FRENCH 17

• See French 17 (1997, 96).

BERTAUD, MADELEINE and FRANÇOIS-XAVIER CUCHE. Le Genre des Mémoires, essai de définition. Paris: Klincksieck, 1995.

Review: Marie-Odile Sweetser in FR 70 (1997), 321–23: 25 papers from Strasbourg conference arranged under "Quelques éléments d'introduction, Le Mémorialiste dans son oeuvre, Mémoires et genres voisins, Un genre mixte et ambigue." Motteville receives for 17th-century the lion's share with essays by M.-T. Hipp, M. Bertaud, and M. Cuenin. Also included are essays on Retz by T. Pavel and F. Broit, on Goulas by N. Hepp, on Charles Perrault by J.M. Zarucci, by F. Deloffre and J. Popin on Challe, on Sully by B. Barbiche, on the memorialists of the Fronde by H. Carrier, and on Saint-Simon by Yves Coirault.

BERTRAND, DOMINIQUE. Dire le rire à l'âge classique. Représentation pour mieux contrôler. Aix en Provence: Pubs. de l'Université de Provence, 1995.

Review: Johan Verberchmoes in Annales 52.3 (1997), 521–22: "Livre kaléidoscopique" in its diversity of sources and little or unknown documents with a view of offering an "éthnologie historique des attitudes concrètes en matière de rire." Discouragement, control, of the "geste corporel" brings changes in vocabulary in the 2nd half of the century: from joy to "bonheur serein," under the influence of philosophy and medicine, comedy becomes a "sourire." Yet, the reviewer, concludes, the thesis that mythic laughter loses out needs to be rethought.

• See French 17 (1997, 1996).

BESSIERE, JEAN, EVA KUSHNER, ROLAND MORTIER, JEAN WEISGERBER, éds. Histoire des poétiques. Paris: PUF, 1997.

Review: V. Kapp in OeC 23.1 (1998), 123–26: "37 universitaires et chercheurs de sept pays dressent ici un panorama 'des poétiques des littératures occidentales, depuis l'Antiquité jusqu'au XXe siècle'." La quatrième partie par P. Laurens et F. Vuilleumier s'intitule "le XVIIe siècle parce qu'ils veulent éviter le débat infructueux sur le baroque. Ils adoptent une solution ingénieuse en mettant en parallèle 'Europe baroque, France classique' et en encadrant ce chapitre par un chapitre sur 'le génie et les règles' et par un sur 'l'ancien et le nouveau'."

BIET, CHRISTIAN. Oedipe en monarchie: tragédie et théorie juridique à l'âge classique. Paris: Klincksieck, 1994.

Review: E. Méchoulan in SubStance 26.3 (1997), 179–180: "Impossible to be a tragedian without writing an Oedipus, but how to write it without questioning the very foundations of the Ancien Régime's social order? ... B. carefully analyzes translations and adaptations of Sophocles's tragedy, showing the extraordinary elasticity of the original plot..." including "a description of the many means translators and tragedians invented in order to reaffirm royal and paternal powers and to clear Oedipus as far as possible of his personal guilt." Some readings of B. are qualified as "simple plot analysis" due to the sheer quantity of texts covered. But the best pages are at the end of the book, "where B. shows very accurately the peculiar role tragedies played in the Ancien Régime... [T]he tragedy of Oedipus permits both a questioning of the connection between affective relations with the father and the effective power of the King, and a reinstatement of social and domestic positions.... Investigating legal and mental dispositions, B. shows how parricide, regicide and incest constitute limit cases, and how tragedies become a theatricalization of the crisis of the law, and of the whole geneological organization."

BINION, RUDOLPH. Sounding the Classics: From Sophocles to Thomas Mann. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1997.

Review: A. Thiher in Choice 35.6 (1998), 986: "Going against contemporary trends, B. ... argues that classics can be defined in terms of the way they offer an explicit 'over theme' and a contradictory or opposing 'under theme.' In fact, B. calls for the polysemantic overdetermination that any great work shows when one tries to isolate its meaning. The critic looks at a dozen major works, ... from Sophocles ... through Racine...."

BIONDI, C., C. IMBROSCIO, M.-J. LATIL, N. MINERVA, C. PELLANDRA, A. SFRAGARO, B.SOUBEYRAN, et P. VECCHI, éds. La quête du bonheur et l'expression de la douleur dans la littérature et la pensée françaises. Mélanges offerts àCorrado Rosso. Genève: Droz, 1995.

Review: F. Lagarde in OeC 23.1 (1998), 126–29: 41 articles regroupés en chapitres dont l'ordre est thématique. "Côté dix-septième, B. Papasogli étudie chez Guez de Balzac, La Mothe Le Vayer, Abbadie, Pascal, Saint-Evremond et d'autres, les rapports qu'entretient le bonheur avec la mémoire et le temps. D. Dalla Valle montre comment Tristan L'Hermite, dans La Folie du sage, se détourne de l'idéal néo-stoicien de l'ataraxie et lui préfère une série de jeux baroques. . . . J.-P. Collinet étudie dans la Psyché de La Fontaine les thèmes du bonheur de l'amour et de la souffrance de la séparation . . . . J. Mesnard analyse l'attitude de Pascal à l'égard de la pauvreté selon les perspectives sociale, morale et spirituelle. Y. Coirault soutient à propos de Saint-Simon que 'la commisération, l'honneur, la conscience n'ont probablement jamais cessé de parler, et de parler hautement, dans le coeur de l'ecrivain, quoiqu'il ait très apparemment cherché ailleurs son sacre'."

BIRKET, JENNIFER and JAMES KEARNS. A Guide to French Literature: From Early Modern to Postmodern. Basingstroke: MacMillan, 1997.

Review: F. C. St. Aubyn in Choice 35.5 (1998), 826: B. and K. "carefully place writers in their time and place among their contemporaries, revealing the importance of their work at the time of publication and its influence on the literature and language of the future. The authors illuminate the role of religion and politics in the development of the essay, poetry, novel and the theater of France, differentiating the historical, the classical, the comic, morality, revolution, the scientific.... One of the most informative sections ... is that devoted to the women's movement and the rise of feminist literature."

BREDIN, JEAN DENIS et THIERRY LEVY. Convaincre. Dialogue sur l'éloquence. Paris: Odile Jacob, 1997.

Review: P. Billard in Le Point 1312 (1997), 113: "Noble exercice d'un art spécifique de la conversation argumentée entre deux maîtres unis par l'estime réciproque.... Or l'éloquence se développe toujours sur les plateaux du grand spectacle dans le conflit, la menace ou la tragédie, et souvent sous les projeteurs de l'Histoire. Ainsi les auteurs analysent ils ... les deux fameuses oraisons funèbres de Bossuet prononcées à dix mois de distance pour Henriette de France, puis pour sa fille, Henriette d'Angleterre." Also studies contributions of La Fontaine and Pascal to "l'éloquence."

CANEPA, NANCY L., ed. Out of the Woods: The Origins of the Literary Fairy Tale in Italy and France. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998.

Review: n.a. in VQR 74.3 (1998), 88: "This thought provoking book explores the history of fairy tales in Italy and France in the 17th and 18th centuries. It successfully places the fairy tale genre in the context of a complex social, cultural, and literary history. Comprised of an introduction and 11 essays, the collection offers an interesting analysis of the initial origination and later modification of the fairy tale.

