FRENCH 17

• See French 17 (1994).

BERRIOT SALVADORE, EVELYNE. "Figures emblématiques du pouvoir féminin à travers les romans de Charlotte Rose de Caumont de La Force." PFSCL 22 (1995), 403–413.

The author's work is seen as a failure: ". . . à travers les princesses emblématiques qu'elle choisit pour héroïnes, [Mlle de La Force] dévoile les illusions d'un culte où la femme doit cacher son esprit derrière sa beauté et soumettre son ambition aux contraintes qui finalement la condamnent au malheur ou au silence."

BERTAUD, M. and A. LABERTIT, éds. De L'Estoile à Saint-Simon, recherche sur la culture des mémorialistes au temps des trois premiers rois Bourbons. Paris: Klincksieck, 1993.

Review: F. Assaf in PFSCL 22 (1995), 240–243: Studies of Pierre de L'Estoile, Fontenay Mareuil, Louis XIV, Nicolas Goulas, Mlle de Montpensier, and Saint Simon with emphasis on the relationship of the memorialists' "culture" to their function as witnesses to their time. According to the reviewer, a valuable collection of studies whose only defect is the absence of a good conclusion.

Review: Marc Escola in RHL 94:6 (novembre-décembre 1994), 1070–72: The work in question deals with the "Actes de la Journée d'étude organisée le 22 mai 1993 par le centre de Philologie et de Littératures Romanes de l'Université des Sciences Humaines de Strasbourg." Reviewer states that the goal of this collection is to find a definition of seventeenth-century culture through the writings of the "mémorialistes." Such a definition extends beyond the scope of litterature to the study of the general schooling of some of the century's leading intellectual figures. Among those figures are L'Estoile Saint-Simon and François du Val, whose librairies help "reconstituer l'univers intellectuel" of the period. For example, E. mentions that Du Val's Mémoires, written after the Fronde, functioned as "une galerie d'exempla pour servir à l'édification du prince." E. also discusses the Mémoires of Mademoiselle de Montpensier as an example of the "culture princière" or rather, according to J. Garapon, of the "culture de princesse," dealing with the education of women, and the development of the "véritable héroïne."

Review: Marie-Odile Sweetser in FR 68 (1995), 136–37: Elegant collection of seven papers given at Strasburg conference in 1992 with helpful introductory review of a decade of scholarship and definition of "culture" by Bertaud. On L'Estoile and his library (Christiane Lauvergnat-Gagnière), Fontenay-Mareuil (Michel Serville), the aftermath of the Fronde in Louis XIV's memoires (Françoise Karro), Nicholas Goulas (Noemi Hepp, the Grande Mademoiselle's cult of self-knowledge (Jean Garapon); "Une culture de l'action, l'honnête homme et les grands honneurs de la guerre" in Bussy, Campion, Antoine Arnauld (Emmanuelle Lasne-Jaffro"'; "Un Tacite inculte? Saint-Simon et les belles-lettres," using his library inventory (Yves Coirault).

BEUGNOT, BERNARD. "Le corps éloquent," in Actes du premier colloque conjointement organisé par la North American Society for Seventeenth Century French Literature et le Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. University of California, Santa Barbara (17–19 mars 1994). PFSCL/Biblio 17 89 (1995), 17–30.

Studies the body in the context of Neo classical rhetoric: "Au mythe de la clarté et de la transparence, le corps éloquent oppose l'opacité de ses signes dont l'interprétation est un constant défi et une entreprise déceptive."

BEUGNOT, BERNARD et ROBERT MELANCON, eds. Les voies de l'invention aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Etudes génétiques. Université de Montréal: Département d'Etudes françaises, 1993.

Review: W. De Vos in PFSCL 22 (1995), 246–250: Studies of the genesis of works during the two centuries: the Legenda aurea, the tree as metaphor for writing, Maurice Scève, Ronsard, Du Bellay, Pontus de Tyard, Montaigne, the self genesis of the text, problems in genetic studies of the 17th century, the difficulty the individual writer has in the 17th century in freeing himself from outside influences, Descartes, Chapelain et Balzac, Vaugelas, and the composition of an epistolary text. According to reviewer, the studies demonstrate well that the writing of the period was "aussi et surtout pratique d'éloquence, adaptation . . . de textes antérieurs."

BEUGNOT, BERNARD. La mémoire du texte. Essais de poétique classique. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1994.

Review: W. De Vos in PFSCL 22 (1995), 632–635: A collection of studies published separately between 1971 and 1989 and centered around the relationship between writing and the changing function of memory during the century. Reviewer finds them to be ". . . analyses peu spectaculaires à première vue, mais révolutionnaires à plusieurs égards."

BOILENE-GUERLET, ANNICK. Le Genre romanesque. Des théories de la Renaissance italienne aux réflexions du XVIIe siècle français. Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 1993.

Review: J.-C. Arnould in BHR 56 (1994), 826–28: "Si le genre romanesque a été théorisé en France au XVIIe siècle, c'est à la Renaissance italienne . . . qu'il faut remonter pour comprendre cet accomplissement. Selon cette logique d'origine s'ordonne le livre, dont le premier volet, d'une petite centaine de pages, s'intéresse aux origines et à la structure du romanesque, et le second, presque deux fois plus long, au roman français du XVIIe siècle."

Review: Georges Forestier in RHL 95:1 (Janvier-février 1995), 91: According to F., B's work describes the theory of the French novel in the seventeenth century by recalling the appearance of the same theories in Italy during the preceding century. Most theories are grounded in a modern, i.e., rhetorical perspective which F. relates as "auteur-modèles, invention-disposition-élocution, auteur-lecteur." While F. praises B. for the bibliography, index, and synthesis of Bernard Weinberg's work on the sixteenth century, he regrets "l'absence de toute problématisation et de toute perspective critique, qui confère à l'ensemble l'allure d'un catalogue et aboutit quelquefois à des rapprochements peu pertinents."

BOURSIER, NICOLE. "Quelques fonctions du thème de la mort dans le roman de la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle," in Actes de Lexington. PFSCL/Biblio 17 87 (1995), 209–216.

Studies Scarron, Saint Réal, and Mme de Lafayette to discover that a change in the representation of death occurs at mid century: a simplistic yet heroic conception of death yields to one that is less sure, more mediocre and vague in the face of a world that is increasingly absurd and cruel.

BRADY, PATRICK. "The Present State of Studies on Period Style." ECr 33 (1993), 3–8.

Introductory article for this issue describes present state of period style research as "flourishing" and predicts that it will "move into even more exciting fields of theoretical investigation." Has good words to say about the impressive study by Sharon Nell ("French Rococo Poetry and Metrical Convention," Ph.D. Dissertation, Rice U. 1989) which offers "valuable comparisons with La Fontaine" and tracks metrical features through computer analysis.

BRADY, PATRICK. Rococo Poetry in English, French, German, Italian: An Introduction. Knoxville, TN: New Paradigm Press, 1992.

Review: T. M. Pratt in MLR 90 (1995), 722: "Within the European-wide context of rococo poetry, Brady confidently identifies two main strands—the first a poetry of manners and the second a poetry of wine, women and song—and three main stages: a preparatory period in France from 1660 to 1685; a 'manners' period in France, England, and Italy, . . .; an anacreontic period in France and Germany . . . with a movement from the anacreontic to the frankly erotic around 1750."

BRIX, M. "Pindare en France de Boileau à Villemain." ECL 63 (1995), 135–153.

The Greek writer held at a distance by the Classical writers and embraced by the Romantics.

BROOKER, JEWEL SPEARS. "Eliot, Descartes, and the Language of Poetry: A Review Essay." SoAR 59.4 (1994), 107–13.

Discusses T. S. Eliot, The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry: The Clark Lectures at Trinity College (Cambridge, 1926), and the Turnbull Lectures at The Johns Hopkins University , 1933, ed. Ronald Schuchard (London: Faber, 1993; New York: Harcourt, 1994). "E.'s larger topic in the Clark Lectures is the shape of intellectual history from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries. . . . [E.] argues that literary history runs more or less parallel to intellectual history. His representative figures for the medieval and modern minds in philosophy are Aquinas and Descartes; the parallel figures in literary history are Dante and Donne. His larger thesis is that the movement from Aquinas to Descartes to Schopenhauer and the parallel movement from Dante to Donne to Laforgue are part of a disintegration of the mind of Europe, a movement from unity to fragmentation to chaos." "E. declares unequivocally that the chasm separating the medieval and modern minds was opened by D. . . . The appearance of Cartesian dualism entailed a move from metaphysics to psychology, from an interest in Being in the larger sense to a preoccupation with the self." "The focus on D. demonstrates that E.'s theory of decay is rooted in philosophic and linguistic analysis rather than in nostalgia or personal taste. . . . E. associates the unified sensibility with classicism, and the Cartesian dissociation of sensibility with romanticism." "The Clark and Turnbull Lectures, in this learned and decorous edition, should," in B.'s opinion, "become a permanent and indispensable reference point in literary studies."

CAHIERS V.L. SAULNIER 9 (1992).

Review: W. Schweickard in ZRP 109 (1993), 724: Theme of this issue is "Nouveaux destins des vieux récits: de la Renaissance aux Lumières." 17 th c. items include essays on the Diane of Montemayor 1699 and on the Amadis.

CALISTRI, CAROLE. "La poésie vue par les poètes du premier Recueil Sercy en vers (1653)," in "Diversité, c'est ma devise." Studien zur französischen Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts. PFSCL/Biblio 17 86 (1994), 99–107.

Uses intertextual references, critical terminology, and the social status of the poets to examine representations of poetry in the collection.

CANTON, KATIA. The Fairy Tale Revisited: A Survey of the Evolution of the Tales, from Classical Literary Interpretations to Innovative Contemporary Dance-Theater Productions. New York: P. Lang, 1994.

Review: M. R. Pukkila in Choice 32 (1995), 1717: The author "views fairy tales through a new critical lens: postmodern dance. She analyzes Perrault and Grimm . . . , describing the sociocultural milieu of those authors in order to 'demythicize' the classic tales and highlight their purpose as conveyors of morals, values, and gender roles. She then traces the growth of dance from classical ballet through modern dance to postmodern, showing how each form is a reflection of the agendas of its time. She finishes with a detailed analysis of three postmodern dance pieces based on classic tales . . . . She uses folklorist Vladimir Propp's system to analyze the narratives of both stories and dances, and concludes that all three pieces remove the tales from the realm of timeless or neutral 'truths' by revealing the values they support: affirmation of male power and female passivity, and legitimation of white male European supremacy. Though slightly marred by a repetitive style, a few typos, and an occasional awkward phrase," the book is judged to be "an unusual and useful study."

CARSON, JOE. "When is an Alien not an Alien? or Frenchmen Abroad?" SCFS 17 (1995), 169–80.

Lively and provocative discussion of the "vicious circle" of alienation/de-alienation in comic perspective, or "boundary fudging" of spatio-temporality. Discussion arises from study of Scarron's Le Jodelet duelliste and extends to Scarron's other plays as well as to Molière.

CHARLES, KENNETH. "The Differential Calculus as the Model of Desire in French Fiction of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries." (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1994), DAI 55:9 2855-A.

C. links concepts of differential calculus to notions of desire in Lafayette, Crébillon, Rousseau and Laclos. Placing his examination of calculus in Pascal, C. discusses a "fiction of duration" whose "tragic vision" undergirds the works of the authors mentioned. C. explains his perspective, stating "The model of the integral calculus offers justification for the localization of a point as part of a description of the totality of matter in the universe." This point, or narrative "subject," thus "considers his abandonment by a lover... [as] offer[ing] a glimpse of a more profound rift, his separation from this integral total."

CLARKE, JAN. "When is an Actor not an Actor? When She is an Acrobat." SCFS 17 (1995), 199–209.

Suggestive analysis of the disputes of the emerging Comédie-Française (1780–1715) with the city's fairgrounds performers wiht implications for a new era in the theatre. Intriguing beginnings that deserve greater elaboration/research.

COATS, CATHARINE RANDALL. "A Surplus of Significance: Hermaphrodites in Early Modern France." FrF 19 (1994), 17–34.

Just as Fernand Braudel has noted "the unprecedented surplus of trade goods" in Europe in this period, C. finds numerous cases of what she calls, felicitously, "a surplus of significance:" "descriptive and interpretive schemas, . . . doctrinal discourses" and so forth. C. makes a case for the hermaphrodite as "the image of this cultural surplus." Close readings of Sonnets politiques ou mélanges II (Pierre Le Loyer, 1550–1634), "L'Epitaphe d'un hermaphrodite prins du latin" (Jean Loys, 1553–1610), "La Fortune de l'hermaphodite" (Tristan l'Hermite, 1600–1655) along with Pierre Viret's theological L'Interim fait par dialogues (1565). As C. "decodes . . . the cultural conscious, "she finds similarity re-emerging from diversity. The "four versions of the hermaphrodite thus reenact symbolically a cultural drama of self-definition for an entire nation."

COHEN, JEAN. Théorie de la poéticité. Paris: José Corti, 1994.

Review: Michel Houellebecq in QL (16–31 mai 1995), 21–22: "En 1966, [J. C.] fait paraître Structure du langage poétique chez Flammarion . . . . En 1979, toujours chez F., ce sera Le Haut langage (sous titré Théorie de la poéticité), qui prolonge et amplifie ses réflexions antérieures. C'est ce second livre qui reparaît aujourd'hui chez José Corti, légèrement modifié par l'auteur, mais malheureusement amputé de son titre." "L'auteur y développe une argumentation d'une grande beauté, analysant poèmes et vers célèbres avec une profondeur et une sensibilité qui étonnent, jusqu'à l'exposé de son thême central: le langage ordinaire, informatif, est un langage qui peut être nié. Par un complexe système d'écarts, le poète nie la possibilité de cette négation jusqu'à établir un langage absolu, total, dénué de contraire comme d'opposition: celui qu'il appelle 'le haut langage.'"

CONLEY, TOM. The Graphic Unconscious in Early Modern French Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.

Review: Danielle Raquidel in FR 68 (1994), 142–43: Explores the 16th century in a three-stage evolution of figural sensibility. Exemplifies the recurrence of unconscious patterns in Marot's Rondeaux, the Rabelaisian hieroglyph, Ronsard's "sonnet pictures," "The Turn of the Letter: From Cassandre to Hélène," Montaigne's division of figure and text. Finally shows how "the unconscious provides other ways of working with the materials of language." A winning journey to be made through a difficult text.

