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2004 Number 52
ADORNO, FRANCESCO PAOLO. "L'Efficacité de la volonté chez Pascal et Arnauld" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 91–100.
This examination of a crucial critical concept seeks to offer a better understanding of Port-Royal as a reform movement with the Counter-Reformation. Furthermore Pascal and Arnauld's logical and linguistic theorizing seeks to corner their ideological adversaries in a trap of logical incoherence.
TRUONG, MIREILLE MAI. "The Epistemology of Antoine Arnauld (1612–1694)." DAI 64/10 (2004), 296.
Seeks to show that Arnauld's epistemology is "innovatively linguistic, attending much more to the process of establishing a body of knowledge than to the end-result, and therefore identifying all the errors and pitfalls that can occur in this process, very widely defined to include social, historical and psychological context, rather than seeking to provide eternal criteria of truth."
MOMBELLO, GIANNI, ed. Albert Bailly. La Correspondance. Vol. 4 (1652–1653). Aoste: Académie Saint-Anselme, 2001.
Review: A. Arrigoni in S Fr 46 (2002): 441: Important publication (originals are in the Turin archives) sheds light on history (the Fronde, the war against Spain, for example) and letters. Most of the letters are addressed to Marie-Christine de France and are rich with observations and information. Introduction, transcription, plus philological and historical commentary by Giorgia Puttero.
MONTOYA, ALICIA C. "La femme forte et ses avatars dans les tragédies de Marie-Anne Barbier" in Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 163–173.
Barbier's work shows how women writers have appropriated and transformed the traditional topos of the femme forte.
JEAN BAUDOIN (1584–1650). DSS, no. 216 (juillet–septembre 2002): 393–444.
Review: A. Arrigoni in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 436: This issue of DSS includes four articles devoted to Baudoin: as a témoin of baroque culture and a pioneer of classicism (E. Bury), "Baudoin et le genre romanesque" (L. Plazenet), "Baudoin et la fable" (A.-E. Spica) and Baudoin as translator of Spanish nouvelles (G. Hautcoeur).
CHARNLEY, JOY. "Bayle, Dos Santos et Ludolf: L'image de l'Ethiopie au XVIIe siècle." PFSCL 30 (2003): 157–165.
Review: A. Giaufret in S Fr 47 (2003): 708: Charnley finds that, as in other authors of his time, Bayle's perspectives are less concerned with the true nature of the people than with their usefulness for his own viewpoints.
LENNON, THOMAS M. "A Rejoinder to Mori." JHI 65 (2004), 335–341.
This article, as well as two on the same subject by Gianluca Mori, constitute a lively and ongoing debate stemming from the publication of an earlier article by Lennon that appeared in JHI in 2002, "Did Bayle Read Saint-Evremond?" At the crux of the discussion is "the controversial question of Bayle's attitude towards religion," and how Bayle may have interpreted Saint-Evremond within this context.
MCKENNA, ANTHONY, ed. Pierre Bayle, témoin et conscience de son temps. Un choix d'articles du Dictionnaire historique et critique. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: A. M. Mazziotti in S Fr 46 (2002): 446–447: Valuable choice of articles and preface by McKenna underscores the work's literary character and its status as the fruit of intense cultural activity and militant ideology.
MORI, GIANLUCA. "Bayle, Saint-Evremond, and Fideism: A Reply to Thomas M. Lennon." JHI 65 (2004), 323–334.
(See Lennon, T. above)
MORI, GIANLUCA. "A Short Reply." JHI 65 (2004), 343–344.
(See Lennon, T. above)
CARR, THOMAS M. "Remi de Beauvais's La Magdeleine (1617) and the apostolorum apostola Tradition" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 139–49.
Beauvais' Mary-Magdalene does not fit the most common model of a penitent and contemplative mystic that dominated the seventeenth-century. He instead portrays her as an apostola apostolorum who announces the resurrection and becomes a preacher herself. Beauvais' Magdalene is not a role model for women, but rather a "vehicle for presenting doctrine in a non-technical way suitable to women."
POMPEIANO, VALERIA, ed. Pierre Bense-Dupuis. L'Apollon italien (1644). Roma: Aracne, 2002.
Review: S. Poli in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 438: Welcome volume which makes available a "testo raro, ma di estremo interesse." Particularly useful for the light it sheds on the lasting influence of Italian culture in France. Noteworthy and ample introduction offers historical and critical reflections as well as analyses.