Review: Andrew Waurn in TLS 4963 (15 May 1998), 25: Favorable but very general review. Treats Mme d'Aulnoy and two tales, Jack Zipes on fairy tale cats before and after Perrault, and Catherine Velay Vallantin's "fascinating" treatment of "Little Red Riding Hood," themes (among which the creative intersection of classicism and baroque), and recurrent literary terms.

CHARRON, JEAN and MARY LYNNE FLOWERS. Actes de Lexington. Pierre Charron. Autour de l'année 1715 dans les Memories de Saint-Simon. La Mort dans la littérature du XVIIe siècle. PFSCL/Biblio 17, 87 (1995).

Review: G. Rooryck in RF 109 (1997), 359–61: R. praises the volume, celebrating the 25th anniversary of NASSCFL, for its "pistes prometteuses" and "perspectives éclairantes." R. would have liked more elaboration in certain cases, but strictures imposed by editors/organizers explain disparity of length among the essays. Volume presents Charron in an ecumenistic light.

CHARTIER, ROGER, ALAIN BOUREAU et CECILE DAUPHIN. Correspondence: Models of Letter Writing from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.

Review: n.a. in VQR 74.3 (1998), 88–90: "This volume comprises four brief essays ... on various aspects of the historical development of letter forms.... Read together, they provide a selective interpretation of certain stages in the long and continuous tradition of the model letter, both public and private, which first took shape in the 12th century. There are perceptive comments on the spread of literacy and standardized grammar and spelling, on the emergence of the notary and the jurist in a genre once dominated by rhetoricians, and on the importance of epistolary rules which were not only a reflection of social hierarchy and a means of political control, but a silent invitation to assert one's individuality by ignoring them."

Review: CR in TLS 4940 (5 Dec. 1997), 31: Contains long essay by Chartier on l7th century secretaries and the introduction to the collection of the three essays. Reviewer has reservations that "there are not enough concepts offered, let alone conceptions made, to enable any sort of reader to get a grip on a fascinating subject."

CHAUVEAU, JEAN-PIERRE. Lire le Baroque. Paris: Dunod, 1997.

Review: Françoise Graziani in CTH 19 (1997), 59: An "initiation claire et documentée," situated culturally and historically. Biographical introductions to each author, lexicon of themes, detailed chronological table, and appended documents from his history of critical reception.

Review: J.-C. Vuillemin in PFSCL 15 (1998), 284–286: An excellent guide directed at a student readership.

CHEVALIER, TRACY, ed. Encyclopedia of the Essay. London/Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.

Review: A. C. Labriola in Choice 35.8 (1998), 1347: "The essay, a varied literary genre whose authors cut across all cultures and national boundaries, at last has its own comprehensive reference book. While acknowledging the variety of forms essays may take, this encycopedia gives specific but not rigid definition to the heterogeneous enterprise of essayistic writing. Its more than 500 entries classify entries as generic (e.g., moral, travel, autobiographical), as variations thereon (aphorism, chapter, feuilleton, sermon), as national (French...), as individual... and as periodical.... Especially useful are entries on individual essayists, wich are divided into four sections: commentary on the author's use of, and contributions to, the genre; biographical data; selected titles of the author's essays, editions or collected works in the genre, and bibliographies of critical and interpretive analyses; and recommendations for further reading... 275 contributors."

CLARKE, DAVID. "'User des droits d'un souverain pouvoir': Sexual Violence on the Tragic Stage." SCFS 18 (1996), 103–21.

Analyzes the politicization of erotic conquest in three plays of the 1630s, which differ from Hardy's dramatic exploitation of the horror of rape in Scédase, without explicit political significance. Rotrou's Crisante and both Du Ruyer's and Chevreau's Cléôpatre in the wake of Grotius's treatise on war and peace, in varying ways and with differing degrees of success, give the historical "fable" a principled political pisition.

COMEDIA. URL: http://listserv.arizona.edu/comedia.html.

Review: O. B. Gonzalez in Choice 35.11/12 (1998), 136: "Developed by James I. Abraham and Vern G. Williamsen, this multi-purpose resource is a dream come true for students and professors of Golden Age drama. It includes a bulletin board for those intersted in ongoing comedia discussions; an easy-to-access collection of unannotated primary texts that can be read on screen or downloaded; [and] a database with graphics.... The Center for Links connects the browser with more than 20 sites useful in comedia studies. Written in English, Spanish, and French, many of the links originate in other countries. Links range from world theater to Spanish language dictionaries...."

DALLA VALLE, DANIELA. Aspects de la pastorale dans l'italianisme du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Champion, 1995.

Review: F. Lavocat in PFSCL 15 (1998), 288–291: Nine articles on the pastorale dramatique, especially Italy's influence on France at the beginning of the century: "L'axe essentiel de l'oeuvre de Daniela Dalla Valle est . . . l'affirmation d'un lien consubstantiel entre la pastorale et l'âge baroque."

DANDREY, PATRICK. L'éloge paradoxal de Gorgias à Molière. Paris: PUF, 1997.

Review: S. Poli in PFSCL 15 (1998), 292–295: An important comparative literature study (including Pascal and Molière)that the reviewer describes as "vaste et complexe."

DEJEAN, JOAN. Ancients against Moderns. Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de Siècle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.

Review: J. Lyons in PFSCL 15 (1998), 295–298: Reviewer deems this a "meticulously-researched, informative, important revisionist account of the Querelle des anciens et des modernes."

DUBOIS, CLAUDE-GILBERT ed. L'isle des Hermaphrodites. Geneva: Droz, 1996.

Review: Richard Crescenzo in RHL 98.4 (1998), 653: Favorable evaluations in which reviewer states that, "Dubois s'est attaqué à ce texte avec sa perspicacité coutumière, et son introduction très dense permet d'éclairer quelque peu ce livre difficile." With respect to the allegorical dimension of the text (by most accounts published in 1605), the reviewer states that the metaphor of hermaphroditism "évoque à la fois un épicurisme sensuel et un libéralisme économique égoïste." As a political statement, the book "proclame donc la fin d'une époque dominée par une idéologie de la nature et de la liberté et le début d'une ère fondée sur la triple allégeance au Roi, à la Foi, et à la Loi.

Review: I. A. R De Smet in BHR 60.1 (1998), 253–59: Edition critique d'un pamphlet anonyme dont le texte "n'était accessible que dans ses éditions contemporaines parues autour de 1605 ou dans des rééditions presque aussi rares du XVIIIe siècle. . . . Or, les questions qui ont retenu l'attention des critiques et que M. Dubois réexamine dans son introduction, se divisent en trois catégories. Elles concernent, d'abord, l'identité de l'auteur, puis le genre et les traditions littéraires dans lesquels s'inscrit le texte, et, enfin, le but de sa pointe satirique. Des analyses de l'imaginaire remarquable de ce texte sont liées à ces deux dernières questions."

DUBU, JEAN. Les églises chrétiennes et le théâtre (1550–1850). Grenoble: Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 1997.

Review: J. Emelina in PFSCL 15 (1998), 302–303: According to the reviewer, a "travail remarquable" providing a general survey of the conflicts between religion and the theater. Dubu also compares the situation in France to those in England and Italy.

DUBU, JEAN. "Les Plaideurs et Corneille." PFSCL 15 (1998), 233–239.

Studies Racine's borrowings from Corneille and the former's "réglement de compte" with regard to the latter.