Review: James J. Supple in JES 97 (1995), 80–81: "This study builds on the view of analogy developed by Foucault and others, on the concept of the protean, uncontrollable nature of writing of the kind associated with deconstructionists and on a proto Freudian view of the unconscious." S. finds "the sections on Ronsard and Montaigne . . . the most rewarding," but he adds that "all the sections reinforce each other admirably and display a subtle change of emphasis." The study is called "[a] fully committed work, which will not appeal to those of a more positivist frame of mind," a book that "impresses by the strength of its conviction, by the host of unexpected insights which it offers and by its theoretical sophistication. The latter owes a great deal to C.'s expertise in film studies . . . ," according to S.

CRYLE, PETER. Geometry in the Boudoir: Configurations of French Erotic Narrative. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1994.

Review: L. A. Russell in Choice 32 (1995), 788: "In this study C. seeks to understand how erotic literature functions as a canonical tradition and to display its assumptions. In so orienting his work he defines pornography and eroticism." In C.'s view, "'the institutions of canonicity function just as powerfully around and within modernist erotic literature as they do around the more classical kind.'" R. indicates that the book "includes detailed chapter notes and an extensive bibliography divided into 10 special classifications."

DANDREY, PATRICK. "Catharsis et mélancolie" l'imaginaire du 'corps écrivain' entre l'automne de la renaissance et le zénith du classicism," in Actes du premier colloque conjointement organisé par la North American Society for Seventeenth Century French Literature et le Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. University of California, Santa Barbara (17–19 mars 1994). PFSCL/Biblio 17 89 (1995), 31–47.

Studies the relationship between the purgation of the passions and creative melancholy: "L'écriture est envisagée par les poètes et les esthéticiens d'alors dans une conception tantôt concrètement physiologique, tantôt seulement métaphorique, comme une purge du surplus de mélancolie, de bile noire, propre aux génies créateurs et susceptible de les accabler s'ils ne s'en déchargeaient dans leur oeuvre, s'ils ne nourrissaient leur oeuvre de ces surplus peccamineux contenus dans leur corps."

DEBAISIEUX, MARTINE. "Tableaux en anamorphose: la Passion du Christ dans la poésie baroque," in Actes du premier colloque conjointement organisé par la North American Society for Seventeenth Century French Literature et le Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. University of California, Santa Barbara (17–19 mars 1994). PFSCL/Biblio 17 89 (1995), 129–140.

Studies less well known poets: ". . . une des caractéristiques principales des représentations du corps du Christ en croix dans la poésie de dévotion du début du XVIIe siècle se manifeste dans l'interpénétration des formes et des genres. . . .Le principe même de la distinction des niveaux de style qui sera défendu dans l'esthétique classique y semblerait subverti . . . ."

DEBOILLY, PASCAL. "Le Rire satirique." BHR 56 (1994), 695–717.

"La satire . . . [sera envisagée comme] un genre littéraire spécifique, une forme politique clairement répertoriée, qui naquit à Rome et qui connut de la Renaissance au XVIIe siècle une grande vogue." L'ouvrage est réparti en quatre sections: 1) Les théories de Baudelaire et de Bakhtine; 2) Le rire chez les grands satiriques latins; 3) La théorie du rire satirique au XVIe et au XVIIe siècle; 4) Le rire des satiriques de la renaissance et de l'âge classique.

DECLERCO, GILES. L'art d'argumenter: structures rhétoriques et littéraires. Campin: Editions universitaires, 1993.

Review: Jody Enders in FR 68 (1995), 662–63: "Serious scholars of the rhetorical tradition will find thig book insulting, as will graduate students, for it contains nothing that has not been said before...the quickest and easiest access to platitudes..."

DEJEAN, JOAN. Tender Geographies and the Origins of the Novel in France. New York: Columbia UP, 1991.

Review: Michele Bissiere in FR 67 (1994), 865–66: "Dense and challenging book" that is "bold and convincing revisionist history" of aristocratic women's place in the formation of the modern novel (1640–1715). The practice of collective "salon writing" is in fact a "transfer of energy" that moves the new genre away from action oriented romance. Gives new life to Clélie and the "carte de Tendre" by analysis of its subversiveness, which is continued by Lafayette and Villedieu. While Lafayette is, for her male qualities, canonized, the other "unruly" women are erased by Boileau and the 19th-century educational system. Index and excellent detailed biblio. of women writers.

• See French 17 (1994).

DELEGUE, YVES. La Perte des mots. Essai sur la naissance de la "littérature" aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles." Strasbourg: Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, 1990.

Review: J. Lecointe in BHR 57 (1995), 290–93: "Il s'agit d'essais critiques à caractère général, fortement marqués d'intentions démonstratives, plutôt que d'études spécialisées à proprement parler." L'auteur qui "met en question l'idée d'une 'science en littérature' veut justement tenter de mettre en évidence l'apparition, à l'aube des temps modernes, d'une illusion représentative, 'qui fonde notre conception de la littérature et permet de conférer une réalité mythique à une telle science'."

DELMAS, CHRISTIAN, ed. Didon à la scène: Scudéry, Didon (1637), Boisrobert, La Vraye Didon, ou la Didon chaste (1643). Paris: Klincksieck, 1992.

Review: Eveline Dutertre in RHL 94:6 (novembre-décembre 1994), 1069–1070: This study, while discussing the "thème de Didon dans le théâtre européen," focuses primarily on the two tragedies written by Scudéry and Boisrobert. According to the reviwer, Scudéry's adaptation of Didon derives from Virgil, portraying Didon as a "figure mythique, succombant à son amour pour Enée." By contrast, Boisrobert's version follows the Justinian tradition which depicts Didon as a "chaste reine qui veut rester fidèle à la mémoire de son époux." The reviewer compares and contrasts these two representations, mentioning, among other things, variations of action, time and structure. Dutertre concludes her analysis by calling the work, "un ouvrage dorénavant indispensable pour l'étude du thème de Didon, et une excellente édition de deux pièces qui n'avaient pas été réditées depuis le XVIIe siècle.

DESAN, PHILIPPE, ed. Humanism in Crisis: The Decline of the French Renaissance. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1991.

Review: E. M. Duval in FrF 18 (1993), 240–242: Orientation of this volume is more cultural and scientific than literary. Descartes is included, but, disappointingly, Béroalde de Verville, d'Urfé, Théophile de Viau are absent in the 14 essays which focus "on the transitional period between the ages of Humanism and Science." D. judges that the "most successful essays are the scientific essays," but calls for better definition of humanism as he recommends another treatment published the same year by Harvard UP, Anthony Grafton's Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of Scholarship in an Age of Science, 1450–1800.

DOTOLI, GIOVANNI. Perspectives de la recherche sur le XVIIe siècle français aujourd'hui. Fasano/Paris: Schena/Nizet, 1994.

Review: J. Marmier in PFSCL 22 (1995), 646–649: An appeal to regard the century as an "enthousiasmant laboratoire de modernité," for literary historians to broaden their view to that of an "histoire des mentalités" in the format of an electronic dictionary. According to the reviewer, "tourné vers l'avenir, le programme donne parfois l'impression de négliger les résultats acquis."

DOTOLI, GIOVANNI. Letteratura per il popola in Francia (1600–1750). Proposte di lettura della "Bibliothèque bleue." Fasano: Schena Editore, 1991.

Review: G. Berger in PFSCL 22 (1995), 642–645: Studies the audience, coherence, message conveyed, writing, language and structure of the texts published in the famous series. Despite several reservations, the reviewer finds this to be a rich and suggestive study.

Review: C. Sorgeloos in RBPH 72 (1994), 1030–31: "Cet ouvrage de synthèse de G. Dotoli fournit un intéressant bilan des recherches relatives à la culture populaire en France de 1600 à 1750, basé sur les nombreux textes publiés par les éditeurs de Troyes—notamment—dans le cadre de la Bibliothèque Bleue. Un des nombreux problèmes posés est en effet de savoir si ces récits constituent une littérature véritablement populaire ou au contraire une littérature liée au pouvoir."

• See French 17 (1992).

DOTOLI, GIOVANNI, ed. Il Seicento francese oggi. Situazione e prospettive della ricerca. Bari/Paris: Adriatica/Nizet, 1994.

Contains papers from Monopoli Conference (1993) with D's "Perspectives de la recherche" as intro. The intro. has been republished with different divisions and expanded biblio. by Schena-Nizet, 1994. Contents: Enea Balmas, "La Cultura italiana di Georges de Scudery: nuovi appunti"; C. Rizza, "Libertins, libertinage, libertinisme: problema di prospettive"' Jacques Morel, "Quoi de neuf sur Molière"; Giorgetto Giorgi, "Due fonti del romanzo barocco francese: Apuleio e Eliodoro"; Alain Viala, "La Littérature galante: histoire et problématique; D. Dalla Valle, "Il secentismo francese e il punto di vista comparatista"; R.G. Pellegrini, "Stato della critica e ipotesi di ricereche sul peoma epico"; Cariagrazia Margarito, "Italianismes de la langue française au XVIIe siècle": V. kapp, "La Bible et le sublime dans Esther de Racine"; R. Horville, "A propos de Dom Juan de Molière. Pour une lecture plurielle de l'oeuvre théâtrale"; Pierre Ronzeaud, "Nouvelles avancées de la recherche dix-septiemiste: chemins de traverses et sentiers inexplorés"; "Sergio Poli, "Mito e narrativa. Riflessioni e prospettive di ricerca"; V.P. Natoli, "Il 'quichottisme' nella letteratura francese perclassica"; Giancarlo Fasano, "Persistenza e fluttauzioni della forma-commedia"; Alessandra Preda, "Nouvi studi sulla commedia italian tardo-cinguecentesca e la commedia secentesca francese"; F. De Paola, "Vanini in Francia: i confini di una presenza"; Maria Timelli, "La 'Compendiosa grammatics francese' de L.M. Lelong (1654, 1667, 1673)..."; M.E. Leozappa, "Arte e istituaioni nel XVII saecolo. 'L'Académie de France a Rome."

Review: J. Marmier in PFSCL 22 (1995), 646–649: Conference papers on the present state of studies, both narrow and broad, of the century: libertinage, Vanini, "littérature gallante," the sublime, the circulation of ideas, the epic, Molière, the baroque novel, the influence of Cervantes, the rhetorical exercises of J. B. Manzini, discourse of the dictionaries, Italian influences, among others.

DOUTHWAITE, JULIA. Exotic Women: Literary Heroines and Cultural Strategies in Ancien Régime France. Philadelphia: U of Penn P, 1992.

Review: Gita May in FR 67 (1994), 679–80: "Timely, well-written, and thought provoking treatment that begins with Zaide to represent cultural confrontation, which is extended through novels by men and women through the 18th century. Cleary outlines the progression from the 17th-century universalism while indicating the limitations and underside of evolving awareness of the other that comes with the development of relativism. Highlights some important differences of male and female authorship. 17 illustrations.

Review: J. Walsh in ECr 34 (1994), 122: Links New Historicism and feminist methodology to an "elegantly written, well-documented reevaluation of both celebrated and neglected texts." From her treatment of Zaïde and Prévost's L'Histoire d'une Grecque moderne, D. concludes that "female authors stress their heroines' social identity" while male authors define women primarily by their sexual functions. Close, insightful readings analyse the "various ways in which 17th and 18th c. French authors portray non-European women."

• See French 17 (1994).

DUBOST, JEAN PIERRE. "Le Meursius français et l'érotologie moderne." in Actes du premier colloque conjointement organisé par la North American Society for Seventeenth Century French Literature et le Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. University of California, Santa Barbara (17–19 mars 1994). PFSCL/Biblio 17 89 (1995), 309–320.

Studies the "mode d'inscription" of sexual discourse in the collection of erotic works: "Cet état intermédiaire du Meursius français en suspens entre la citation et l'hallucination est bien celui de l'hypothèse ignacienne baroque, hallucination interminable de la vérité de la narration christique."

DUCHENE, ROGER. "A la recherche d'une espèce rare et mêlée: les Précieuses avant Molière." PFSCL 22 (1995), 331–357.

Points to the difficulties inherent in locating and defining the species: "Affirmée par autrui et en général par des ennemis, l'existence des Précieuses est de l'ordre de la représentation même lorsqu'on parle de leur réalité, même quand on ne fait pas d'elles de purs objets littéraires."

DUCHENE, ROGER. "Vers la Princesse de Clèves: de la Princesse de Paphlagonie à l'Histoire amoureuse des Gaules." PFSCL 22 (1995), 65–77.

Argues that the modern novel is born not in the narration of past events but in that of recent history.

DUCHENE, ROGER. L'Impossible Marcel Proust. Paris: Robert Laffont, 1994.

Review: Diane de Margerie in QL (16–30 novembre 1994), 8–9: "Gageons que si R. D. nous donne à présent cette monumentale biographie de 800 pages, c'est parce qu'il est depuis longtemps fasciné par Mme de Sévigné . . . , non seulement en tant qu'épistolière . . . mais en tant que femme adonnée à un amour dévorant, illimité, pour Mme de Grignan, sa fille." "Cette passion violente mère/fille, R. D. la retrouve chez Marcel et sa mère dans l'interminable dialogue qui compose cette oeuvre, tout le Contre Sainte Beuve et la Recherche étant comme une conversation ou une lettre écrite à ses morts." D. is likewise interested in another parallel found in Sévigné and Proust: "cette 'mutation' qui s'est opérée chez les deux écrivains, ce retrait du monde pour mieux se donner à leur passion qui se confond avec celle de l'écriture."

DUFOURNET, JEAN, ADELIA FIORATO, et AUGUSTIN REDONDO, éds. Le Pouvoir monarchique et ses supports idéologiques aux XIVe–XVIIe siècles. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 1990.

Review: M. Marin in BHR 57 (1995), 302–04: Les dix-neuf contributions d'un colloque interdisciplinaire tenu à la Sorbonne, 3–5 décembre 1987, abordent différents aspects de l'espace culturel et "enrichissent la critique littéraire traitant du 'pouvoir monarchique' entre le XIVe et le XVIIe siècle et complètent la recherche scientifique dans ce domaine."

DULONG, CLAUDE. "Femmes auteurs au grand siècle." PFSCL 22 (1995), 395–402.

Studies the conditions necessary for a woman to become a writer: ". . . l'acte libérateur, l'acte émancipateur, c'était d'écrire, quoi qu'on écrivît."

DUNKLEY, JOHN and BILL KIRTON, eds. Voices in the Air: French Dramatists and the Resources of Language: Essays in Honour of Charles Chadwick. Glasgow: U of Glasgow French and German P, 1992.

Review: Anon. in FMLS 30 (1994), 384: Reviewer remarks the uneven quality of essays which range in subject from Racine, Corneille, Mairet and Molière to Beckett. Recommends Harry Barnwell's study on Racine's dynamic language.

EUCHNER, WALTER, FRANCESCA RIGOTTI et PIERANGELO SCHIERA, éds. Il potere delle immagini: la metafora politica in prospettiva storica. Bologne/Berlin: Duncker-Humblot, 1993.

