sexuality, and geography in early modern culture. In addition to presenting on a wide range of topics in North America and in Europe, she has published articles on sixteenth and seventeenth-century literature in Moreana, Romance Notes, and South Atlantic Review as well as her first monograph, Armas y letras, in 2012.
BIO: Polly Mangerson is a doctoral candidate in the department of Romance Languages at the University of Georgia, where is is also serving as the French Language Preceptor. She is currently writing her dissertation on counter-representations of sovereignty in seventeenth century French tragedy and comedy under the direction of Dr. Francis Assaf. She holds a Bachelors Degree in French from the University of South Carolina and a Masters Degree in French Literature from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
BIO: Tatiana Kozhanova (Ph.D. 2005, The Moscow State University) is currently a Lecturer of French at Georgia State University. She teaches a wide range of courses including the history of French Civilization and premodern French literature. Her research focuses on the French novel of the 17th century. She also works for Moscow publishing house 'Nauka' where she published in 2010 the first critical edition in Russian of Histoire Amoureuse des Gaules by Bussy Rabutin. Currently she works on the critical edition in Russian of Historiettes by Tallement des Reaux.
Keywords
French literature, Marriage, Classical theater, Comic novel, Pastoral novel, Body, Metaroman
Location
Room 221
Presentation Year
2015
Start Date
3-27-2015 3:00 PM
End Date
3-27-2015 4:15 PM
Embargo
5-23-2017
Recommended Citation
Kozhanova, Tatiana; Mangerson, Polly; and Cro, Melinda A., "La littérature française du XVIIe siècle/French Literature of the 17th century" (2015). South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL). 52.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/seccll/2015/2015/52
La littérature française du XVIIe siècle/French Literature of the 17th century
Room 221
Title: “Onomastic Deviations and Metaliterary Consequences in the Gascon Extravagant”(Melinda A. Cro)
In his article, Les pérégrinations du Gascon extravagant, Emmanuel Desiles proposes that the intent of the comic novelist in the seventeenth century is « mettre en garde le lecteur sur la fiction du langage, et plus généralement des signes » (330). Such a thesis seems reinforced by what we know of the comic novelist of the period. The conception of the « lecteur discret, » proposed by Aléman in his preface to Guzmán de Alfarache and echoed by Sorel in his « Advertissement aux lecteurs, » is inherent in the comic novelist’s literary imagination. In Claireville’s Gascon extravagant, the reader’s literary awareness is tested more than in perhaps any other comic novel of the period. The novel’s structure is complex, comprising various intercalated narratives that are woven together in a fragmentary tale that lacks a conclusion and puts the very nature of the comic novel into question. Through various onomastic deviations, the fictionality of the tale is continuously renewed and the reader is challenged by the metaliterary consciousness of the author. These onomastic deviations and the intercalated structure underscore the “signs” to which Desiles refers that punctuate the fictional language of the genre. It is the purpose of this paper to examine these signs, to evaluate the influence of said signs upon the structure of the text itself, and how the reader is intended to react. Claireville makes of his “roman en procès” a métaroman that at its core explores the very nature of the genre to which it belongs.
« Meurs, Octave ! » : Corneille’s Cinna and the Theatrical Representation of the Sovereign Double Body (Polly Mangerson)
With the rise of the absolute monarchy during the reigns of Louis XIII (1610-1643) and Louis XIV (1643-1715), the concept of sovereignty played an important role in the development of seventeenth-century French literature. This is particularly true in theater, since all “official” theatrical performances were part of the permanent endeavor to glorify the king. This paper seeks to explore the link between sovereignty and theater using one of Pierre Corneille’s more well-known tragedies, Cinna (1642), in order to demonstrate how the representation of kingship was used to create powerful and successful drama. First, to summarize the idea of sovereignty as it was understood in seventeenth-century France, I will refer to several theoretical texts that were written during the 16th and 17th centuries – Les six livres de la république by Jean Bodin (1576), the Traité des seigneuries by Charles Loyseau (1610), De la souveraineté du roi by Cardin Le Bret (1632), and Le monarque ou les devoirs du souverain by François Senault (1661). These texts all imply that a king possesses a double body – physical (le corps physique) and political (le corps politique). His physical body is subject to human weakness and passions, whereas his political body embodies the law and is only capable of doing good. In order to fulfill his duty as sovereign and reign effectively, a true monarch must reject the desires of his physical body and act in accordance with his political body. In Cinna, the king-character Octave experiences this separation of corps politique from corps physique onstage, abandoning his emotional attachments and choosing mercy over revenge, which ultimately enables him to become the emperor Auguste. This transformation elicits a positive emotional response from the audience as is required in neoclassical theater. Through this portrayal of Octave/Auguste’s double body, Cinna presents itself as a sterling example of the influence of the principles of sovereignty on dramatic literature.
Mariages d’amour, mariages de raison dans l’Astrée d’Honoré d’Urfé (Tatiana Kozhanova).
Les cercles précieux du milieu du XVIIe siècle aussi bien que le roman de la même époque renient le mariage et situent la vie du couple marié dans les terres inconnues de la Carte de Tendre. À leur tour, les romanciers de la fin du siècle à l’instar de madame de La Fayette choisissent comme personnage principal une jeune femme mal-mariée souvent contre son gré. De même, le roman satirique à partir de Charles Sorel s’inspirant de la tradition médiévale des fabliaux parle des côtés purement négatifs de la vie familiale (de l’adultère, de la tyrannie des maris, des femmes méchantes etc.) ce qui, d’ailleurs, trouve écho dans la réalité historique dépeinte dans les chroniques du temps comme Les Historiettes de Tallement des Réaux ou le Mercure Galant. Le but de notre communication est d’étudier la représentation du mariage dans l’Astrée d’Honoré d’Urfé qui en donne une vision plus diversifiée et plus optimiste que celle de ses contemporains et de ses successeurs.
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