DUNN, KEVIN. Pretexts of Authority: The Rhetoric of Authorship in the Renaissance Preface. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.

Review: J. Brady in RenQ 50 (1997), 923–24: Descartes is included among exponents of the new science as Dunn examines rhetorical forms and their reception among 16th and 17th c. authors (Luther, Milton, Bacon, Sprat, etc.). B. would have preferred a tighter organization and clearer definition of "preface"; in D.'s work on Descartes the idea expands to what Dunn calls "interlocking" works, "each serving as a preface to the next." Considers tangential, yet admires D's pages on Descartes' fascination with Amsterdam.

EMELINA, JEAN. "La mer dans la tragédie classique." SCFS 19 (1997), 161–73.

Fine analysis of the ways in which evocations of the sea, in the plays of Corneille and especially Racine, in which there might be poetic expansions are (in contrast to Greek tragedies, Seneca, Garnier) mythologized, idealized, interiorized, reduced to "illusion réferentielle." Contrasts the lyricism of poets, painters, engravers, and the spectacle of ballet sets and costumes when the sea is the setting, to emphasize this "dénouement"/"carence." For a complement, see Nina Ekstein on Mithridate (PFSCL/Biblio 17, 111 (1998), 103–13).

ERICKSON, ROBERT A. The Language of the Heart, 1600–1750. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.

Review: Choice 35.4 (1997), 635: "E.'s topic is the heart, both the organ and the metaphor the driving force in the cirulatory system and the perceived seat of the thoughts and emotions. After surveying ancient theories on circulation, E. ... devotes a series of chapters to close readings of five important early modern works, examining the rhetorical function of the heart in each.... He argues convincingly that Galenic theories survived in popular consciousness long after early modern physicans and scientists adopted Harvey's system; and he relates this slow paradigm shift to gender and sexuality."

Review: Rob Iliffe in TLS 4977 (21 Aug. 1998), 7: New historicist study that offers a "fascinating account" of the heart's multiple significations and metonymic possibilities in early modern language, discourse, and imagery. Primarily centers on English texts.

FOWLER, ELIZABETH and ROLAND GREENE, eds. The Project of Prose in Early Modern Europe and the New World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Review: E. D. Hill in Choice 35.6 (1998), 986–987: "F. and G. have assembled ten original essays by as many American scholars on prose of the 16th and 17th centuries. Six treat English writing, and one each is devoted to Portuguese, Italian, French and Spanish. The essays stress what one contributor calls 'prose license' ways in which prose responds with unique flexibility to the multiple demands and conflicting impulses that act on early modern writers."

FUMAROLI, MARC, PHILIPPE-JOSEPH SALAZAR ET EMMANUEL BURY, eds. Le loisir lettré à l'âge classique. Genève: Droz, 1996.

Review: B. Bray in PFSCL 15 (1998), 309–312: A valuable collection of sixteen studies. Index.

GAILLARD, AURELIA. Fables, mythes, contes. L'esthétique de la fable et du fabuleux (1600–1724). Paris: Champion, 1996.

Review: P.-J. Salazar in PFSCL 15 (1998), 313: Reviewer deems this a work that is "intéressant, documenté, fourmillant d'informations."

GAINES, JAMES F. "The Comic Heir from Corneille to Molière." PFSCL 15 (1998), 247–254.

Studies the evolution of heirship and the conflict between heredity and money.

GAMBELLI, DELIA, ed. Arlecchino a Parigi, II: Lo Scenario di Domenico Biancolelli. Roma: Bulzoni, 1997.

Review: C. Mazouer in PFSCL 15 (1998), 314–316: A much awaited edition of the personal notebook of the Italian actor who played the role of Harlequin on the French stage. Sheds much light on the development of the commedia dell'arte in France.

GENDRE, ANDRE. Evolution du sonnet français. Paris: PUF, 1996.

Review: M. Clément in RBPH 75.3 (1997), 858: "L'ouvrage d'André Gendre . . . présente une double orientation: à la fois dissémination—anthologie de sonnets—et condensation-synthèse sur l'évolution d'une forme poétique." Poètes privilégiés du XVIIe siècle: La Ceppède, Malherbe, Tristan et Gombauld.

GENETIOT, ALAIN. Poétique du loisir mondain, de Voiture à La Fontaine. Paris: Champion, 1997.

Review: P. France in MLR 93 (1998), 829–30: Study of the culture of galanterie as seen through the poetry of Voiture, Sarasin, Pellisson, Benserade, and La Fontaine. "Génetiot prefers a thematic approach, wherein the poems, and sometimes the prose, of these and other writers are made to illustrate central features of salon culture: the discreet blending of many traditions, classical, medieval, and modern; the place of the poet in polite society; the galant redefinition of love as an elegant game, neither tragic nor vulgar; the closeness of poetry to ephemeral conversation and letter-writing; the golden image of a leisured and amorous Arcadia."

Review: S. Guellouz in PFSCL 15 (1998), 316–317: A study which places "en valeur tout ce qui, relevant d'une esthétique de la grâce et du je ne sais quoi, confère au classicisme un équilibre que sa seule dimension doctrinale—de règles et de raison bardée—n'aurait évidemment pu lui donner."

GILOT, MICHEL, and JEAN SERROY, eds. La comédie à l'âge classique. Paris: Belin, 1997.

Review: Emmanuel Minel in RHL 98.4 (1998), 657–58. Generally favorable review of a book which "passe en revue le théâtre comique de la Renaissance à la Révolution française." With respect to the seventeenth century, the reviewer notes the absence of Corneille, but does discuss the attention given to Molière, as well as the "notions essentielles" of neoclassical drama which he cites as "le spectacle comique, la comédie religieuse, et la comédie de moeurs." In addition, reviewer mentions the study of farce as a vital feature of the work. With respect to "l'importante question des règles, le chapitre 4 insiste comme il faut sur leur rentabilité plutôt que sur leurs limites." Reviewer also mentions the usefulness of the chronology, bibliography, and index.

GOODKIN, RICHARD E. "Nicomède 1 and 2: The Fraternal Heritage of Pierre and Thomas Corneille." PFSCL 15 (1998), 255–265.

Studies evolving 17th century notions of inheritance: "Pierre and Thomas Corneille's tragedies of fractured primogeniture should be read not as the solution to a problem, but rather as an expression of a problem: the problem of the unfairness of primogeniture itself, as well as the conflicts that inevitably arise from its gradual erosion."

GUITTON, EDOUARD, ed. La culpabilité dans la littérature française. Paris: Klincksieck, 1995.

Review: Katherine Kolb in FR 71.2 (1997), 284–89: 27 essays, on subjects from the Middle Ages through the 18th century, whose collective richness in self reckoning is a tribute to the vitality of literary study, the reviewer affirms. Contains pieces on Racine by Olivier Pot, on Corneille's Médée and Cléopâtre by Marie Odile Sweetser, and by Louise de Donville on polemics on fashion. To be followed by a second volume.

• See French 17 (1997)

GUTLEBEN, MURIEL. "Scène, cercles et seuils: les lieux d'effroi dans quelques pièces du grand siècle." SCFS 19 (1997), 175–84.

Ably demonstrated, with telling examples from La Calprenède, Rotrou, Mairet, among others in addition to Corneille and Racine, of the sacralization of the stage space scenically set as "cavernes et grottes," prisons, labyrinths to flesh out Roland Barthes's general remarks on space in Racine's tragedies.