Recueil de communications de deux colloques sur la métaphorologie politique tenus à Trento.

FADERMAN, LILLIAN, ed. Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian Literature from the Seventeenth Century to the Present. New York: Viking, 1994.

Review: Anon. in VQR 71 (1995), 10: "Why was this volume designed to resemble a Norton reader for high school or college students? Because it proposes a new canon, and to do so persuasively requires certain representational codes." According to the reviewer, every text included "is certainly readable and intriguing; much of it invites repeated and closer examination; some of the finds . . . may even survive the Movement and find a durable place among texts read for their own sake and in their own nature. This may not constitute canonization," the reviewer observes, "but is a first step toward it beatification, perhaps."

FAUDEMAY, ALAIN. La distinction à l'âge classique. Emules et enjeux. Paris: Champion, 1992.

Review: U. Schulz-Buschhaus in RF 104 (1992): Extremely favorable review underscores usefulness of this study of the notion of "ordre." Particularly appreciates the masterful European perspective of the analysis which treats minor as well as traditionally canonical authors. Reviewer signals particularly praiseworthy assessments (on Molière, La Fontaine, La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère, etc.). Organized in three major divisions: "De la confusion à l'ordre," "L'oeil, la société, la "morale,"and "comparaison et distinction."

FENOALTEA, DORANNE and DAVID LEE RUBIN, eds. The Ladder of High Design: Structure and Interpretation of the French Lyric Sequence. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1991.

Review: Romy Heylen in RR 85:3 (May 1994) 483–85: In her discussion of this volume of essays which "analys[es] the effect of context and arrangement on meaning and interpretation" from Machaut to Bonnefoy, H. agrees with F.'s premise that "coherence" in the early modern lyric was relatively discernible through theme and genre, while "coherence" in the modern era becomes much more problematic. With respect to the seventeenth century, H. examines Catherine Ingold's analysis of St. Amant's four seasonal sonnets as well as David Rubin's study of the development of the "modal" fable of Book 7 of La Fontaine's Fables.

Review: J.C. Nash in FrF 18 (1993), 80–81: The 10 authors suggest "important directions . . . for future study of the French lyric sequence" as they examine the question of order and disorder in French lyric poetry from the Medieval to the Modern Period. Two essays will be of particular interest to 17th c. scholars: Catherine Ingold's demonstration of coherence via metaphorical structure in St. Amant's seasonal sonnets and David Rubin's performance of "triple calculus" on book 7 of La Fontaine's Fables.

FORESTIER, GEORGES. Introduction à l'analyse des textes classiques. Elements de rhétorique et de poétique du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Nathan, 1993.

Review: M. O. Sweetser in PFSCL 22 (1995), 264–265: Draws texts from Chaveau's Anthologie de la littérature française du XVIIe siècle, Le Cid, Cinna, and Iphigénie. Reviewer finds this "une magistrale et utile mise à jour de notions fondamentales pour une étude sérieuse et éclairante des textes du XVIIe siècle."

FORSYTH, ELIOTT. La Tragédie française de Jodelle à Corneille (1553–1640): Le Thème de la vengeance. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1994.

Review: D. Perret in BHR 57 (1995), 518–20: Welcome revised edition of solidly grounded 1962 critical work. 1994 Introduction contains "une mise au point as well as une mise à jour of the most important critical work on la tragédie précornélienne over the past thirty years."

• See French 17 (1994).

FOURNIER, NATHALIE. L'aparte dans le théâtre français du XVIIeme siècle au XXeme siècle. Paris: Peeters, 1991.

Review: John H. Reilly in FR 67 (1994), 1067–68: "Highly comprehensive and inclusive analysis," from emergence of technique (ca. 1620). Examines extensively the theatrical function, especially for the 17th century in respect to "vraisemblance." Traces the decline. Exceptionally well-researched.

• See French 17 (1994).

FRANCE, PETER. Politeness and its Discontents: Problems in French Classical Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.

Review: Anon in FMLS 29 (1993), 373–374: Appreciates the "wide but unostentatious scholarship," "lucid analysis," and "compelling synthesis" in this examination of politesse between 1660 and 1760. Review singles out F.'s analysis of Perrault and Racine's hyperbole.

FRANCE, PETER, ed. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. New York: Oxford UP, 1995.

Review: R. T. Ivey in Choice 33 (1995), 442: This book "reflects a change in focus from its predecessors . . . . The words 'literature in French' in the title signal this change: the companion includes 200 new entries on francophone literature (writing in French outside France in former French possessions), as well as entries on Provençal (or Occitan) and Breton literature (literature in other languages native to France). The work also updates recent research on literary, cultural, and political history . . . ." "A fine, up to date reference book for French literature, highly recommended for all college and university reference collections."

FRANCHETTI, ANNA LIA. Il Salotto e la Scena: Le forme della Commedia galante da Corneille a Musset. Pisa: Pacini, 1992.

Review: A. Piletti in MLR 90 (1995), 179: Author verifies characteristics of the comédie galante through textual analysis of works by Corneille, Moliere, Marivaux, and Musset. "She argues that behind a seeming obedience to the laws of courtesy and sociability and to those of dramatic tradition, the plays considered develop, hidden behind the love inspired scenes of the protagonists, a metalinguistic reflexion."

GAMBELLI, DELIA. Arlecchino a Parigi. I: Dall'inferno alla corte del Re Sole. Roma: Bulzoni, 1993.

Review: C. Mazouer in PFSCL 22 (1995), 266–268: The first of three volumes carrying the same title: the study of the character from 1584–85 to 1697 evokes the history of the Italian theater in France during the period. The first volume is primarily an introduction to the study of Dominique's Scenario. Reviewer finds this to be an admirable study.

GEORGE, DAVID J. and CHRISTOPHER J. GOSSIP, eds. Studies in the Commedia dell'Arte. Cardiff: U of Wales P, 1993.

Review: Anon. in FMLS 30 (1994), 190: Includes treatment on influence of the commedia dell'Arte on French theatre as well as wide-ranging studies from Russian to Argentinian theatre. Judged informative and enjoyable.

GETHNER, PERRY, ed. Femmes dramaturges en France (1650–1750). Pièces choisis. PFSCL/Biblio 17, 1993.

Review: H. Allentuch in PFSCL 22 (1995), 269–270: Six plays written by Françoise Pascal, Mme de Villedieu, Anne de La Roche Guilhen, Catherine Bernard, Marie Anne Barbier, and Françoise de Graffigny. Reviewer states that the collection "helps to rectify the almost exclusively male historical record by bringing forth representative examples of the creative achievements of six women playwrights. In the process, G. changes the landscape of the French Classical theater as we have come to know it."

Review: Bénédicte Louvat in RHL 95:1 (Janvier-février 1995) 92–93: L. summarizes G.'s premise that such a collection is necessary because women playwrights of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were productive, but are now forgotten. G. republishes six plays among them Françoise Pascal's L'Amoureux extravagant (1657) Mme. de Villedieu's Le Favori (1665), Anne de La Roche Guilhen's Rare-en-tout (1677) and Catherine Bernard's Laodamie reine d'Epire (1689). Along with the plays mentioned, G. adds that the importance of these "femmes dramaturges" lies in their ability to "s'adapter aux goûts de leurs contemporains."

Review: Helje Pore in FR 68 (1995), 524–25: Reviewer welcomes the publication with its annotated texts and introductions for its redress of women's proper place in literary history. The plays show that "women dramatistis could hold their own...in the theatre," but they are not innovative..."

• See French 17 (1994).

GETHNER, PERRY, ed. The Lunatic Lover: [sic] and Other Plays by French Women of the 17th and 18th Centuries. Heinemann, 1994.

Review: P. Koch in Choice 32 (1994), 606–07: "It is surely a laudable project," says K., "to anthologize for the English reader six plays illustrating major genres [other than "comedy proper"] cultivated during the two centuries of French classicism . . . ." G.'s "undertaking assumes even greater importance," according to the reviewer, "when we consider that (1) the playwrights chosen all being women, the collection has relevance to feminist studies; (2) all the plays have been out of print since the early 19th century; and, (3) only one of them has ever before been rendered into English." G. "provides . . . for each work ample, carefully weighed critical introductions as well as illuminating scholarly notes on less obvious references in the texts. He has also had the admirable courage to approximate the 'alexandrin' meter of the originals in his modern, though sometimes flat, blank-verse iambic pentameters." ". . . [N]one of the plays included is, by G.'s own admission, 'a forgotten masterpiece'; nor is specifically feminine sensibility much in evidence." In K.'s opinion, this "volume will serve rather (no faint praise) as a sampling of the passing literary tastes, the 'mentalité,' of a great age in France—and . . . as a reminder that our contemporary value systems are no more permanent."

GIRAUD, YVES. "La Fameuse Comédienne (1688): problèmes et perspectives d'une édition critique." in "Diversité, c'est ma devise." Studien zur französischen Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts. PFSCL/Biblio 17 86 (1994), 191–213.

Preliminary to a new look at the satire aimed at Molière and Armande Béjart. After reviewing the transmission and state of the text, the successive titles, the authorship, the contents and other important issues, G. concludes that the work is "digne de considération, malgré les hésitations occasionnelles de son information, malgré les zones d'ombre qui subsistent, malgré l'outrance de ses attaques."

GONDAL, MARIE LOUISE, ed. François Malaval, La belle ténèbre. Pratique facile pour élever l'âme à la contemplation (1670), suivie de La plainte de Philothée. Grenoble: Jérôme Millon, 1993.

Review: P. Laude in PFSCL 22 (1995), 271–272: An edition of "un compendium de christianisme 'intérieur' représantif de ce courant 'quiétiste' qui constitua le 'crépuscule des mystiques.'" Malaval advocates a spirituality that emphasizes the role of the intellect. According to the reviewer, a fine edition that provides access to a key text of seventeenth century mysticism.

GREENBERG, MITCHELL. Subjectivity and Subjugation in Seventeenth-Century Drama and Prose. The Family Romance of French Classicism. Cambridge: Cambridge U P, 1992.

Review: Anon. in FMLS 30 (1994), 85: Finds this analysis of "avatars of patriarchal sexuality . . . and their relation to the sexual and political absolutism of the age" incisive, intelligent and indispensable. Psychoanalysis and feminism inform treatments of several works including plays of Corneille, Molière and Racine.

Review: Christian Garaud in FR 68 (1994), 145–46: Examines with a masterful command of theoretical approaches the imaginary space of classical theatre as the scene par excellence of the modern conflicted subject. L'Astree Corneille's Le Cid, Cinna, Rodogune), Racine's tragedies, La Princesse de Cleves, Tartuffe yield "transformations profondes que connaissent les domaines etroitement liés du politique, du social, de la famille et de la sexualité." Reviewer especially praises the willing recognition of the ideological grid to admit "la part d'obscurité"—"an indeterminancy that refuses the cutting, final answer of theory."

• See French 17 (1994).

Review: Alain Génetiot in RHL 95:1 (Janvier-février 1995), 91: Génetiot views Greenberg's study through the optic "des women [sic] studies américaines," highlighting the author's "perspective féministe et psychanalytique (freudienne et lacanienne)." Echoing Greenberg's thesis that absolute monarchy from Richelieu to Louis XIV became the "lieu d'une idéologie patriarcale de `répression sexuelle et politique," the reviewer outlines the subordination of both femininity and the family in the author's discussion of texts ranging from L'Astrée to La Princesse de Clèves. Génetiot paraphrases Greenberg's contention that while d'Urfé, Corneille, Racine and Molière reproduce the framework of submission found in the society at large, Mme. de Lafayette is the lone author to propsose resistance to absolutism.

Review: W. O. Goode in FrF 19 (1994), 240–241: Judged an "intellectual tour de force," G.'s volume requires the reader to be on good terms with Freudian and post-Freudian psychoanalysis. "Literature serves him [G.] as an entry into the ideology of the age," as he treats L'Astrée, La Princesse de Clèves, Rodogune, Tartuffe, as well as patriarchy chez Racine and mysticism chez Soeur Jeanne des Anges at the Ursuline convent of Loudun.

GERARD, ALBERT S. The Phaedra Syndrome: Of Shame and Guilt in Drama. Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi, 1993.

Review: Anon. in FMLS 30 (1994), 280: Judged "the sort of book to get comparative literature a good name," it treats widely all the manifestations of the Phaedra story. Particular attention is paid to R.'s Phèdre as "the culminating moment in the playwright's Pascalian Jansenist anguish."

GREINER, BERNHARD. Die Komödie. Eine theatralische Sendung: Grundlagen und Interpretationen. Tübingen: Francke, 1992.

Review: K. Schoell in Archiv 230 (1993), 140–142: Abundance of attention to German comedy but does consider M.'s Misanthrope along with Aristophanes' Birds, and Shakespeare's As You Like It. Eclectic methodology from intertextuality to Bachtin and Foucault serves G. as he sheds new light on many diverse aspects of comedy.

GRIFFIN, DUSTIN. Satire: A Critical Reintroduction. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1994.

Review: Frank Palmeri in SoAR 60.1 (1995), 171–73: This work "aims to revise what [G.] considers to be the contemporary critical consensus on satire . . . . G.'s book seeks to extrapolate not a general theory but a new set of 'critical perspectives' on the subject on the basis of the 'best contemporary practical criticism' of individual satires. The chapters in the first half of the book converge on the view of satire as a form that combines play and rhetorical display with an openended inquiry into serious moral and social questions. The investigations in the second half of the book look into the history, politics, and the pleasures of satire. They produce more diverse results and so resist integration into a unified thesis," notes P. "Because satire so often provokes thought on both sides of a question, it tends not to arrive at strong instances of formal closure. The issues it canvasses typically remain unsettled."

GROVE, LAURENCE FRANCIS ROGER. "Emblematics and Seventeenth-Century French literature: Descartes and La Fontaine." (University of Pittsburgh, 1994) DAI: 55:10 3207-A.

After describing the general importance of the emblem in "the cultural life of seventeenth-century France," G. applies the basic elements of the emblem and device to the works of Descartes and La Fontaine. Based on his research at the BN and the Département des estampes, G. concludes that "emblems and devices played an important role in [Descartes's] early education at the Jesuit College of La Flèche." With respect to La Fontaine, G. claims that certain "descriptive passges" in the Fables, Psyché and the Songe de Vaux are "structured differently from modern texts" to the point that they suggest a sharp influence of emblem and device.

GUICHEMERRE, ROGER. "La grande Mademoiselle et les Nouvelles françaises de Segrais." PFSCL 22 (1995), 49–54.

Studies the account of the private life of the princess and her friends at the beginning of their exile at Saint Fargeau that Segrais wrote "around" the stories.

GUICHEMERRE, ROGER. Visages du théâtre français au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Klincksieck, 1994.