HARRISON, HELEN. Pistoles/Paroles: Money and Language in Seventeenth Century French Comedy. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 1996.

Review: B. Rubidge in CompD 31.3 (1997), 464–466: "Examining most of Corneille's comedies, two plays by Scarron, one by Thomas Corneille, and several of Molière's comedies, H. studies how they serve both to represent the reality of contemporary life and to suggest improvements in the social body. H.'s main subject is how the theater, which she views as a 'political instrument' that may embody, even within a single play, the ideologies of separate groups, treats the problem of social organization and hierarchy.... H. argues... that money is not the only system of representation used as an indicator of one's proper status. Language, too, is a sign system revealing merit.... The argument is made that from the 1630s through the early 1670s money and language frequently appear as rival grounds for assigning rank. H. outlines an evolution in their opposition that corresponds to political and economic changes in seventeenth century France." H. also "examines how playwrights sought success by pleasing various segments of the audience, including patrons, through their representation either of the reality of seventeenth century French society or of the way that society might be improved." Sound historical documentation of arguments. However, "the argument about the plays' own project of justifying theater as an 'ideological tool' is less compelling."

HERMANN, JAN et PAUL PELCKMANS, éds. L'épreuve du lecteur. Livres et lectures dans le roman d'Ancien Régime. Actes du VIIIe colloque de la société d'analyse de la Topique romanesque. Louvain-Anvers (19–21 mai 1994). Louvain-Paris: Peeters, 1995.

Review: P. Hourcade in OeC 23.1 (1998), 138–39: Travaux portant sur le XVIIe siècle: A. Niderst sur les discours des moralistes à propos des dangers de la lecture des romans; M. Vernet sur Jean-Pierre Camus; M. Bareau sur Descartes et Cervantès; D. Maher sur La Précieuse; W. de Vos sur le Roman comique; D. Godwin sur les recueils de nouvelles encadrées, de 1657 à 1691; M. Teixeira Anacleto sur le Roman bourgeois; D. Kuizenga sur les Mémoires de la vie d'Henriette-Sylvie de Molière; G. Verdier sur Perrault et Mme d'Aulnoy; M. Weil sur les Illustres Françaises.

Review: W. de Vos in PFSCL 15 (1998), 321–333.

HOLM, BENT. "Picture and Counter Picture: An Attempt to Involve Context in the Interpretation of Théâtre Italien Iconography." ThR 22.3 (1997), 219–233.

Readings of Théâtre Italien iconography aimed at understanding the "probable, if not entirely provable reception" of representations of the King in his symbolic identity. Includes discussions of the night scenes showing the Cour des miracles (1653) in La Nuit, Grand Carrousel (1662), Bérénice, as well as studies of four engravings from Arlequin Protée (L. Biancolelli) and le Tombeau de Maistre André (Anne Maudit de Fatouville). Article traces the "increasingly indecent" references to the royal figure juxtaposed with the King's becoming progressively more devout. "Whereas the Ruler, Louis XIV, from mid century, had a symbolic identity (Apollo, le Roy Soleil, together with his opposite, the nocturnal King, or even his satirical image in Harlequin as court jester and mock hero), in the last decades of the century, the position of the King was shifting from a symbolic/mythological stance to a divine figure in his own right, where his only model is the Christian God. The symbolic and real identities have merged, there is no further need for negative counter pictures to be performed and the court jester loses his raison d'être and must, therefore, be sacrificed." Excellent illustrations.

IZENOUR, GEORGE C. Theater Technology. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.

Review: M. Carlson in TJ 49.4 (1997), 537–538: A republication of works from 1977 and 1988. "There is a vast amount of information in the discursive material in these volumes, which includes, among other things theatre history, aesthetics, philosophy, autobiography, analysis, and technical explanation, but perhaps most stunning are the magnificent illustrations... The non technical reader probably will find Theater Design the most generally useful... especially in its lavishly illustrated second and third chapters, which provide a historical and graphical development of theatre design from 300 B.C. to 1977.... More technical but equally informative [is] a chapter tracing different seating systems and auditorium arrangements through history .... Theater Technology['s] ... first three chapters, tracing the technology from seventeenth century Italy to the present, provide an excellent supplement to the two graphic history chapters in Theater Design."

IZENOUR, GEORGE C. Theater Design. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.

Reviewed together with I's book, see above, Theatre Technology (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997).

JAOUEN, FRANÇOISE. De l'art de plaire en petits morceaux. Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère. Saint-Denis: Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 1996.

Review: J.-P. Dens in PFSCL 15 (1998), 323–324.

JARRETY, MICHEL, éd. La poésie française du Moyen Age jusqu'à nos jours. Paris: PUF, 1997.

Review: BCLF 598–99 (1997), 1457: ". . . il s'agit d'un manuel pour étudiants du premier cycle supposés connaître assez peu les grandes oeuvres poétiques." On y trouve "des pages éclairantes sur les notions de baroque et de maniérisme . . . . Les chapitres sur la période classique, dus à Alain Génetiot, sont très riches et très denses, mais l'auteur tombe dans un travers bien usuel en ne consacrant ni page ni même alinéa au poète Maynard qui eut pourtant son importance."

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

Review: J. H. Stewart in FrF 22 (1997), 110–11: J's original study, driven by her thesis about a certain masochistic ideal of feminine epistolarity, receives much praise despite its neglect "to engage pertinent recent publications on women and the novel." J. treats Marie-Catherine Desjardins de Villedieu, Anne Ferrand, Françoise de Graffigny, Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni and Julie de Lespinase. S. finds the chapter on Graffigny "most compelling;" J. "succeeds here in making her own cogent case for the stature of Graffigny's novel."

JOUANNY, SYLVIE, dir. Théâtre européen, scènes françaises: culture nationale, dialogue des cultures. Actes du Colloque international organisé par le Groupe de Recherche Théâtrale de l'Université de Paris XII-Val de Marne les 6 et 7 novembre 1992. Paris: L'Harmattan, 1995.

Review: M. Lazzarini-Dossin in LR 51 (1997), 144–48: Although any unity of the volume is difficult to discern, reviewer appreciates its "intéressant panorama du théâtre contemporain." 17th c. specialists will benefit from analyses such as that of Molière on the German stage as well as from its "mine précieuse d'information, à la fois techniques, chronologiques, historiques et esthétiques."

KELLER, EDWIGE. "Mort et mimesis: le corps à l'épreuve de la description dans le roman classique." Tra Lit 10 (1997), 149–61.

Consultation of dictionaries and treatises complement this close analysis of the dying body in the 17th c. novel. Constrained by the bienséances, the novelists nevertheless attain "une force expressive maximale avec une très grande économie de moyens." References to La Calprenède, La Fayette, Villedieu, and Bernard.

KINTZLER, CATHERINE. Poétique de l'opéra français de Corneille à Rousseau. Paris: Minèrve, 1991.

Review article: Buford Norman in EMF 4 (1998), 215–220: Favorable review in which N. states that K.'s book demonstrates that the operas of Lully and Rameau "give us insights into seventeenth-century theater that we can never have if we limit our experience to tragedy, comedy, and tragi-comedy." K.'s theoretical base is Aristotelian, and the book contains "an excellent discussion of mimesis," as well as an interesting examination of "the reintegration of lyric poetry by seventeenth-century thinkers." Of note also are the work's exploration of "the relation between truth and fiction, and the ethical nature of theater," which include Bossuet's and Nicole's arguments "against the theater," and "its defense by Corneille along Cartesian principles."

KIRSOP, WALLACE AND JOAN LINDBLAD, eds. Seventeenth-Century Studies in Honour of H. Gaston Hall. AJFS 33.3 (1996).

Review: M.-C. Canova-Green in PFSCL 15 (1998), 324–326.

KLEINAU, ELKE and CLAUDIA, eds. Geschichte der Mädchen und Frauenbildung. Vol 1: Vom Mittelalter bis zur Aufklärung. Frankfurt am Main/New York: Campus, 1996.

Review: N. Hammerstein in HZ 264 (1997), 415–16: Despite some reservations, H. has much praise for this generally well done study, the first of two volumes which will fill an important lacuna in Medieval and Early Modern Studies on portraits of women and girls.

LAFOND, JEAN. L'homme et son image. Morales et littérature de Montaigne à Mandeville. Paris: Champion, 1996.

Review: F. Lagarde in PFSCL 15 (1998), 326–328: 30 studies, 29 of which were previously published on the general topic of spirituality and worldliness: Descartes, Balzac, La Rochefoucauld, Méré, Saint-Evremond. Reviewer finds this to be an "indispensable ouvrage de référence."

Review: Roger Zuber in RHL 98.1, 144–46: Volume brings together thirty articles published between 1970 and 1995, including a previously unpublished article on La Rochefoucauld entitled, "Mme de Sablé, La Rochefoucauld, et Jacques Esprit: un fonds commun, trois oeuvres." Many of the articles center on La Rochefoucauld, while others deal with "l'écriture discontinue propre au discours moral depuis Montaigne." Balzac and Descartes are included, and become part of the argument on Augustinism, Epicureanism, and neo-Stoicism. Z. welcomes the volume, stating, "Remercions Jean Lafond d'avoir pris la peine de réunir cette vigoureuse réédition. Elle rendra incontestablement de grands services."

LAGARDE, FRANÇOIS. La persuasion et ses effets. Essai sur la réception en France au dix septième siècle. PFSCL/Biblio 17, 91 (1995).

Review: Wolfgang Matzat in ZFSL 108.2 (1998), 187–89: Highly laudatory review that outlines the model of "mimésis intérieure" that functions here to set the effects of theatrical performance, and Pascal, with a view to developing a "persuasion essentielle."

Review: P.-J. Salazar in PFSCL 15 (1998), 328–329: Reviewer finds this to be a very important study. Lagarde, presenting a dual thesis ("'la littérature a des effets', elle est 'puissance'; 'l'homme est un sujet mimétique' pour qui . . . il convient 'd'entendre en soi ce que l'autre dit'."), "conclut sur un constat d'échec de la persuasion au 17e siècle ou, plus exactement, sur la hiérarchie des effets dans la culture classique. Concluding chapter deals with Descartes and Pascal.

LANGER. ULLRICH. Perfect Friendships: Studies in Literature and Moral Philosophy from Boccaccio to Corneille. Geneva: Droz, 1994.

Review: S. Murphy in RenQ 50 (1997), 924–26: Organized in three sections, "Theoretical Challenges of Friendships," "Friendship in Literary Worlds," and "Friendship and the Political Life," L.'s erudite and rich volume emphasizes "friendship as interiority and as the locus of ethical dilemmas." 17th c. scholars will appreciate the examination of female disappointment and masculine discourse on friendship chez Mme de LaFayette as well as that of friendship in the absolutist state (Cinna and Rodogune).

LAVOCAT, FRANÇOISE. Arcadies malheureuses. Aux origines du roman moderne. Paris: Champion, 1998.

Review: BCLF 600 (1998), 1697–98: L. "nous présente une étude probe, minitieuse, bien informée, souvent éclairante sur la naissance et la disparition du sous-genre du roman pastoral en Europe entre le milieu du XVIe siècle et la fin du premier tiers du XVIIe siècle. Ce qui rend son travail particulièrement attachant est l'hypothèse parfaitement étayée et exploitée selon laquelle les contradictions du roman pastoral ayant amené le sous-genre à sa perte seraient finalement à l'origine des formes modernes du genre romanesque."

LEEMING, DAVID ADAMS, ed. Storytelling Encyclopedia: Historical, Cultural, and Multiethnic Approaches to Oral Traditions Around the World. Phoenix: Oryx, 1997.

Review: A. K. Wilson in Choice 35.7 (1998): "L.'s [book] successfully combines in one volume information on classic stories, well-known storytellers, important scholars in the field, recurrent themes and motifs, and significant characters. The text represents as well the oral traditions of many cultures and geographic areas and provides historical context for the entries. The book contains a small section of articles on various aspects of storytelling and a second, much larger section of more than 700 encylopedic entries arranged alphabetically. A brief bibliography at the end of each entry guides readers to more complete sources. A complete bibliography of the main sources used by the contributors is included at the end of the volume. Entries are cross-referenced."

LESTRINGANT, FRANK. Cannibals: The Discovery and Representation of the Cannibal from Columbus to Jules Verne. Trans.Rosemary Morris. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997.

Review: Choice 35.4 (1997), 643: "L. provides a careful survey of firsthand accounts and commentaries of cannibalism during the Renaissance." Authors studied range from Montaigne to Géricault. "The author analyzes cannibalism as a symbolic eating of body parts for secular purposes or for revenge, and as allegorization in rituals such as baptism and the Eucharist."

Review: Claude Rawson in TLS 4935 (31 Oct. 1997), 3–4: Although most of this book, translated from Le Cannibale: grandeur et décadence (1994) concerns the Renaissance and Montaigne and his famous essay, attitudes important for 17th century discussions are outlined, especially for Cardano. Some 17th-century travelers are cited.

LEVER, MAURICE. Romanciers du grand siècle. Paris: Fayard, 1997.

Review: Maya Slater in TLS 4908 (25 April 2997), 13: Provides an excellent synthesis from D'Urfé on (some 350 works). While scholarly, it is an enjoyable read, providing plot synopses and adequate individual biographies, while bringing out the patterns of evolution of this "woefully neglected genre." Reviewer does not comment on the relation of this work to Lever's earlier history.

LOCKWOOD, RICHARD. The Reader's Figure: Epideictic Rhetoric in Plato, Aristotle, Bossuet, Racine, and Pascal. Geneva: Droz, 1996.

MCMAHON, ELISE N. Classics Incorporated: Cultural Materialism and Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Birmingham: Summa, 1998.

Seeing literature as a cultural practice and drawing upon such sources as cookbooks, medical treatises, dance manuals, etc., M. offers innovative readings of works by Corneille, Molière, Racine and La Fontaine.

MENAGER, DANIEL. La Renaissance et le rire. Paris: PUF, 1995.

Review: Jerry Nash in FR 71.2 (1997), 286–87: Organized around Petrarch, Rabelais, Shakespeare, and begins with the theories of humanist physicians and their claims for the affects of laughter. Shakespeare best exemplifies their theory of "le propre de l'homme:" "[T]he most interesting discussion is in the last chapter's discussion of "le sourire" as an "art bien supérieur au rire."

MENKE, ANNE. "The Widow Who Would be Queen: The Subversion of Patriarchal Monarchy in Rodogune and Andromaque." CdDS 7.1 (Spring 1997) 205–14.