Review: Jean-Pierre Chauveau in CTH 16 (1994), 64–65: A useful collection of G's articles collected and edited by friends. Contains "quelques pieces substantielles" on Molière.

Review: J. Emelina in PFSCL 22 (1995), 276–277: A collection of studies written during the author's scholarly career: eight on aspects of comedy, six on Molière, three on tragedy, and six on various other subjects.

GUTWIRTH, MARCEL. Laughing Matter: An Essay on the Comic. Ithaca/London: Cornell UP, 1993.

Review: Helje Porre in FR 68 (1994), 330: Part I contains an "excellent sytheses of theories"; II focuses on manifold manifestations largely from Don Quixote through En attendant Godot. Conclusion offers G's own theory of "comic wisdom." Uses of Molière are outstanding.

• See French 17 (1994).

HARRY, PATRICIA M. "'A Positive Idea of Non being': the Baroque Conceptualization of Death in the Works of Religious and Libertine Prose and Verse Writers," in Actes de Lexington. PFSCL/Biblio 17 87 (1995), 197–208.

Studies Scudéry, Chassignet, Gody, Saint Amant, Théophile, and Cyrano in order to show that both devout and libertine writers depict death in a similar manner: "Most telling is the flexibility of the dialectic of paradox, which illustrates how free thinkers and the devout are locked into the same patterns of thinking, attributable in no small measure to the fashionable 'asiatic' style, no doubt inculcated in them in their youth on ultramontane college benches."

HARTH, ERICA. Cartesian Women: Versions and Subversions of Rational Discourse in the Old Regime. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1992.

Review: Thomas Lennon in FR 68 (1994), 147–48: With exhaustive and impeccable scholarship provides in always clear and well argued narrative what is a nuanced assessment of Descartes' role in women's history. Elizabeth of Bohemia emerged as the most gifted with her questioning of dualism. Rich and complex.

HAYES, ELIZABETH T., ed. Images of Persephone: Feminist Readings in Western Literature. Gainesville: UP of Florida, 1994.

Review: B. M. McNeal in Choice 32 (1994), 595: "This collection of essays would be useful," according to M., "in a graduate or undergraduate seminar in women's studies, cultural studies, or literature with a focus on mythic criticism or feminist criticism. . . . The essays are arranged chronologically by primary author . . . [including Quinault and Lully]. All of the essays provide a detailed, close reading of a work . . . , an overview of the scholarship of that work, and a . . . bibliography. They also explore aspects of the Demeter/Persephone myth that can be used to understand how Western society has upheld patriarchal values and condoned aggressive male sexuality at the cost of female autonomy."

HERON, P.M. "Genèse de Jean Genet en héros: sur un texte de `Journal de Voleur.'" IL 46:4 (sept-oct 1994), 16–28.

Among other things, H. points out the relationship between Corneille's theater and Genet's. Underscoring G.'s general affinity for Corneille, H. discusses the "première similitude" between the two as "le sens de l'histoire," where "la genèse du héros passe chez Corneille par une réinvention de l'histoire où il puise son sujet de tragédie, dont il enlève les données peu conformes à la dignité de l'emploi tragique." Nicomède and Suréna are mentioned as prime examples. The "deuxième similitude" consists of "le rapport du fait héroïque au fait politique." Here, H. compares works such as Nicomède and the Balcon. Other thematic similarities include "la conjonction de la pastorale et de la Fable," as well as "la générosité." H. concludes with the observation that "comme Corneille dans Suréna, Genet recherche moins... la séduction que la fascination tragique."

HINDEN, MICHAEL. "Drama and Ritual Once Again: Notes toward a Revival of Tragic Theory." CompD 29 (1995), 183–202.

Although ". . . Nietzsche's contention that tragedy originated in Dionysian ritual cannot be proved . . . ," H. has "tried to indicate how tragedy may be paired with ritual in terms of conflict, action, insight, and effect. Both tragedy and ritual mediate our ambivalence toward selfhood, toward the volatile mix of assertion and sacrifice that defines our relationship to the group. The parallels suggest a common source, although a markedly different evolution . . . ." H. explains differences between drama and ritual. He argues that ". . . drama is inherently more variable than ritual and consequently of greater interest to us as a cultural phenomenon." According to H., ". . . ritual analogues may be adduced that help to characterize the form and appeal of tragedy as a genre. Awareness of these patterns may enhance the study of familiar plays."

HJORT, METTE. The Strategy of Letters. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1994.

Review: Anon. in FMLS 30 (1994), 181. H. "restores notions of agency and strategy," as she focuses on convincing examples from theatre, among them M.'s Tartuffe.

Review: Chris Worth in AUMLA 82 (1994), 127–29: Reviewed with another study (Kenneth Quinn, How Literature Works (Macmillan, 1992). "The contrast [of Q.'s volume] with H.'s book is extreme," according to the reviewer. "Hers is a paradigmatic work of professional literary scholarship, elegantly presented by a leading university press . . . . It takes an essentially meta critical approach . . . ." "Looking closely at its use by Derrida and Foucault, H. reveals the contradictions implicit in the term [strategy]. She attempts to restore an understanding of the involvement of intentionality, interaction and agency in the semantic field of 'strategy,' and suggests how the word might be developed as a productive critical concept." "After such an interesting opening, the rest of the book is a little disappointing," in the judgment of W. "H. exemplifies her theoretical concerns through a limiting mode of argumentative literary criticism. Her key topics [include] . . . strategies in Tartuffe and the literary quarrels it engendered [and] seventeenth century attacks on theatre . . . ." "Her accounts of these topics are detailed, well informed, at times penetrating," according to W. "But the attempt to illustrate her ideas on agency through the discussion of specialized literary material has problems."

HUET, MARIE-HELENE. Monstrous Imagination. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1993.

Review: A. Curran in ECr 33 (1993), 102–103: Judged a "thoughtful chronicle of this resilient myth [that] fills a lacuna that has long existed in the study of civilizations view of monstrosity." Excellently documented and highly readable, H.'s study treats the Renaissance to the end of the Enlightenment in Part I: "The Mother's Fancy," and post-Enlightenment eras in Part II: "Metaphors of Procreation."

JACKSON, JOHN E. Mémoire et création poètique. Paris: Mercure de France, 1992.

Review: P. Schnyder in RF 105 (1993), 149–151: Penetrating study investigates the interrelationship of memory and creation as source, dream, moment of reflexion, fortune, melancholy, monument and so forth.

JENSEN, KATHARINE ANN. Writing Love: Letters, Women, and the Novel in France, 1605–1776. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1995.

Review: C. E. Campbell in Choice 32 (1995), 1734: "Once the reader has waded through the vaginalogocentric jargon of Sandra M. Gilbert's argument ad feminam in the introduction and the author's preface and prologue, this book becomes very interesting," says the reviewer. "J. . . . posits the theory that there was a stereotypical 'Epistolary Woman,' 'seduced, betrayed, and suffering,' whose writings of love letters were automatically considered secondary literature at best. The author then presents five authors whose works do not fit the stereotype—Marie-Catherine Desjardins, Anne Ferrand, Françoise de Graffigny, Marie Jeanne Riccoboni, and Julie de Lespinasse. Each of these women proved that she could write self-consciously rather than emotionally, creating fiction rather than tortured love letters. Once this break with the Epistolary Woman occurred, the epistolary novel came to be valued, and women writers of the 17th and 18th centuries became empowered. It was only with the coming of the French Revolution that men became leery of this new-found power and worked to suppress it."

JONES, STEVEN SWANN. The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of Imagination. New York: Twayne, 1995.

Review: M. Ury in Choice 32 (1994), 1589: The author "believes that folk fairy tales and literary fairy tales can be treated as a single genre: both dramatize psychological problems, inculcate social values, and 'offer guidance about the spiritual properties of the universe.' According to the reviewer, J. "never doubts that everything in a given tale symbolizes something identifiable in the human psyche. He devotes more than half of the book to detailed 'psychological' interpretations of a few well-known tales. Readers not convinced in advance will find his interpretations arbitrary. . . . To its credit," adds U., "the book attempts a wide-ranging account of the various scholarly approaches to fairy-tale study, but Christa Kamenetsky's The Brothers Grimm & Their Critics . . . is more energetic and acute." J.'s book is called "[a] marginal purchase."

KAPP, VOLKER. "Beredsamkeit ohne Rhetorik. Zur französischen Rhetorik Diskussion im späten 17. Jahrhunderts," in "Diversité, c'est ma devise." Studien zur französischen Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts. PFSCL/Biblio 17 86 (1994), 261–280.

KAPP, VOLKER. "Le corps éloquent et ses ambiguïtés: l'action oratoire et le débat sur la communication non verbale à la fin du XVIIe siècle," in Actes du premier colloque conjointement organisé par la North American Society for Seventeenth Century French Literature et le Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. University of California, Santa Barbara (17–19 mars 1994). PFSCL/Biblio 17 89 (1995), 87–99.

Efforts to use reason to control behavior: "L'action oratoire fait appel à la fantaisie et aux sens pour séduire la vue et l'oreille de l'auditeur, donc elle s'appuie sur des facultés trompeuses. Son mensonge reste innocent s'il conforme d'une part l'homme aux habitudes de la société et de la civilité des moeurs et d'autre part l'extérieur du locuteur au message qu'il transmet. . . . Transparence et ambiguïté du corps ne renvoient donc plus à une métaphysique du beau, mais à la nature de l'homme et à son statut d'être social."

KAPP, VOLKER, ed. Les lieux de mémoire et la fabrique de l'oeuvre. PFSCL/Biblio 17 (1993).

Review: Marc Escola in RHL 94:6 (Novembre-décembre 1994), 1083–1086: In his lengthy review of the papers presented at the first colloquium of the Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle (Kiel, 1993), E. states "Ce volume marquera sans doute une date dans l'histoire des études sur le XVIIe siècle." As the title suggests, the overarching motif of the symposium is the "lieux de mémoire" with emphasis on the "signification et fonction des lieux de la mémoire dans la civilisation du XVIIe siècle en France et leur importance pour la "fabrique de l'oeuvre." Intellectually, "le concept de `lieux de mémoire' permet de mettre en relief `les points de rencontre et de divergence des deux cultures contemporaines au XVIIe siècle, l'ancienne rhétorique et la nouvelle science exacte." In general, E. praises the collection, claiming that "la richesse même de ce volume illustre avec bonheur la polysémie du terme de "lieu," et cette polysémie n'est-elle même que le produit...de la dynamique des lieux rhétoriques."

KENNY, NEIL. The Palace of Secrets: Béroalde de Verville and Renaissance Conceptions of Knowledge. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1991.

Review: J. Miernowski in FrF 18 (1993), 90–92: Praiseworthy for its "érudition sûre" and "profonde sensibilité interprétative," K.'s work examines carefully the limits of knowledge in the late Renaissance, integrating philosophical and esthetic questions, as it follows the "itinéraries compliqués" of Le Voyage des princes fortunez (1610).

Review: M. Renaud in RF 104 (1992), 453–455: Important, clear and well-documented study contributes to proper assessment of B.'s entire corpus. Underscores the "glissement vers une attitude de plus en plus ambiguë vis à vis du savoir."

KLEIN, NANCY DEIGHTON. The Female Protagonist in the Nouvelles of Madame de Villedieu. New York: Lang, 1992.

Review: D. Shaw in MLR 90 (1995), 186–88: K.'s study "relates the heroine to other character types within the short novel format; it also contains a history of the genre and an analysis of the nouvelles by other major seventeenth century exponents, including Mlle de Scudéry and Mme de La Fayette." Reviewer concludes that this is an undeniably thorough and original study despite some problems of presentation and balance.

KLINGNER, EDWIN. Kleine Geschichte der französischen Literatur. Düsseldorf: Buchhändlerheute, 1990.

Review: H.W. Wittschier in ZRP 110 (1994), 513–19: Written by a specialist in library science who has a great interest in France, this small volume (94 pages) attempts an overview of French literature from the Middle Ages to our day, from a "rezeptionsgeschichte" perspective. Review details numerous misconceptions, misspellings, wrong classifications and unevenness (the 17 th c. is granted three and one-half pages, while the 19th and 20th c. fare somewhat better at least in length, 14 and 40 pages respectively).

KOCHHAR-LINDGREN, GRAY. Narcissus Transformed: The Textual Subject in Psychoanalysis and Literature. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State UP, 1993.

Review: Julius Rowan Raper in SoAR 60.1 (1995), 176–80: Reviewed with Marshall W. Alcorn, Jr., Narcissism and the Literary Libido: Rhetoric, Text, and Subjectivity (New York: NYUP, 1994). Kochar-Lindgren "tracks Narcissus's ascendance in Europe from Descartes through Freud to Lacan, while Alcorn moves beyond Lacan to more recent American theorists who have reshaped our view of Narcissus."

LAFOND, JEAN. "Mademoiselle et les Divers portraits." PFSCL 22 (1995), 55–63.

Studies the genesis of a work which for the first time presents the portrait as an independant genre. Both the portrait and the maxim derive from the ornatus and owe their independent status to post Fronde social milieux which tended to produce literary works lacking unity. The chief characteristics of the Divers portraits are its unity and coherence which L. attributes to the princess' personality.

LA GORCE, JEROME DE, ed. Louis, Ladvocat, Lettres sur l'opéra à l'abbé Dubos. Suivies de Description de la vie et moeurs, de l'exercice de l'état des filles de l'opéra. Paris: Cicero, 1993.

Review: B. Norman in PFSCL 22 (1995), 280–281: Twenty six letters written between 1694 and 1698 containing many details about opera productions and revealing erudition and a conservative understanding of the theater. The Description, attributed to Vassetz and thought to have been written in 1694, contains information about acting styles and backstage activities at the Opéra, among other things.

LA GORCE, JEROME DE. L'opéra à Paris au temps de Louis XIV: histoire d'un théâtre. Paris: Desjonquères, 1992.

Review: B. Norman in PFSCL 22 (1995), 280–281: Includes historical documentation, theater personnel, preparations and costs of productions, struggles for power, Molière's relationship with Lully, La Fontaine's and Racine's attempts at writing libretti, the théâtre de la foire, and religious objections to the theater. Reviewer calls this a "tantalizingly brief" but excellent study and calls for a more extensive history of the Opéra.

LANGER, ULLRICH. Perfect Friendship. Studies in Literature and Moral Philosophy from Bocaccio to Corneille. Genève: Droz, 1994.

Review: J.-C. Margolin in BHR 57 (1995), 521–23: "L'originalité de cet ouvrage consiste d'abord à mettre en relation deux objets qui ne sont pas communément associés: un sentiment, à savoir l'amitié—même poussée à son état de perfection—et la littérature, ou l'histoire littéraire envisagée dans une période déterminée, comme ici du XIVe siècle (Boccace) au XVIIe (Corneille). En fait,il s'agit essentiellement de la conception et de l'expression de l'amitié (sous des diverses modalités) à travers la littérature."