Article deals with "the advent of the Absolutist monarchy and of the modern family, through an analysis of the representation of the royal widow in plays by Corneille and Racine." For M., the widow becomes "the site of resistance to the political and sexual economies that subtend these early modern institutions." Rodogune and Cleopatre in Corneille's play represent "two power hungry women [pitted] against one another," while Racine's work presents "the very model of femininity as it is constructed in seventeenth-century France." These differences influence the outcomes of each play in that Corneille "took great pains to ensure our horrified response to Cleopatre's will to power," whereas Racine "offer[s], apparently without shocking la bienséance, a positive portrayal of a Queen Regent."

MOREL, JACQUES. Histoire de la littérature française. T. III: De Montaigne à Corneille. 1572–1660. Paris: Flammarion, 1997.

Review: BCLF 598–99 (1998), 1458–59: Réédition (1986, Arthaud) précédée "d'un avant-propos qui fait le point sur la 'problématique de l'époque baroque'; la table des matières analytique trace un panorama et permet d'orienter une recherche intelligente. Une chronologie et une bibliographie complètent cet utile ouvrage . . . ."

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

Review: Suzanne Toczyski in CdDS 7.1 (Spring 1997) 259–61: Generally favorable evaluation where the reviewer applauds M. for dealing with the difficult issue of imitation in seventeenth-century literature by looking at both conventional and "less conventional" texts. Reviewer claims that while the binary nature of the "battle...between mimetic and anti-mimetic models of literary representation is perhaps exaggerated," she nonetheless welcomes the book as "put[ting] an interesting spin on our understanding of the classical aesthetic and its limitations."

NICOLETTI, GIANNI. Le forme e il senso. Fasano: Schena, 1994.

Review: Rémi Lanzoni in FR 71.2 (1997), 282: Collection of essays by an influential theatre critic and historian includes one on the Italian background of Molière's plays and on "Beltrame."

NORMAN, BUFORD, ed. French Literature in/and the City. Amsterdam: Rodolpi, 1997.

Review: James McNab in FR 71.6 (1998), 1054–55: General praise for the collection of essays and singles out Russell Ganim's "tightly argued scholarly analysis of La Ceppède's Théorèmes and William Goode's "masterly reading" of Molière, "Molière au bureau des merveilles: Moliere's Paris." Both entries are listed separately in this issue of French 17.

PARENTE, JAMES A. JR. "Tragoedia Politica: Strasbourg School Drama and the Early Modern State, 1583–1621." ColG 29 (1996), 1–11.

Persuasive argument for the reevaluation of "our conception of late humanism in the [Holy Roman] Empire, and the place of Strasbourg school theater in early modern intellectual and literary history." Focus is on German theater but 17th c. French specialists will note P.'s remarks about the Strasbourg humanists bringing ancient Greek tragedy and comedy in the original Greek to the school stage" and about the contribution these theaters made "to the education of such grand vernacular writers as . . . Pierre Corneille." Notes are a rich source of reference.

PARKER, PHILIPPE. "Définir la passion: corrélation et dynamique." SCFS 18 (1996), 49–59.

Suggestive analysis of the composition and dynamics in themselves rather than the ethical/moral contexts of the passions (distinguished from but correlated with the humors) seen through the treaties of Coëffeteau, Cureau de La Chambre, Senault, and Descartes. Interesting diagrammatic representations of relationships.

PAVEL, THOMAS. L'art de l'éloignement. Essai sur l'imagination classique. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.

Review: J. Pedersen in RevR 33.1 (1998), 133–37: "Pour Pavel, les mondes décrits par les auteurs de l'âge classique s'éloignaient considérablement de la réalité vécue à l'époque. Ceci par choix délibéré des écrivains. Rejetant l'idée d'une 'cohérence culturelle' pour le classicisme, Pavel voit trois manières différentes d'imaginer la présence du moi: le recueillement chrétien, la maîtrise du moi selon le modèle romain, et, finalement, l'alliance romanesque entre le moi et la Providence. Il s'agit donc d'une approche thématique, où seront abordés, à tour de rôle, l'imaginaire religieux, politique et privé."

• See French 17 (1997).

PETRUCCI, ARMANDO. Writing the Dead: Death and Writing Strategies in the Western Tradition. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.

Review: n.a. in VQR 74.4 (1998), 122: "This richly learned account traces the development of memorial writing in the West, by focusing on those genres of inscription that commemorate the dead. P. is a world-renowned paleographer who brings to his examination of 'written death' the intimacy with script that has characterized his previous scholarship. ... [He] examines tomb-writings, funeral remains and markings, scrolls, manuscripts, and printed books in order to reconstruct carefully the motivations and technologies employed across the ages to represent the dead."

QUEMADA, BERNARD, éd. Les préfaces du Dictionnaire de L'Académie française, 1694–1992. Paris: Champion, 1997.

Review: BCLF 597 (1998), 1182–83: Q. "fait le point sur le Dictionnaire de L'Académie française, ses origines, son destin, et sur le dessein général du présent ouvrage . . . . Le plus gros de l'ouvrage est . . . consacré à l'édition des dites fameuses préfaces. Chacune des neufs sections—prise en charge par un responsable particulier—se compose d'une présentation historique et générale qui met le texte en perspective idéologique et socioculturelle; puis interviennent les textes de l'Académie: préface proprement dite, éventuellement ceinte d'une dédicace, d'un envoi, d'une adresse et, en postlude, du récit des circonstances annexes de la publication. Un appareil de notes, fort précis, ajoute à chaque texte présenté un nombre appréciable de références et de précisions complémentaires, notamment en ce qui concerne les conditions de réception des diverses éditions du dictionnaire académique."

REISS, TIMOTHY. "Utopie versus état de pouvoir, ou prétexte du discours politique de la modernité: Hobbes, lecteur de La Boétie?" EMF 4 (1998) 31–83.

Author claims that while little to no evidence exists to suggest a direct link between Hobbes and La Boétie, the discursive climate of La Boétie's sixteenth century formed the basis of Hobbesian thought. R. states: "L'atmosphere intellectuelle que respirait Hobbes fut créée par ce seizième siècle, elle permettait certaines questions théoriques et pas d'autres, et un certain style de questions. En un sens précis, elle produit la pensée de l'état libéral." La Boétie shapes his political thought within the framework of utopic and dystopic universes. It is this format that influences Hobbes's theories of the modern state.

RICOEUR, PAUL. "La marque du passé." RMM (1998), 7–31.

Argues that the plural memory retained by a number of individuals, upon which historical knowledge depends, cannot simply be derived from the traditional perception of the conservation of the past by memory, but needs witnesses and their confrontation, which produces trustworthiness. Part II analyzes the temporality of the remembered past, questioning the synthesis of three modes of time (past, present, future).

RIZZA, CECILIA. Libertinage et littérature. Paris/Rome: Schena/Nizet, 1996.

Review: L. Godard de Donville in PFSCL 15 (1998), 334–335: The republication of a collection of studies that "renouvelle[nt] la réflexion sur l'ensemble du phénomène." Includes studies of Théophile de Viau, Saint-Amant and Cyrano de Bergerac.

RONZEAUD, PIERRE, ed. L'irrationnel au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Klincksieck, 1995.

Review: W. de Vos in PFSCL 15 (1998), 335–336: A valuable group of studies arguing in favor of the obverse face of the Grand Siècle.

RUBIN, DAVID LEE. "Fable: Tentative Profiles." Hypotheses: Neo-Aristotelian Analysis 23 (Fall, 1997), 10–13.