LAWALL, SARAH, ed. Reading World Literature: Theory, History, Practice. Austin: U of Texas P, 1994.

Review: N. Fruman in Choice 32 (1995), 1444: "Given the fierce controversies and ideological partisanship that have dominated most aspects of the 'canon wars,' it is refreshing to find that much in this volume proves to be not only sensible but highly useful. There is . . . plenty of jargon," says F., "about the reading 'subject' and the text as 'other,' as well as the leitmotiv of Western arrogance, cultural imperialism, and 'idealized image' of the Western core of world literature. But there is solid scholarship here, too, and a great deal that anyone teaching a world literature course needs to ponder, especially material outside the Western canon." F. mentions L.'s "remarkably far-reaching 64-page introductory survey of the history and present embattled state of the subject." "All in all a fascinating collection . . . . Extremely valuable notes and bibliographies throughout."

LE FRANÇAIS HORS DE FRANCE. Le Monde judiciaire dans la littérature du XIXe siècle. La Bruyère. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1992.

Review: U. Schulz-Buschhaus in RF (105) 1993, 139–142: Reviewer applauds the punctuality of these Acts of the AIEF congress as well as their interest. 17c. scholars will appreciate analyses on stylistics, aesthetics, anthropology, the burlesque. Margot Kruse's contribution is singled out as perhaps the most learned, "Un Precurseur de La B.: Joseph Hall et ses Characters of Virtues and Vices en France. See La Bruyère

LEIBACHER-OUVRARD, LISE and PETER FITTING. "Introduction: L'Imaginaire utopique: paradigmes, formes et fonctions." ECr 34 (1994), 5–17.

Quickly and deftly traces the "histoire agitée" of the term "utopia" from More to the "seconde vague du féminisme." Underscores the paradoxical fact that the 17th c. "va l'ignorer . . . à l'époque où l'utopie fera clairement ses débuts littéraires en français." The 17th c. was a period when Utopian texts were placed in political bibliographies but also knew numerous manifestations such as those of Cyrano, Fénelon, Foigny, Veiras and Tyssot de Pattot.

LEINER, WOLFGANG. Das Deutschlandbild in der französischen Literatur. vol. 2. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1991.

Review: F.-R. Weller in NS 93 (1994), 400–01: Study is a continuation of L.'s volume one (1989), offering multi-faceted analyses, important for establishing the image of Germany in French literature from the Middle Ages to our day. Reviewer appreciates the richly documented atudy of Germanic-French cultural and literary relationships. W. offers his own numerous suggestions for additions to L.'s selected bibliography.

LETERRE, THIERRY, éd. Léon Brunschvicq. Descartes et Pascal, lectures de Montaigne. Paris: Pocket, 1995.

A welcome reedition, fifty years after B.'s death, of a classic known for its clear exposition and authority. Leterre's ample preface of some forty pages places this "testament philosophique" in its historical context, the persecution and tragedy of World War II. Leterre underscores the link between Descartes, Pascal and Montaigne: "un déchirement que nous éprouvons précisément comme la marque de la modernité." If B.'s concept of the relation between science and philosophy is dated, his sense of crisis and tragedy remains fresh. Leterre's illuminating introduction argues that B.'s text is unique because of a "double souffrance:" "souffrance du savoir, souffrance de l'humanité." But it is not a lesson of despair; B. calls the reader to unite "esprit et vérité, sagesse et charité . . . recré[ant] l'unité sainte de la tunique sans couture."

LEVI, ANTHONY. Guide to French Literature. 2 vols. Chicago/London: St. James Press, 1992–1994.

Review: D. F. Connon in MLR 90 (1995), 173–74: "These two weighty volumes ["Beginnings to 1789"; "1789 to the Present"] represent a vast and impressive undertaking for a single author, for the sheer volume of material included, as well as its range and scope. Individual articles, most on specific authors; some general topics. Chronology begins in 1500 and ends in 1969 with some coverage well beyond. Reviewer notes some minor factual errors.

• See French 17 (1994).

LIU, CATHERINE. "Reading Machines: Fiction, femininity, automaton in ancien régime France." (CUNY 1994), DAI 55:11 3529-A.

L. summarizes her work, stating, "this dissertation examines the ways in which the automaton is a figure for various problems of difference in the novel of ancien régime France." She links the automaton with sexual difference as depicted in the Lafayette, Graffigny, La Mettrie, Rousseau and Laclos. With the examination of these authors, L. also explores the figure of Jacques Vaucanson, "the great automaton maker and engineer." L. concludes by asserting that focus on the automaton and sexual difference in these authors indicates "signs of an early modernism" that "anticipate the ideological limitations of our own post-modernism."

MACCHIA, GIOVANNI. Le Théatre de la dissimulation. Paris: Le Promeneur, 1993.

Review: D. Maricourt in Esprit (octobre 1994), 190–91: "Un itinéraire nouveau qui partirait de la réalite historique pour aboutir aux oeuvres de fiction du XVIIe siècle. Giovanni Macchia nous représente le monde du XVIIe siècle ou des figures réelles ou fictives se doivent de rester insaisissables pour préserver leur véritable nature."

MARIN, CATHERINE. "Les Contes de Fées de la fin du dix-septième siècle et la problématique de la morale." RLA (Vol. VI, 1994) 125–129.

This article deals with the importance of the moral in contes and fables written by women. M. states that with the exception of Mademoiselle Lheritier de Villandon, most conteuses of the seventeenth century such as "Madame d'Aulnoy, Madame de Murat et Catherine Bernard semblent beaucoup moins insister sur la dimension morale et proposent leurs contes avant tout comme divertissement." For these authors, the moral is expressed implicitly, as they suggest "des alternatives à une telle morale." M. also underscores that the subtle nature of the moral was in direct contrast to Perrault, "qui prôn[ait] l'obéissance totale et la soumission devant l'autorité."

MAZOUER, CHARLES, ed. Théâtre et musique au XVIIe siècle. Littératures classiques No. 21 (Spring 1994). Paris: Klincksieck, 1994.

Review: S. Fleck in PFSCL 22 (1995), 660–663: A collection of studies that "could help to set a scholarly agenda [in the field] for the next half century": the current state of studies in the field followed by sections entitled "La musique au théâtre," "Analyses musicales," and "Aux frontières des genres."

MAZOUER, CHARLES, ed. Evariste Gherardi. Le théâtre italien. Paris: S.T.F.M., 1994.

Review: Bénédicte Louvat in RHL 95:2 (mars-avril 1995), 314: L. states that M.'s task is to "rediscover the "Théâtre italien de Gherardi" by dealing with the Italian representation of French scenes and entire comedies at the Hôtel de Bourgogne between 1681 and 1697. Three plays are mentioned: Fatouville's Banqueroutier, Palaprat's La Fille de bon sens, and Les Bains de la porte de Saint Bernard. L. calls these plays "bien représentatives d'un théâtre issu de la rencontre de deux cultures, de deux langues. Among the tipifissi are the "Docteur, Scaramouche, Pierrot et surtout Colombine et Arlequin," which served in both cultures, as "une satire amusée des moeurs contemporains."

MAZOUER, CHARLES. Farces du Grand Siècle. De Tabarin à Molière. Farces et petites comédies au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Livre de Poche, 1992.

Review: L. Chalon in RBPH 72 (1994), 693–94: Anthologie précédée d'une "brève, mais substantielle introduction" qui démontre que la farce fut goûtée du public français au XVIIe siècle.

• See French 17 (1993).

MC BRIDE, ROBERT and NOEL PEACOCK. " Le Nouveau Moliériste." IL 47:2 (mars-avril 1995), 44–45.

Viewing their publication as the successor to Georges Monval's nineteenth-century journal, Moliériste, M. and P. conceive their project as "avant tout un organe au service de toute la communauté internationale des Moliéristes." Remarking the general decline in French seventeenth-century studies, M. and P. nonetheless point out Molière's continued popularity. Sustained interest in Molière occasioned the founding of the journal, which welcomes "des articles substantiels portant sur tous les aspects de Molière, son interprétation, sa mise en scène, sa diffusion, etc..." The Nouveau Molièriste will also publish reviews on books "rélatifs à son théâtre," as well as reviews of notable contemporary productions.

MCKENNA, ANDREW. Violence and Difference: Girard, Derrida, and Deconstruction. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1991.

Review: Jacques-Jude Lépine in SubStance 23.3 (1994), 137–40: In this book "M. establishes a series of connections between two post-structuralist theories on literature and culture [those of Derrida and of René Girard] and their relationships . . . ." Chapter 1 treats Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, "first as a proto-deconstructive text, then as an example of how literary masterpieces hint at the mechanisms of violence which underlie culture. The common denominator of these two readings is Molière's comic focus on a crisis of cultural differences." Chapter 2, focusing on Plato and Descartes, "is a reading of Derrida's own reading of the history of philosophy as the problematic . . . construction of truth, in terms of Girard's hypothesis." According to L., ". . . M. argues convincingly that both deconstruction and mimetic theory profit through realizing what they have in common, on a purely formal ground."

MEISSNER, ANTJE. Au lecteur. Studien zu den französischen Romanvorworten des 17. Jahrhunderts. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang, 1994.

Review: G. Berger in PFSCL 22 (1995), 664–665: A study of the preface in the seventeenth century novel from the standpoints of classical doctrine (verisimilitude, the imitation of nature, morality, and decorum) and self reflection. The reviewer finds much to criticize in the work because of its incompleteness the sixty prefaces studied are far from being representative , and errors of method and interpretation.

MERCIER, ALAIN. La Littérature facétieuse sous Louis XIII, 1610–1643: une bibliographie critique. Geneva: Droz, 1991.

Review: Josephine A Schmidt in FR 67 (1994), 516–17: "Painstakingly constructed and annotated critical biblio. of the little-known genre of pure buffoonery, playfulness, and "gratuite ludique." A brief history of facetious literature, an "Essai de typologie," production for 1610–1643, catalogue of 812 facetious texts and description of criteria of selection. "Deserves enormous critical praise for inventing a workable system of classification."

• See French 17 (1993, 1992, 1991).

MERLIN, HELENE. Public et littérature en France au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1994.

Review: Roger Chartier in Le Monde des Livres (17 Mar. 1995), x: Highest praise for this renewal of 17th-century literary history, from the moment of the Querelle du Cid (three chapterrs) through Racine's audience. The field, rather than sociological, is a juridic or theological-political, context of definition—the "respublica, le corps mystique et politique du royaume," absorbed already by the time of the Querelle with important results for the future (including "nostalgie d'une réalité communitaire"). Also a major debate contribution in the open forum constituted by Bourdieu's Les Regles de l'art.

Review: P. Ronzeaud in PFSCL 22 (1995), 666–667: An attempt to define "public" in the contexts of politics, literature, and philosophy. Reviewer calls this an "étude extrêmement brillante" which plumbs the differences between the "public" and the "private," the "public" and the "individual," and the creation of a new fiction, the "literary public." Also sheds much light on the literary battles of the century.

MICKEL, EMANUAL J., JR. The Shaping of Text: Style, Imagery, and Structure in French Literature: Essays in Honor of John Porter Houston. London/Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1993.

Review: R. Killick in MLR 90 (1995), 175–76: Festschrift includes ten articles "mainly concerned with structuring motifs governing all or part of a text or texts, dating from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century." D. L. Rubin "briefly examines the shifting registers of a La Fontaine fable."

MOLES, ELIZABETH and NOEL PEACOCK, eds. The Seventeenth Century: Directions Old and New. Glasgow: University of Glasgow French and German Publications, 1992.

Review: Anon. in FMLS 30 (1994), 91: Ten useful essays on 17th c. French culture include "particularly invigorating" ones on Molière's Les Amants magnifiques, Racine's Bérénice and Phèdre.

Review: D. Clarke in MLR 89 (1994), 1000–01: Collection includes articles by R. McBride and N. Cronk on Moliere; C. Pace on Poussin; E. Moles on the languages of Descartes and Pascal; W. Dickson on Cornelian language; C. McGarry, J. Supple, and R. Parrish on Racine; N. Peacock on the status of teaching 17th century French in British universities.

• See French 17 (1994).

MOLHO, MAURICE. Mitologias: Don Juan. Segismondo. Trans.Blanca González de Escandón. Madrid: Siglo XXI de Espana, 1993.

Review: M. A. Rees in MLR 90 (1995), 477–78: Reviewer finds that M. has succeeded "in the nearly impossible feat of writing about Don Juan and Segismondo from a fresh angle. In his pages we find the Greek gods, Plato and his cave, Germanic legends, French folk customs, and information on, for instance, the historically correct pose (recumbant or kneeling) in which the Comendador's statue should be shown on stage .

MOLHO, MAURICE. Mythologiques: Don Juan. La Vie est un songe. Paris: José Corti, 1994.

Review: Jacques Fressard in QL (1er–15 juillet 1995), 12: M. M. focuses on the concept of "le mythème, trait constitutif pertinent du récit mythique" (selon Lévi Strauss) "pour l'appliquer à des textes qui relèvent à la fois de l'oeuvre littéraire et du mythe: La vie est un songe de Calderón, et les principales métamorphoses de Don Juan . . . ." "La démarche est audacieuse," declares F., "l'anthropologie ne connaissant pas de mythe qui soit l'oeuvre singulière d'un poète . . . . Il ne s'agit pas de déchiffrer le Don Juan comme on ferait d'un mythe bororo, mais de bien distinguer, dans l'interprétation, ce qui relève d'une idéologie circonstancielle, ou d'une forme dictée par les besoins du théâtre, et ce qui appartient au mythe proprement dit . . . ." "Molière en son Festin de Pierre . . . offre, à travers la même structure mythique, un contenu idéologique sensiblement distinct; les grappes de mythèmes sont semblablement disposées mais vétues d'une autre argumentation."

MOTTE, WARREN and GERALD PRINCE, eds. Alteratives. Lexington, KY: French Forum, 1993.

Review: Anon. in FMLS 30 (1994), 374: Festschrift in honor of distinguished dix-septièmiste Jean Alter. Stimulating and diverse studies from Ancien Régime satire to Nouveau Roman.

Review: F. Lagarde in PFSCL 22 (1995), 285–286: This festschrift for Jean Alter, semiotician and one of the founders of sociocriticism, contains six studies applying recent literary theories to works of the past: the concept of coherence in d'Aubignac, Bérénice and the sacrifice of the body in love to the public body, Christian and pagan religion in L'Astrée, a feminist reading of Racine's Eriphile,a post modern description of the characters in the Misanthrope, and the question of the future in Racine's works from viewpoints of narratology and drama.

MUELLER, MARLIES. "The Taming of the Amazon: the Changing Image of the Woman Warrior in Ancien Régime Fiction." PFSCL 22 (1995), 199–232.

"After the 16th century, which celebrated the virile qualities of the mind and character seconded by physical prowess of women of the highest station, 17th and 18th century fiction . . . brought a certain flowering of this tendancy, while for the second half of the 17th century on, alternative models . . . beckon women to act in the public space of politics, or, alternatively, to find happiness by the side of man as his helpmate in private space, excluded from the world of masculinity and politics. Nevertheless, as an ideal, the image of la femme forte survived until the end of the 18th century and beyond."

MURATORE, MARY JO. Mimesis and Metatextuality in the French Neo Classical Text. Reflexive Readings of La Fontaine, Molière, Racine, Guilleragues, Mme de La Fayette, Scarron, Cyrano de Bergerac and Perrault. Genève: Droz, 1994.

Review: F. Lagarde in PFSCL 22 (1995), 668–669: According to reviewer, "l'auteur analyse comment certaines oeuvres 'néo classiques' déjouent, transgressent ou subvertissent les impératifs d'une mimésis conçue traditionnellement comme représentation du monde et imitation des Anciens." The reviewer finds value in the study because of its "puissance d'interrogation" although he finds the conception of literary creation analysed in it less original than its theoretical style.

MURRAY, TIMOTHY. "Philosophical Antibodies: Grotesque Fantasy in a French Stoic Fiction." YFS 86 (1994), 143–63.

"This corporeal division, a division between body and soul as well as between bodies and sexes, is what I aim to pursue in reflecting on how a masculine anxiety over the destabilizing scene of ascetic self representation haunted the cultural imagination and literary practice of seventeenth century France." Author discusses D'Aubignac's "Abregé de la philosophie des stoïques" included as the preface of Macarise, ou la Reyne des isles fortunés (1664).

NELL, SHARON DIANE. " Looks Can Be Deceiving: The Trompe-l'oeil Poetics of French Rococo Style." ECr 33 (1993), 43–56.

Although focusing on rococo poets such as the abbé Chaulieu and examining patterns of "heterometrical motifs," treatment has ramifications for La Fontaine studies.

NIDERST, ALAIN. "A propos de l'Histoire des Ajaoiens," in "Diversité, c'est ma devise." Studien zur französischen Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts. PFSCL/Biblio 17 86 (1994), 375–384.

Studies the work's literary and ideological context in order to determine if its authorship may be attributed to Fontenelle: "Séduisante conjecture, mais nous ne sommes toujours pas dans le certain."

NIDERST, ALAIN, ed. La Pastorale française: de Rémi Belleau à Victor Hugo. PFSCL/Biblio 17, 1991.

Review: Kathleen Wine in FR 67 (1993), 346–47: Colected papers consider pastoral poetry and theatre, poetic theory, theology, regional poetry, pastoral themes in music (Charpentier). No comprehensive intro and little striving for broader contexts. G. Ferreyrolles offers a "searching analysis" of political and theological ramifications of thematics that appear in Bossuet; Niderst's consideration of the "Querelle de la pastorale" (1685–1730) shows self-reflexivity and its poetics arising form different conceptions of the fable. Papers generally tend to illustrate Bruno Snell's reflections on the mode's self-referentiality as sign of decadence as well as defining trait.

PARENTE, JAMES A., RICHARD ERICH SCHADE and GEORGE C. SCHOOLFIELD, eds. Literary Culture in the Holy Roman Empire 1555–1720. Chapel Hill/London: U of North Carolina P, 1991.

Review: B. Asmuth in CollG 27 (1994), 68–71: This collection of 17 essays is the result of a 1987 symposium at Yale. Parts 1–4 treat the relation between Humanism and Science, Germanic and European literatures, Rulers and their authority and the Self-Consciousness of poets. Includes a comparative treatment of Tristan's Osman.

PERRET, DONALD. Old Comedy in the French Renaissance, 1576–1620. Geneva: Droz, 1992.

Review: J. C. Nash in RenQ 47 (1994), 983–984: "Old comedy" is really "the new kind of comedy surfacing as a counter-genre . . . [to that] of Pléiade and Italianate origins." These lesser known comic writers, Pierre Le Loyer, Gérard de Vivre, Claude Bonet, Marc Papillon and Pierre de Troterel, derive from Aristophanes' medieval comedy and Rabelais. Fresh and insightful, N. finds P.'s volume "one of the most interesting books in the French Renaissance" he has read in the past twenty years.

PLANTIE, JACQUELINE. La mode du portrait littéraire en France (1641–1681). Paris: Champion, 1994.

Review: N. Ekstein in PFSCL 22 (1995), 674–675: Publication of the 1975 thesis "légèrement remanié" and with an updated bibliographical supplement. According to reviewer, the definitive study in the field: the history of the portrait from ancient times; structural components, contexts, and uses; and the criticism and satire that followed as a reaction to the vogue of the portrait.

Review: Paul Martin in IL 46:5 (nov.-déc. 1994) 46–47: M. applauds P.'s effort, "dont les recherches se recommandent à nous par leur probité et leur perspicacité." P.'s study examines literary portraiture across different genres during the period in question. Among the major figures listed are Mademoiselle de Montpensier, Bussy-Rabutin, La Rochefoucauld, Molière and Madeleine de Scudéry. Among the topic P. considers are "la vie et l'art du portrait à l'apogée de la mode" as well as "l'influence de la technique du portrait mondain." M. states his particular appreciation of P.'s overall "rigueur logique" as well as the "netteté des termes qui posent le problème de savoir si les portraits littéraires offrent le miroir de la société qu'ils dépeignent."

PLEYNET, MARCELIN. "Le Poème en prose et la poésie." L'Infini 48 (1994), 66–84.

The epigraph of this article is taken from Les Précieuses ridicules of Molière. There are also short references to Fénelon (Les Aventures de Télémaque), Bossuet, and Saint Simon.

POUR OU CONTRE SAINTE-BEUVE: LE PORT-ROYAL. Genève: Labor et Fides, Société des Amis de Port-Royal, 1993.

Review: Marc Escola in RHL 94:6 (novembre-décembre 1994), 1077–78: The study brings together papers on Sainte-Beuve's "oeuvre maîtresse" given in Lausanne, September 1992. According to the reviewer, one set of exposés deals with "Lausanne au temps de Sainte-Beuve," while another series of presentations explores "l'historiographie port-royaliste" which looks at "les échos dans son oeuvre du contexte idéologique des années 1830, son immédiate postérité et sa réception." Additional studies include J.M. Beysade's remarks on cartesianism in Port-Royal, as well as A. Sedgwick's analysis of the Arnauld family's influence on Sainte-Beuve. E. concludes his review by commenting on the issues of "mémoire," "identité culturelle" and "actualité" that the collection raises.

PRINCE, GERALD. Narrative as Theme: Studies in French Fiction. Lincoln/London: U of Nebraska P, 1992..

Review: R. Chambers in FrF 19 (1994), 370–372: Volume includes only one 17th c. text, La Princesse de Clèves and makes the case that "narrative is semiotic rather than mimetic and constitutive rather than imitative of lives and selves." Reviewer finds volume "absorbing," "lucid," and "helpful" as it makes a "substantial contribution" . . . to a how question: how is narrative "themed" in narrative texts?"

Review: A. Gier in ZRP 109 (1993), 736: Part I is theoretical and defines "motif", "topos", etc., discussing narration itself as an important theme and establishing a category of "disnarrated." Part II includes analyses from La Princesse de Clèves to Patrick Modiano's Rue des boutiques obscures.

Review: James P. Gilroy in FR 68 (1994), 327–28: "Well-written, lucid, insightful...," study of narratives about narrative includes a chapter on La Princesse de Cleves as constituting "an exceptional narrative embodying exceptional truth."

• See French 17 (1993, 1992).

RACAULT, JEAN-MICHEL, éd. Ailleurs imaginés. Littérature, histoire, civilisations. Paris: Diffusion Didier-Erudition, 1990.

Review: J. T. O'Connor in ECr 34 (1994), 130: Sixteen essays of "very high caliber" from the Université de la Réunion include contributions on Cyrano, Etienne de Flacourt (1661) and L'Abbé Jean Paulmier (1663), the two latter ones dealing with Madagascar.

RAND, NICHOLAS T., ed. "Literary History and Sociology." By Gustave Lanson. Tr.Roberta Hatcher. PMLA 110 (1995), 220–235.

Rand sees a return to the 1904 Lanson essay as potentially "productive and rewarding, for Lanson, a focal point of French criticism at the dawn of the twentieth century, crystallizes significant trends from the past and anticipates crucial tenets of German and American literary reception theory." Numerous references to seventeenth century French authors.

REISS, TIMOTHY J. The Meaning of Literature. Ithaca: Cornell U P, 1992.

Review: Erica Harth in CdDS 5:2 (Fall 1991) 293–95: H. views R.'s work favorably, remarking that "Reiss ranges over a dazzling array of some three centuries of English and European writers in pursuit of a notion of literature that has remained remarkably constant." The focus of the book is on the political and artistic "invention" of the concept of literature. With respect to seventeenth-century France, H., paraphrasing R., assigns the formulation of this idea to Richelieu, who, in the Academy, "created a corps of men who were to construct and guard the aesthetic rules that helped guarantee the prestige of the new political and moral order." The rules of reason and aesthetics became congruent with the rule of state." Claiming questions of gender, as well as politics, are central to R.'s argument, H. recommends reading R.'s work alongside Joan De Jean's Tender Geographies. H. concludes by advising readers to "turn to Reiss's enlightening account of the historical antecedents of our dilemma," when facing issues such as multiculturalism.

Review: J. Tambling in MLR 90 (1995), 120–22: Author considers emergence of the term "literature" as a specific, differentiated form of writing through rich discussion of 16th to 18th century English and French texts. R. views the 16th century as "a moment when the profession of literature was connected with a loss of power . . . existent between 1550 and 1650, deciding that the 'invention of literature' in compensation for this breakdown belongs to the mid seventeenth century and French investment in the king as 'the ideal Cartesian self' who brought 'political and linguistic stability' . . . ." Reviewer finds much to admire in this study despite somewhat unoriginal thesis.

• See French 17 (1994, 92).

RIEGER, DIETMAR. "'Histoire tragique' und Ständeklausel. Zu den Wandlungen einer narrativen Gattung des 17. Jahrhunderts," in "Diversité, c'est ma devise." Studien zur französischen Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts. PFSCL/Biblio 17 86 (1994), 397–424.

RIGOTTI, FRANCESCA. Il Potere e le sue metafore. Milano: Feltrinelli, 1992.

Review: P. Zaccaria in RBPH 72 (1994), 667–71: L'auteur "analyse, surtout à l'intérieur de la pensée politique européenne moderne, trois champs métaphoriques particuliers qui traversent et structurent le langage politique: le lexique militaire, le lexique des rapports familiaux et celui des métaphore animales."

RODRIGUEZ, PIERRE et MICHELE WEIL, éds. Vers un thésaurus informatisé: topiques des ouvertures narratives avant 1800. Actes du quatrième colloque international SATOR. Université de Paul Valéry-Montpellier III, 25–27 octobre 1990. Montpellier: Université de Paul Valéry-Montpellier III, 1991.

Review: E. Van Der Schueren in RBPH 72 (1994), 698–712: "Rassemblant plus d'une trentaine de communications, la réunion de ces actes couvre, comme le titre l'indique, divers genres narratifs, du conte au roman, de la nouvelle au récit, et les formes tant en prose qu'en vers. Le champ chronologique est vaste: de quasi les origines de la littrature française, il déborde sur le XIXe siècle. . . . Parmi les auteurs du XVIIe traités: Sorel, Mlle de Scudéry, Mme de Lafayette, Scarron, Furetière.

ROHOU, JEAN. "L'évolution de la fonction de l'amour dans la littérature du XVIIe siècle," in "Diversité, c'est ma devise." Studien zur französischen Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts. PFSCL/Biblio 17 86 (1994), 425–444.

Argues that the theme of love does not dominate the entire century; rather, love is a "rapport" rather than a theme and as such dominates only d'Urfé, Racine, and Mme de Lafayette.

ROSE, ELISHEVA. Sur le grotesque: l'ancien et le nouveau dans la réflexion esthétique. Saint-Denis: PP de Vincennes, 1991.

Review: Richard L. Hattendorf in FR 68 (1994), 139: Follows historical development of problematic semantics of the grotesque, historically and linguistically establishing its contours from conception (late 15th century) to the modern permutations by Kayser and Bakhtine. Perceived by Rosen as the subject of "un projet de connaissance" and an accepted category within the post-modern pursuit of an overall theory of literature.

RUBIN, DAVID LEE, ed. Continuum: Problems in French Literature From the Late Renaissance to the Early Enlightenment. Vol. IV: Libertinage and the Art of Writing 2. New York: AMS Press, 1992.

Review: T. Alliott in MLR 90 (1995), 178–79: Collection of articles adopts various approaches to the impact of libertinism on French writers including Molière and Pascal. J. Cairncross stresses lack of structural coherence in Molière's Dom Juan and sees the author"caught in a contradiction, aiming to avoid censorship but hitting back at hostile devots.''M. Houle discusses "the convergence between libertinism and casuistry, denounced by Pascal."

• See French 17 (1994, 93, 92).

RUBIN, DAVID LEE, ed. Continuum: Problems in French Literature From the Late Renaissance to the Early Enlightenment. Vol. V: Literature and the Other Arts. New York: AMS Press, 1993.

Review: T. Meding in PFSCL 22 (1995), 684–686: According to reviewer, this collection of essays "propose un élargissement de la définition du texte en soulignant les liens étroits entre écriture texte imprimé et esthétique texte peint, dessiné, chorégraphique, musical." A very valuable contribution to the field.

SAFTY, EFFEM. "De la vengeance et de la haine dans la tragédie baroque." CdDS 5:2 (Fall 1991) 241–63.

S. discusses "vengeful hate" as a chief thematic in baroque drama. Citing several works, among them Corneille's Médée, Benserade's La Mort d'Achille and Rotrou's Hercule mourant, S. contends that many of the horrific aspects of these plays—references to cannibalism, threats of sadistic, violent death, and revenge from beyond the tomb—reflect the chaos of a society still affected by the St. Bartholemew's Day Massacre. In his conclusion, S. asserts that as a thematic point of departure, "vengeful hate" can be called "tragic" because revenge is "en conflit avec la transcendance." Yet, vengeful hate falls into the category of the "atragique" because "elle se prétend d'aller au delà de l'infranchissable." In any event, S. suggests that only in Racine's Bérénice does one see that tragedy need not be based on the bloody purgation of "implacable hatred." This more refined, subtle definiton of tragedy is, in S.'s mind, what signals the advent of Neo-Classicism.