Applies Walter Watson's version of Richard McKeon's critical pluralism to the analysis and interpretation of La Fontaine's Fables as well as selected Greco-Latin and Indic sources.

RUSSELL, DANIEL S. Emblematic Structures in Renaissance French Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995.

Review: F.T. Bright in RenQ 50 (1997), 1248–49: Though R.'s admirable volume focuses on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, 17th c. theoreticians find their way into discussions, such as the one on allegory and metaphor in chapter two. A final section "explores implications of the emblem for the analysis of other cultural phenomena ...'applied emblematics'." Rich and highly useful with fine bibliography and notes.

Review: A.L. Gordon in FrF 22 (1997), 107–08: Praised for its beauty as well as its erudition, R.'s work situates Renaissance France's emblems in both historical and cultural context. While focusing on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, 17th c. scholars will benefit from this stimulating and masterful study which examines a pervasive feature of "a mentality which marks the transition from late medieval allegory to Romantic metaphor."

SALAZAR, PHILIPPE-JOSEPH. "Temps, peinture et champ historique chez Roger de Piles." CdDS 7.1 (Spring 1997) 121–31.

S. applies Roger de Piles's theories of representation to tackle the issue of how "la littérature peut prendre en charge une doctrine ou une pratique de la peinture," especially in the novel. For Piles, notions of representation become indissociable from the representation of time. Concepts of duration, as they relate to the depiction of words and images, inform Piles's ideas about rhetoric and invention, which he categorizes as either 1) historic, 2) allegorical, or 3) mystical. It is this historical aspect which seems most prevalent in the seventeenth century, since painting, or "la pratique picturale entre ainsi dans le champ de la valeur culturelle, et, partant, se donne telle une représentation de son présent, de son temps, de son moment." With respect to Lafayette's novel, S. discusses the princess's contemplation of Nemours's portrait within the context of Piles's criticism.

SALAZAR, PHILIPPE-JOSEPH. Le culte de la voix au XVIIe siècle. Formes esthétiques de la parole à l'âge de l'imprimé. Paris: Champion, 1966.

Review: Peter France in TLS 4893 (10 Jan. 1997), 23: "Offers a remarkable window onto the vanished world" of orality. Dense resurrection of an ancient culture of the voice subsisting through the first half of the century (before the scientific print culture assimilates voice to accoustics) "lovingly rich" in detail and sometmes in nostalgic escapes as voice becomes the voice of power in the theories of monarchy.

SAYRE, GORDON M. Les sauvages américains: Representations of Native Americans in French and English Colonial Literature. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

Review: B. Hans in Choice 35.7 (1998), 1194–1195: "S. examines an impressive range of French and English Colonial writings — travel accounts and ethnographies — in which explorers and travelers negotiate their relationship with Native peoples and their own place in the new landscape... [C]areful textual analysis and comparison of the materials provides a number of interesting insights into Native life during the Colonial period and into the complex relationship of Europeans and Native peoples. Sayre employs contemporary critical theories to discuss diverse subjects, for instance, body tattooing as a form of writing, captivity narratives as a record of cultural negotiation, rhetoric employed in Colonial discourse, etc... [S.] quotes extensively from English and French primary sources."

SCHLUMBOHM, CHRISTA. "Devisenkunst im Dienste Öffentlicher Anklage: Dekor und Dekorum bei Gouffier, Bussy Rabutin und Mlle de Scudéry." RJ 46 (1995; pub. 1997), 99–121.

Thorough and suggestive illumination on the transformation of heroic devises used decoratively by the aristocrats, Gouffier and Bussy, then in the imaginary space of Scudéry's Ibrahim (1641).

SCOLNICOV, HANNA. Woman's Theatrical Space. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Review: R. E. Evitt in CompD 31.4 (1997/8), 601–604: S. "explores the social and cultural implications of the traditional structural division of theatrical space into the interior and exterior of the house... and suggests that we examine ... how 'gender roles are spatially defined in relation to the inside and outside of the house'. She suggests that theatrical space in Western Tradition from its inception provides 'a gender charged environment,' naturally fitted for acting out the drama of man and woman." "The progressive encasement of woman mapped out in chapters 4 and 5 culminates, S. argues in chapter 6, in Molière's transformation of the interior of the house formerly 'woman's stronghold' into a 'female prison'. Here she describes how dramatic representations of the heroine's involuntary incarceration revolve around two forms of male control implicit in the 'useless precaution' scenario: either 'premarital subjection of the girl to the father' or marital 'tyranny of the husband', both motivated by male characters' fear of cuckoldry. M.'s work proves a pivotal point in dramatic representations of the dynamics between interior and exterior space.... The remaining chapters are devoted to exploring Molière's move indoors, specifically the alienation woman experiences within the house."

SEIFERT, LEWIS C. Fairy Tales, Sexuality, and Gender in France, 1690–1715: Nostalgic Utopias. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Review: M. R. Pukkila in Choice 35.1 (1997), 134: "At the end of Louis XIV's reign, the bourgeois of the salons, the majority of whom were women, had published 114 contes de fées, or literary fairy tales. These tales gave women access to public and literary space as the state and church began more actively to confine them to the family sphere even as the tales gave the mondain culture a place to demonstrate its own morality, distinct from its moralist critics but rooted in the salon and indigenous folk cultures of France. By using the marvelous (fairies, magic, etc.), the contes could depict a variety of sexualities and gender expressions, thus challenging their supposed 'naturalness,' a naturalness that society was beginning to regulate and codify. By emphasizing the 'norm' of the 'natural,' the marvelous in the tales made the body the purveyor of social meaning, even as it revealed the possibility of multiple meanings, the ways in which sex, gender, and the body are all socially constructed, and the ways that society fails to control completely all its own constructions. These are the conclusions S. draws from his own study of the tales, supported by the writings of Flahault, Raymonde Robert, Judith Butler, Karen E. Row, Bettelheim, and Marina Warner."

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

Review: Nancy McElween in FR 71.4 (1998), 657–58: Considers the history of confessional discourse from the watershed Lateran Council of 1215 and Dante's structural echo of it through the figure of his judge, Minos, then through the 17th century, where the development of new confessional practices is contemporary with playhouse refittings and new discursive forms. Considers Corneille's heroes, from Médée through Polyeucte in their unity as spoken selves. Analyses of Britannicus, Bajazet, Iphigénie, and Phèdre demmonstrate that Racine's tragic inner truth is achieved by the tragic hero's obligation to confess. Well researched and well written.

• See French 17 (1995).

SERROY, JEAN. "Des histoires comiques au roman comique." CdDS 7.1 (Spring 1997) 169–77.

S. discusses the marginalized position of the "histoire comique" within the definition of the seventeenth-century novel. It is thanks to this marginalization that novelists of this genre experimented with various forms, with "liberté" being "la première règle." Freedom, in turn, becomes the essence of the novelistic genre. The article then discusses Sorel's theoretical work, La Bibliothèque françoise, and summarizes Sorel's argument that comic novels should be accorded a literary status commensurate with other forms of fiction such as fables, allegories, and heroic novels. S. points out that often, as is the case of Du Souhait's Histoires comiques, the work dealt with the one-dimensional exploits of a single character. The "roman," however, evokes a plurality with respect to the real and the writer's view of the world. Quoting Henri Coulet, S. sees the novel as bringing about "une unité du comique et du sentimental, du banal et de l'exceptionel, unité d'une vision du monde que le roman doit recréer."