SAFTY, ESSAM. "Tragédie et mort, ou la mort est elle nécessaire dans la tragédie?" in Actes de Lexington. PFSCL/Biblio 17 87 (1995), 345–359.

The author responds negatively to the question posed, concluding that "une tragédie puisse se passer de morts, pourvu simplement qu'elle réponde aux exigences que nul n'ignore, à savoir style, conditions des personnages et nature des situations."

SANCIER-CHATEAU, ed. Introduction à la langue du XVIIe siècle. Vol. 1: Vocabulaire, vol. 2: Syntaxe. Paris: Nathan Université, 1993.

Review: Marc Escola in RHL 94:6 (novembre-décembre 1994), 1068–69: E. terms this an "excellente collection" that constitutes "des manuels de synthèse des connaissances" in pocket form, for students in the first cycle of university studies. Among the most valuable aspects of the collection are E. Bury's definition of "classicism," as well as of correlative terms such as the "sublime," "honnêteté," "atticisme" and "préciosité." Georges Forestier's Introduction à l'analyse des textes classiques is viewed as "un manuel pratique visant à décrire `les lois générales qui permettent de rendre compte de la conception de l'écriture des textes classiques." E. praises the first volume, Vocabulaire, because it provides "des indispensables informations sur l'histoire, les genres et la production littéraire." The second tome, Syntaxe, is equally worthy. E comments "on retiendra surtout des analyses du système de la représentation (valeurs des pronoms adverbiaux et relatifs notamment) et de la construction du verbe. By the "diversité et pertinence des exemples choisis," this second volume constitutes "un vrai manuel du savoir-lire."

SARGENT, LYMAN TOWER. "Contemporary Scholarship on Utopianism." ECr 34 (1994), 123–129.

Very useful review article enumerates professional associations, libraries, and journals/book series which focus on the study of utopianism. The range of scholarly activites is impressive, from science fiction to "social dreaming," and feminist utopianism.

SARTORI, EVA MARTIN AND DOROTHY WYNNE ZIMMERMAN, eds. French Women Writers. Lincoln/London: U of Nebraska P, 1991.

Review: N. Ekstein in PFSCL 22 (1995), 298–299: A "bio bibliographical sourcebook" containing articles on 51 different women writers and one article on medieval women troubadours: biography, major themes, and survey of criticism. Includes a chronology of dates of important historical and literary events, a chronological listing of the women writers, and author and subject indices. The 17th century section includes Marie de Gournay, Madeleine de Scudéry, the Marquise de Sévigné, the Comtesse de Lafayette, Marie Catherine Desjardins de Villedieu, and the Comtesse d'Aulnoy. The reviewer finds the volume to be worthwhile but regrets the paucity of 17th century writers, a certain uneveness in the quality of the articles, and not infrequent typographical errors.

SCOLNICOV, HANNA and PETER HOLLAND, eds. Reading Plays: Interpretation and Reception. Cambridge: CUP, 1991.

Review: Biruta Capp in FR 68 (1995), 863–64: Includes Maya Slater, "Molière and his Readers"; Wolfgang Matzat, "Modes of Theatricaltiy in Molière's Comedies." Slater concentrates on the stagings; Matzat's "rather absurd and theoretical essay" examines the interaction of the theatrical and social contexts in Dom Juan and the Bourgeois gentilhomme "from a Brechtian optique." Dora Gilula's essay on dual plots in Terrence's comedies is hepful for Molière. The five essays on Shakespeare's comedies contain focuses (on poetry, editorial intervention, political sensitization) that may be extended to other plays.

SCOTT, BRENDAN, S.J. "La valorisation du corps dans les Exercices spirituels d'Ignace de Loyola," in Actes du premier colloque conjointement organisé par la North American Society for Seventeenth Century French Literature et le Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. University of California, Santa Barbara (17–19 mars 1994). PFSCL/Biblio 17 89 (1995), 101–108.

"Il semblerait alors que tandis qu'il y a place à l'intérieur de la rhétorique ignatienne pour une description du corps humain comme étant une chose corrompue menant à la damnation, il y a chez St. Ignace beaucoup plus d'instances où le corps et les cinq sens sont le point de départ de la méditation et créent des images d'où jaillissent les mots nécessaires pour articuler la prière."

SENIOR, MATTHEW. In the Grip of Minos: Confessional Discourse in Dante, Corneille, and Racine. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 1994.

Review: P. Koch in Choice 32 (1995), 1456: "For S. . . . , Western civilization is characterized by the drive to self-awareness, a drive expressed over time in different ways. Where, in antiquity, the ideal was to know oneself (i.e., one's place in society) Judeo-Christian tradition introduced the concept of sin and redemption. Creating an absolute moral standard against which to measure individual behavior and thought, the latter concept manifested itself first as public penance in the early church, then as the durable, multifaceted practice of private confession, and most recently as psychoanalysis. It is against this cultural continuum that S. undertakes to interpret his three selected writers, illustrative of medieval and 17th-century Jesuitical and Jansenist approaches to confession. Of necessity incomplete, largely because of their very ambitiousness, the literary analyses are original, probing, perceptive, vigorous, and challenging. Given the variety of disciplines invoked (e.g., archaeology, psychology, poststructural criticism) and the current stature of the author's guides (Freud, Lacan, Foucault), this study could . . . have appealed to an audience well beyond the field of Romance were it not for the curious decision to translate the Latin and Italian but not the French quotations . . . . A rewarding journey nevertheless for those equipped to make it," says K.

SERROY, JEAN, ed. Romanciers du XVIIe Siècle. Paris: Klincksieck, 1991.

Review: Andrew G. Suozzo in CdDS 5:2 (Fall 1991), 289–91: S. recognizes the contributions of Serroy's compendium, stating, "No serious scholar of the seventeenth-century novel can afford to ignore this rich and exceptional body of scholarship which indicates the importance of the novel for the century and points the way to future studies." Regarding the presentation of the work, S. explains that "each of the volume's articles is generally composed of a concise but thorough critical review of the works of and about a particular author." Suozzo finds especially appealing Verdier's review of criticism on Sorel, Serroy's piece on Tristan L'Hermite, as well as analysis of "lesser known, uncanonical authors" such as Camus, Rosset, Préchac and Le Noble.

SHANKMAN, STEVEN. In Search of the Classic: Reconsidering the Greco Roman Tradition, from Homer to Valery and Beyond. University Park: Penn State UP, 1994.

Review: Anon. in VQR 71 (1995), 118: "S.'s thesis is a bold one: a defense of a normative definition of the classic based on readings of individual literary texts. To justify this derivation of theory from practice, the author presents a loose and uneven concatenation of critical theory, intertextual analysis, and old fashioned close reading." The reviewer finds the "chapters on Plato, Homer, and the history of pastoral . . . excellent and informative," whereas the chapters "on Defoe, Pope, Diderot and Valery [sic] seem light by comparison an impression furthered by a very limited engagement of relevant criticism."

SHAPIRO, NORMAN R., ed. and trans. The Fabulists French: Verse Fables of Nine Centuries. Translated, with prologue and notes. Woodcuts byDavid Schorr. Urbana/Chicago: U of Illinois P, 1992.

Review: A. Callewaert in LR 48 (1994), 146: Welcome and beautiful anthology of the French fable for the general reader, but with an impressive bibliography, index of names and alphabetical list of characters. Translation is judged admirable for its rendering of the sense, style and spirit of the original in all its variety. Includes fabulists who wrote in other dialects, patois and languages including Provençal and Creole. 17th c. is represented by La Fontaine and Furetière.

SHAW, W. DAVID. Elegy and Paradox: Testing the Conventions. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1994.

Review: Anon. in VQR 71 (1995), 50: "This work tracks the generic transformation of elegiac verse through time by comparing historical similarities and differences across literary history. S,'s views are important," states the reviewer, "because they uncover, in a highly competent scholarly fashion, some of the mysteries of a mysteriously complex poetic subgenre." The author "propagates two ideas that are fundamental tenets of genre theory: with each new work or instance of a genre, the genre itself is transformed; periodizing is essential to writing literary history, but subgenres . . . cannot be looked upon as historical classes of literature; rather they are 'classifying statement[s] or proposal[s]' of their respective classes."

SMIT, W. A. P. "La théorie de l'épopée en Europe occidentale aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles." Trans.from the Dutch byPierre Brachin. ALM 256 (1993), 2–61.

Translator is emeritus professor of Dutch language and literature at Paris IV. Brachin's avant-propos caracterizes S.'s work as both colossal and captivating. An eminent comparatist, S. brought "une clarté définitive dans les domaines où régnaient avant lui l'à-peu-près et les conventions." Here B. translates part of S.'s treatment of "le contexte ouest-européen," including sections on Vossius, Tasso and "la doctrine classique." Helpful notes by B. add definitions and bibliographical references.

SOARE, ANTOINE. "Le théâtre des 'belles morts,'" in Actes de Lexington. PFSCL/Biblio 17 87 (1995), 307–318.

The author explains thus the greater decorum found in tragedies written by Mairet and his disciples: "Ces compromis, ces tergiversations relevaient bien plutôt d'une crise des contenus tragiques confrontés à un climat moral soudainement plus exigeant."

SOARE, ANTOINE. "Cadavres exquis du théâtre baroque," in Actes du premier colloque conjointement organisé par la North American Society for Seventeenth Century French Literature et le Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. University of California, Santa Barbara (17–19 mars 1994). PFSCL/Biblio 17 89 (1995), 119–128.

On the stage the body "s'estompe dans un foisonnement de gestes et de paroles. Pour l'en dégager, il faut le mettre spécifiquement en question, de préférence en sa présence, car absent, il n'est plus que littérature, encore que cette absence ait ses degrés au théâtre. C'est là un objectif distinct de la dramaturgie baroque, auquel correspond un éventail de procédés. Le plus fréquent et le plus efficace est l'exposition de cadavres sur la scène."

SPIELMAN, GUY. "Le Discours sur le mariage dans la comédie post-moliériesque, 1683–1715." (Vanderbilt University, 1994) DAI 55:7 1983-A.

S. "examines the discourse on marriage" in the comedies of Dancourt, Dufresny and Regnard." From a theoretical standpoint, S. attempts to dispel the somewhat conflicting critical notion that "comedies of manners offer documentary value by reflecting socio-political upheaval as an example of dramtic realism," while at the same time "limiting themselves to old themes and forms." To offset this idea, he views the "apparent realism" of "drama of this era... [as] an elaborate rhetorical construct." S. argues that the playwrights mentioned worked, "not from reality, but separate from a commonly accepted version of it (the doxa)," and combined this doxa with "rhetorical devices" or topoï to prefigure the fall of the Ancien Régime through heretofore unrecognized discursive patterns that espouse a "nascent ideology of freedom and equality."

STACKELBERG, JURGEN VON. Senecas Tod und andere Rezeptionsfolgen in den romanischen Literaturen der frühen Neuzeit [La Mort de Sénèque et autres "conséquences de réception" dans les littératures romanes à l'aube des temps modernes]. Tübingen, Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1992.

Review: Alain Génetiot in RHL 95:1 (Janvier-février 1995), 82: G. describes S's text as consisting of "dix études comparatistes sur des textes français du XVIe au XVIIe siècles mis en relation avec des oeuvres latines, italiennes, espagnoles et françaises. The critical idiom under which these studies have been grouped is response theory, or "réplique littéraire." Among the seventeenth-century authors mentioned are Tristan L'Hermite, Corneille, Molière, Nicole, Furetière and Scarron.

STACKELBERG, JÜRGEN. "Das Menschenbild der französischen Klassick." RF 104 (1992), 388–396.

Thoughtful and well argumented consideration of Karlheinz Stierle's "negativen Anthropologie" as found in the romance colloque of Düsseldorf (1982) and the volume Französische Klassik edited by Fritz Nies and Stierle. Von S. first examines significant characteristics such as "la raison," "la recherche du naturel,"le goût de mesure," then takes up individual authors such as Molière, La Fontaine, La Rochefoucauld, Mme de La Fayette and others. Von S.'s balanced view reminds us of the importance of divertissement as his conclusion contends that it is better [healthier?] to count on the worst and be pleasantly surprised when things are not so bad than vice-versa.

STATEN, HENRY. Eros in Mourning: Homer to Lacan. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1995.

Review: A. Thiher in Choice 32 (1995), 1590: "In this often brilliant, often disjointed book S. . . . wants to describe the recurrent need in Western culture to take refuge in transcendence in order to escape our anticipatory mourning for the death of the body. . . . S.'s interpretation of Plato seems obvious, and his Derridian reversal of the meaning of the gospel of John seems eccentric. More interesting," in T.'s opinion, "are his explorations of erotics in the troubadours, Hamlet, Madame de Lafayette, and, above all, his reading of Milton's celebration of the body of love . . . ."

STEADMAN, JOHN M. Redefining a Period Style: "Renaissance," "Mannerist," and "Baroque" in Literature. Pittsburgh: Duquesne UP, 1990.

Review: E.J. Campion in ECr 33 (1993), 115: Judged "thoughtful" and "significant," S.'s book argues that the concept of a gradual evolution of styles of art and literature is more useful than an artificial and controversial division of the period (14–17 c.) into several distinct movements. Finds the prism of classical rhetorical theories helpful in interpreting works of this era. C. appreciates S.'s profound analyses of "often overlooked links between literature and painting."

STEFANOVSKA, MALINA. "Le corps politique et ses maladies dans l'imaginaire politique de l'époque de Louis XIV," in Actes du premier colloque conjointement organisé par la North American Society for Seventeenth Century French Literature et le Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. University of California, Santa Barbara (17–19 mars 1994). PFSCL/Biblio 17 89 (1995), 375–384.

The human body as the model of the political community in the writings of Saint Simon especially.

STROSETZKI, CHRISTOPH. "Spanien und Calderón in Frankreichs Klassik und Klassizismus," in "Diversité, c'est ma devise." Studien zur französischen Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts. PFSCL/Biblio 17 86 (1994), 493–507.

STURGES, DUGALD S. The German Molière Comedies of Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Carl Sternheim. Frankfurt: Lang, 1993.

Review: R. W. Williams in MLR 90 (1995), 250–51: Study of 20th century German comedy "first offers a precise and very useful chronology of the relationship between Sternheim and Hofmannsthal and then surveys the history of Molière reception in Germany before embarking on a thorough examination of the ways in which each writer's encounter with Molière was instrumental in his development of a new comic style."

SUOZZO, ANDREW. "De l'idéologique au ludique: la représentation du corps du roman comique au roman burlesque," in Actes du premier colloque conjointement organisé par la North American Society for Seventeenth Century French Literature et le Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. University of California, Santa Barbara (17–19 mars 1994). PFSCL/Biblio 17 89 (1995), 141–150.

"Dans un monde à l'envers, le corps dominera l'esprit dans une tentative de désabusement fort imprégnée du courant libertin. Plus tard, quand cette première réaction de réalisme 'antagoniste' se sera épuisée, le roman exploitera la matière même de cette tradition du corps humilié en se servant d'une intertextualité ludique qui, d'une certaine façon, indiquera une prise de distance entre les premières histoires comiques et le roman comique/burlesque après 1640."

SUTTON, DANA F. The Catharsis of Comedy. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1994.

Review: H. Pelliccia in Choice 32 (1995), 1111: This is "a brief . . . book on a very large, perhaps impossibly large, subject." The author intends "to contrive a theory of comedy corresponding to the theory of tragedy expounded by Aristotle in his Poetics." P. finds S.'s "theoretical insights . . . of very uneven quality . . . . On the other hand," states P., "chapter 7 has sensible comments on comedy's greater flexibility than tragedy's in maintaining and breaking the dramatic illusion; chapter 8 answers recent criticisms of J. Bernays's view of catharsis as a medicinal metaphor. Overall," according to P., "the book was casually thought out and written. It was also very sloppily produced: serious typos mar almost every page . . . ."

TEUBER, BERNHARD. Sprache-Körper-Traum. Zur karnevalesken Tradition in der romanischen Literatur aus früher Neuzeit. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1989.

Review: A. Gier in ZRP 109 (1993), 415–417: Appreciated for its clarity, careful argumentation and choice of examples, T.'s work is both cultural/semiotic and archaeological. Emphasis is not on 17 c. French, but a lengthy chapter treats the dream account in Francion.

TODOROV, TZVETAN and MARC FUMAROLI. Mélanges sur l'oeuvre de Paul Bénichou. Paris: Gallimard, 1995.

Review: Patrick Kechichian in Le Monde des Livres (3 Mar. 1995), v: Presents the enterprise of Bénichou's scholarship and writing globally, showing the "cohérence et la rigueur de ce travail." Essays by Todorov, Fumaroli, Bonnefoy, Castex, Jean Borie, Jose-Luis Dias, Philippe Raynaud, Agulhon, Jacques Roubaud, Mark K. Jensen.

TODD, JANET, ed. The Works of Aphra Behn. Vol. 4: Seneca Unmasqued and Other Prose Translations. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 1993.

Review: Irwin Primer in PQ 74 (1995), 125–29: Included are B.'s translations of La Rochefoucauld (Maximes) and Fontenelle (Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes and L'Histoire des oracles). The reviewer, who criticizes numerous aspects of T.'s editorial work, states that "T.'s intention of reviving these long-dormant prose translations by B. is surely commendable, but her editing . . . clearly needed more time and attention."

TORTEL, JEAN. Un certain XVIIe siècle. Marseille: André Dimanche, 1994.

Review: Amadée Carriat in CTH 16 (1994), 65: Posthumous collection of papers set in book form before the author's death. Welcomes the reappearance of historically important papers instrumental in the rediscovery of the earlier part of the 17th century's richness in literature.

TOUMAYAN, ALAIN, ed. Literary Generations: A Festschrift in Honor of Edward D. Sullivan. Lexington, Ky.: French Forum, 1992.

Review: R. Killick in MLR 90 (1995), 175–76: Volume of twenty widely varied essays includes articles by L. Mackenzie, Jr. "on contrasting views of Paris in Saint Amant, Boileau, and La Bruyere"; by F. Rigolot "on Sainte Beuve's linking of Romanticism, Renaissance, and Classicism in his Tableau historique (1828)." K. Anderson "finds formal precursors of Celine in Froissart, Tallemant des Réaux, Chamfort, and G. Lenotre."

TRUCHET, JACQUES and ANDRE BLANC, eds. Théâtre du XVIIe siècle III. Paris; Gillimard, 1992.

Review: Ronald W. Tobin in FR 68 (1995), 528–29: 18 plays, from the death of Molière to the turn of the century: Quinault, Pardon, T.Corneille and de Visé, Fatouville, Baron, Dancourt (7), Campistron, Regnard (4), La Fosse. "Forte et savante introduction en quatre parties" focusing on "un nouveau paysage théâtral" and including a good bibliographical synthesis of recent work on the "theatre lyrique." Chronology, variants, biblio. (including recordings): an ed. 'qui s'impose par la qualité de son appareil critique."

• See French 17 (1994).

VERDIER, GABRIELLE. "From Dragons to Dragonflies: A Taxonomy of Creatures in the Literary Fairy Tale." CdDS 5:2 (Fall 1991), 147–56.

V. examines the use of animal imagery in the French fairy tale between 1690 and 1705. She studies six conteuses, among them d'Aulnoy, Murat and d'Auneuil, as well as four conteurs such as Perrault and Mailly. The questions V. attempts to answer throughout her "taxonomic inquiry into animal types and frequency" are 1) "what does animal representation reveal about the author's taste, or... ideology? and 2) Is representation related to the gender of the authors?" After listing several categories of animal types and cataloguing their frequency, G. concludes that "a smaller variety of animals appear in men's tales, with women authors "includ[ing] a greater variety of smaller species and tend[ing] to favor the female and even feminine names." G. ends her article by appending charts which break down animal taxonomy and frequency according to the individual author and the gender of the author.

VERONA, ROXANA M. "Au bonheur des dames: l'agence littéraire de Sainte-Beuve." FrF 19 (1994), 279–294.

Views the "modèle de Sainte-Beuve" as "une proposition de lecture qui en provoque une autre . . . ." Calls for a parallel and complementary reading from the women's texts themselves, an "action d'intervention et de sauvetage littéraires d'une page d'histoire littéraire presque effacée." Refers to Ste-Beuve's "Qu'est-ce qu'un classique," his portraits of Molière, Mme de La Fayette and his causerie on Mlle de Scudéry.

VIALA, A., ed. Qu'est-ce qu'un classique? Paris: Klincksieck, 1993.

Review: Marc Escola in RHL 94:6 (novembre-décembre 1994), 1063–67: E. remarks that V.'s project is to "permettre aux dix-septiémistes de réfléchir sur une catégorie constitutive de leur domaine d'études, mais aussi de dialoguer avec les spécialistes des classiques les plus anciens," so as to determine exactly what a "classic" is. One definition proposed is, "un classique est un auteur déjà toujours lu, une oeuvre précédé d'un commentaire qui en oriente la lecture." The notions of "modèle" and "modelisation" also figure into this conception of what is "classicisable." After a discussion of the ancients, and of the concepts of "règle" and "plaisir," the review summarizes current studies in seventeenth century criticism such as E. Bury's idea, applied in La Fontaine, La Bruyère and Fontenelle, that a classic reveals "une conscience de traducteur," showing, "à quel point la traduction informe encore des ouvrages qui pour nous, paraissent incarner la maturité d'un âge adulte de la littérature française." E. concludes his review by asking whether a discussion of such a work in a publication like RHL is part of the "dynamique de la classicisation."

Review: J. Marmier in PFSCL 22 (1995), 303–305: Described by reviewer as "un classique de la réflexion sur le classicisme." Articles by F. Népote Desmarres, H. Merlin, P. Ronzeaud, A. Génetiot, E. Bury, P. Dandrey, G. Forestier, and others.

WATERSON, KAROLYN, ed. Réflexions sur le genre moraliste au XVIIe siècle. Dalhousie French Studies 27 (1994).

Review: J. Marmier in PFSCL 22 (1995), 690–692: Studies of La Bruyère, La Rochefoucauld, and Madeleine de Scudéry. A volume which, according to the reviewer, "jette des lumières neuves."

WEISGERBER, JEAN. Les Masques fragiles: esthétique et formes de la littérature rococo. Lausanne : L'Age d'Homme, 1991.

Review: P. Stewart in ECr 33 (1993), 115–116: Finds treatment inspired and seductive, impressive by the variety of sources of the period and agreably nuanced. S. wishes that this oeuvre de synthèse, which prepares the scene first with a treatment of "le beau classique" were furnished with a lexique or index of subjects. Reviewer concludes, "personne n'a plus complètement embrassé le sujet, personne n'en a tracé une histoire plus suave ou plus juducieuse."

WINN, JAMES ANDERSON. When Beauty Fires the Blood: Love and the Arts in the Age of Dryden. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1992.

Review: Buford Norman in CdDS 5:2 (Fall 1991), 301–03: While W.'s text mainly deals with Dryden, N. states that it contains "many issues that are of considerable interest to dix-septiémistes." Among these are the English court's attempt "to import French taste, including English versions of La Mort de Pompée and of Molière, Quinault, and of Lully's Psyché." Of `interest also, according to Norman, is the fact that "quarrels about painting and music were linked to literary quarrels about imitation, imagination and judgment." In addition, N. states that in both countries, "proponents of different types of theater argued about evoking passions, verisimilitude, and the relative importance of plot, about whether one should please the public or the critics."

WITTSCHIER, HEINZ WILLI. Die französische Literatur. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1988.

Review: W. Schweickard in ZRP 109 (1993), 607–08: Sections include an overview of French literature from the Middle Ages to the present and a bibliographical guide. Useful for a quick survey.

WOSHINSKY, BARBARA R. Signs of Certainty: The Linguistic Imperative of French Classical Literature. Stanford: Anma Libri, 1991.

Review: D. Clarke in MLR 89 (1994), 1000–01: Collection of previously published articles on Corneille, Racine, Pascal, La Bruyère. "Abstract theoretical preliminaries" focus on the definition of "'the epistemological status of classical literature'." Strength of W.'s close textual analysis somewhat diffused by "ambitious generalizations."

Review: Buford Norman in FR 68 (1994), 340–41: "Well thought-out overview of the variety and complexity of classical discourse" and its relation to truth. "Numerous interesting readings" of Corneille (L'Illusion, Le Cid, Horace, Polyeucte,Nicomede), Racine (Andromaque, Britannicus, Iphigénie, Esther), Pascal (fragmentation, human and divine language, Augustinian exegesis and theology), La Bruyere ("De la cour 81," social discourse, fragmentation). Finds that "classical discourse affirms both reference and hierarchy" but also "undermines its own interpretation."

• See French 17 (1994, 1993).

WOOD, ALLEN G. "Suicide and Classical Theatre," in Actes de Lexington. PFSCL/Biblio 17 87 (1995), 331–343.

Reviews the theme and calls for further research on the subject.

YGAUNIN, JEAN. La Femme et le prêtre: thème littéraire. Paris: Nizet, 1993.

Review: C. K. Chadwick in MLR 90 (1995), 432–33: ". . . the analysis of female images which emerges in this study is somewhat stereotyped in its approach, emphasizing the sexuality of mythological Woman as tentatrice, as the embodiment of purity; as motherfigure or whore, and so on, rather than assessing the woman in the books studied as individual characters." Analysis based on literary texts from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, including Molière in the 17th century.

Review: H. R. Runte in RBPH 72 (1994), 722–23: "Catalogue d'un thème littéraire? Oui. Ouvrage utile? En l'absence totale de toute documentation (ni indices bibliographiques, ni bibliographie critique, ni index) la réponse ne peut être que négative."

ZEBOUNI, SELMA. " Présentation, représentation: le classicisme au carrefour." ECr 33 (1993), 32–42.

Rich and provocative discussion convincingly demonstrates, through pertinent references to Boileau and Kant as well as to present day critics of "le classique" and "le baroque," that "la poétique de la mimesis (dite classique) et la poétique du sublime (dite baroque) ne sont pas des volets opposés mais bien complémentaires d'une même préoccupation esthétique, qui continue jusqu'à nos jours."

ZEBOUNI, SELMA. "Mimesis and je ne sais quoi: Boileau, Kant et Derrida." CdDS 5:2 (Fall 1991), 53–60.

Z. explores the problematic relationship between art and nature, and the subjective and the universal, while trying to uncover an aesthetic of the sublime in Boileau, Kant and Derrida. Claiming that B. and K. try to resolve the antimony between the subjective and the universal by arguing for art based on imitation and admiration of nature, Z. holds that D. attacks this notion by articulating a concept called "la mimesis productrice." D.'s interpretation differs from classical notions of mimesis because genius involves not reproduction, but independent production which elevates the artist to a man-God status. According to Z., D. argues for a logocentrism in art grounded in humanist themes. Thus, the notion of the sublime in D. carries with it not a sense of the inscrutable or ineffable, i.e., the je ne sais quoi, but a reaffirmation of human reason and language.

ZECHER, CARLA. "Pagan Spirituality and Christian Passion: The Music of the Spheres in Sixteenth-Century French Cosmological Poetry." FrF 18 (1993), 297–316.

Striking study illustrates the cosmological poet's twofold task: "first to read, and then to write the book of nature," and that the "cosmological path that Ronsard,Peletier and Du Bartas had each only traveled in part, leads in La Ceppede's Théorèmes to the devotional style that marks the end of the French poetic Renaissance." Z. traces a metapoetic journey that culminates in La C.'s intersection of pagan spirituality with Christian passion, a recreation of "the music of the spheres."

ZIPES, JACK. Fairy Tale as Myth: Myth as Fairy Tale. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1994.

Review: E. R. Baer in Choice 32 (1995), 1444: "Z.'s theoretical approach, which tends toward the Marxist and feminist, has proven to be provocative . . . [two earlier books by Z. are cited]. The present volume . . . endeavors to look at the 'evolution of the fairy tale as a literary genre . . . marked by a process of dialectical appropriation involving duplication and revision that set the cultural conditions for its mythicization, institutionalization, and expansion as a mass-mediated form through radio, film, and television.' Following a chapter that traces the origin of the fairy tale, Z. turns to contemporary iterations . . . ." "Richly illustrated and persuasively argued," according to B., "this volume is an important addition to all collections."

ZUBER, ROGER. Les belles infideles et la formation du goût classique. Paris: Albin Michel, 1995.

Review: Laurent Theis in BSHPF 141 (1995), 453: Re-publication of 1968 pioneering work updated in Biblio. and "augmented" (how the reviewer does not specify): a timely reminder to new meditation on the "rapports incertains entre la beauté et la fidelité." Postface by Emmanuel Bury.

ZUBER, ROBER, LILIANE PICCIOLA, DENIS LOPEZ et EMMANEUL BURY, eds. Littérature française du XVIIe siècle. Paris: PUF, 1992.

Review: Christian Garaud in FR 67 (1994), 868–69: "Un nouvel instrument de travail sûr et de lecture agréable" for 1st and 2nd-year students organized by genre: theatre and novel (Picciola), poetry (Lopez), "prose de'art" (Bury). Index and useful "Lexique des idées" (Zuber, as is Intro. and conclusion). Reviewer takes issue with Zuber's judgement that poetry for the century is "weak" and that it consequently deserves less place in a history than "prose d'art" that is "pleine de promesse" and similarly for La Fontaine vis-à-vis "Bossuet et l'éloquence."

• See French 17 (1993).