STENZEL, HARTMUT. Die französische 'Klassik'. Literarische Modernisierung und abolutistischer Staat. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1995.

Review: J. Pedersen in RevR 33.1 (1998), 133–37: Partant "d'un examen extrêmement précis du concept de 'classicisme,' dès son essor dans l'histoire littéraire naissante au XIXe siècle, ... S. "démontre comment le 'discours' littéraire se dépolitise en raison, précisément, de la politique absolutiste de Louis XIV. Stenzel voit là ce qu'il appellera par la suite la modernisation de la littérature." En conclusion, l'auteur "nous convainc . . . que l'autonomie littéraire, but vivement recherché par les 'modernes' du début du XVIIe, n'était possible que dans un rapport étroit avec l'acceptation d'un idéal esthétique relevant du classicisme."

Review: W. Matzat in Archiv 234 (1997), 455–57: Valuable literary historical perspectives by one of the most knowledgeable Germanic critics of 17th c. French literature. Praiseworthy as a reflection on genesis of "classicism" and the concept itself, rather than as a consideration of representative authors as the title might suggest. Less an analysis of individual literary works than a situating of their authors within political and cultural contexts.

• See French 17 (1996).

STONE, HARRIET. The Classical Model: Literature and Knowledge in Seventeenth-Century France. Ithaca, NY/London: Cornell University Press, 1996.

Review: H. Phillips in MLR 93 (1998), 220–21: S. "argues that classical literature, in the same way as science, speaks to us about knowledge and demonstrates a 'hunger for pattern' where, however, there is always an excess that transcends the codifying system at work and eludes the model designed to frame it in representation." Reviewer finds that "the model she proposes of history, science, and religion in the seventeenth century is in many ways defective."

• See French 17 (1997).

STROUP, ALICE. "French Utopian Thought: The Culture of Criticism." EMF 4 (1998) 1–30.

Article examines the work of French "practitioners" of utopian literature, including Garnier, Sorel, Gabriel de Foigny, and Denis Veiras. Among the issues explored are the reasons why France "produc[ed] more authors and editions of utopian literature than any other country" in the early eighteenth century, and how the "Frenchness" of utopian literature comes into play "given the diaspora of persons and ideas that characterize early modern European literature and philosophy." From a political standpoint, S. speaks also of the community of utopian writers in Europe at the time, calling utopian discourse, "a critical and subversive pattern of thought" that "became a vehicle for dissent."

SUOZZO, ANDREW. "Le parasite Mormon or the 'Heretical Novel'." CdDS 7.1 (Spring 1997) 161–68.

S. begins article by stating that Le Parasite, while attributed to La Mothe le Vayer, "is the creation of multiple authors, including Sorel and Scarron." The value of the work lies in its ability to "attack traditional writing across several genres while simultaneously weaving tales which illustrate nearly the whole gamut of styles typical of the histoires comiques." S. calls the work "heretical" in that 1) it "repudiates conventions of seventeenth-century writing [by] placing itself beyond received truths about style and subject matter," and 2) the charges against Mormon include sodomy and atheism, with the former charge considered "héresie en amour."

VAN DELFT, LOUIS. Littérature et anthropologie. Nature humaine et caractère à l'âge classique. Paris: PUF, 1993.

Review: P. Hourcade in PFSCL 15 (1998), 339–341: Previously published studies of the "moralistes" that link the genre with disciplines other than literature and cultures other than French.

Review: Margot Kruse in RJ 47 (1996), 242–44: Thorough description of contents, place of research in author's earlier work on the moralistes, and enthusiastic approval of the syntheses and the new borders given in this study.

• See French 17 (1996).

WATSON, WALTER. "Fables: Stories That Are Arguments." Hypotheses: Neo-Aristotelian Analysis, 24 (Winter, 1998), 15–20.

Response to and rhetorical elaboration of Rubin, "Fable: Tentative Profiles." (Neo-Aristotelian Analysis, 23, see above).

WILSON, KATHARINE M., PAUL SCHLUETER and JUNE SCHLUETER, eds. Women Writers of Great Britain and Europe: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1997.

Review: M. H. Loe in Choice 35.2 (1997), 274: "The authors survey some 445 women writers of Great Britain and Europe, from Sappho to contemporaries.... About one third of the subjects are British, ... but the European authors are less known and less accessible to US readers. Genres range from poetry and novels to journalism, letters, and works of mysticism. The essays are uniformly well written and are packed with useful information, giving appropriate attention to gender issues and balance." All entries have appeared in other works by these editors.

WINN, COLETTE H., ed. The Dialogue in Early Modern France, 1547–1630: Art and Argument. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1993.

Review: T. Hampton in RenQ 50 (1997), 295–97: Judged both useful and authoritative, W.'s collection contains two sections, on theory and practice. Reviewer finds all the essays interesting, singling out quite a few which are especially helpful as the modern reader/scholar investigates language and communication.

WOLFZETTEL, FRIEDRICH. Le discours du voyageur. Pour une histoire littéraire du récit de voyage, du Moyen-Age au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1996.

Review: S. Requemora in PFSCL 15 (1998), 341–343: Reviewer calls this "une excellente synthèse de l'évolution littéraire du genre et du discours du récit de voyage."

ZACZEK, BARBARA MARIA. Censored Sentiments: Letters and Censorship in Epistolary Novels and Conduct Material. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1997.

Review: K. P. Mulcahy in Choice 35.5 (1998), 824: Z. "examines epistolary fictions ranging in time from Lettres portugaises (1669) to Dacia Maraini's Lettere a Marina (1981), including works in French, Italian, and especially English. She reads these novels in light of conduct books, notions of literary decorum, and Foucault's concept of disciplinary practice. Literary theories during the time of the flowering of the epistolary novel claimed a strict dichotomy between men and women. Women could only write from the heart, without art or rationality. Thus, familiar letters were a genre allowing women spontaneous sentiment while confining them to the private sphere. Even as women's letters were praised (and simultaneously dismissed) for the untrammeled flow of feeling, conduct books cautioned women to guard against the encroachment of seducers who threatened the stability of the bourgeois family. Z. traces the evolution from early celebrations of feeling to Clarissa... and she reveals how the 'censor' moves from without to within the text, as women writers submit to a rigid new set of conventions."

ZAISER, RAINER. Die Epiphanie in der französischen Literatur. Zur Entmystifizierung eines religiösen Erlebnismusters. Tübingen: Narr, 1995.

Review: J. Marmier in OeC 22.2 (1997), 231–34: "R. Zaiser, pour nous convaincre de l'efficacité hermeneutique du concept [de l'épiphanie], le met à l'épreuve sur une série d'exemples empruntés à des créateurs de premier plan . . . . Le Memorial de Pascal, premier exemple français abordé, enregistre l'exceptionnelle expérience du 'Dieu sensible au coeur' survenue le 23 novembre 1654. Il satisfait parfaitement aux critères d'une épiphanie dont la transcendance est d'ordre religieux. R. Zaiser l'analyse ligne à ligne, après l'avoir situé dans la biographie de Pascal."

ZUBER, ROGER. Les émerveillements de la raison. Classicisme littéraires du XVIIe siècle français. Paris: Klincksieck, 1997.

Review: J. Marmier in PFSCL 15 (1998), 346–348: A festschrift of Zuber's writings published in his honor and arranged chronologically in three sections: the period of Henri IV, the 1650s and the end of the century.