KELLEY, DIANE DUFFRIN. "Codes of Conduct in Catherine Bernard's Le Comte d'Amboise: A Courtois or Gallant Hero?" DFS 66 (Spring 2004), 3–10.
Kelley compares Bernard's Le Comte d'Amboise with Lafayette's La Princesse de Clèves in order to better define the codes of courtoisie and gallantry illustrated in Bernard's novel. Kelley argues that "Bernard glorifies and rewards sincere courtois, generous services and shows the ineffectiveness of gallantry."
GIORDANO, MICHAEL J. "Reverse Transmutations: Béroalde de Verville's Parody of Paracelsus in Le Moyen de Parvenir: An Alchemical Language of Skepticism in the French Baroque." Ren Q 56 (2003): 88–137.
Highly informative, rich and well-documented treatment of Béroalde's skeptical ideas. Giordano demonstrates Béroalde's "parodic strategy... [which is] to invert Paracelsus' alchemical doctrines by a number of reverse transmutations" (127). Béroalde deflates Paracelsus by the process of "putrefactio;" the parody is for Béroalde an "instrument de connaissance" and the world an "antagonistic mixing" (127, 133). Useful bibliography.
KAHN, DIDIER. "Paracelsisme et alchimie chez Béroalde de Verville à la lumière des Apprehensions spirituelles (1583)." BHR 66,1 (2004), 23–32.
"Il reste à étudier jusqu'à quel point les idées de Paracelse ont pu influencer l'auteur des Apprehensions spirituelles, tout particulièrement dans ce livre de 1583 qui est à la fois son premier ouvrage, le seul où il s'étende assez longuement sur les doctrines alchimiques telles qu'il les conçoit, et le seul dont la date de parution coïncide encore avec une réception toute fraîche de Paracelse en France."
KAHN, DIDIER. "Note additionnelle sur Béroalde de Verville et l'alchimie." BHR 66,1 (2004), 33–38:
L'article de Kahn (ci-dessus) "était déjà sous presse lorsqu'est paru un nouvel article touchant d'assez près à ces thèmes" par Véronique Luzel: "Une Pièce liminaire de Béroalde de Verville dans un ouvrage du médecin chimiste Israël Harvet", (Nouvelle Revue du Seizième Siècle, 21/2 (2003): 85–93). Kahn offre par la suite des réflexions complémentaires sur les projets de Béroalde concernant l'alchimie de la période 1610–1620: "C'est peut-être à ce projet de se 'bander contre [les] ennemis' de l'alchimie que correspond le livre De la phisique laissé par Béroalde de Verville et qu'il voulut par testament faire imprimer après sa mort…. En somme, on ne peut ni minimiser le rôle de l'alchimie et du paracelsisme dans les activités de Béroalde de Verville, dans ses fréquentations et dans ses réflexions, ni pour autant lui accorder une considération auprès des alchimistes dont on n'a que bien peu d'indices. Avec ce personnage, tout se joue en nuances."
RENAUD, MICHEL, ed. Béroalde de Verville. L'Histoire des vers qui filent la Soye. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: V. Mecking in ZRP 119 (2003): 348–355: This widely neglected work of Béroalde de Verville is of great linguistic interest as indeed Mecking demonstrates in several pages of his review. Abundant introducation, impressive commentary of individual poems, and well organized glossary make this a valuable edition.
ZONZA, CHRISTIAN. "La tragédie à sujet actuel, "La mort d'Henri IV" de Claude Billard." RHLF 100e année, no. 6 (nov.–déc. 2000): 1459–1479.
Review: C. Torelli in S Fr 46 (2002): 436–437: Examines this tragedy written and performed in 1610 and focuses on the existence of a constant rapport between reality and fiction. Important for considerations on "littérature de circonstance."
BARBAFIERI, CARINE et JEAN-YVES VIALLETON, "Le Prologue d'opéra de Boileau est-il un prologue d'opéra?" PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 367–386.
"Pour comprendre la portée de ce texte, ne faut-il pas plutôt s'interroger sur son statut même, sa place au sein des œuvres complètes, ce qui amène d'abord à poser une question apparemment naïve : le 《 Prologue 》 est-il bien le fragment d'un prologue d'opéra ?"
GENETIOT, ALAIN. "Boileau poète dans L'Art poétique." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 347–366.
"En laissant de côté l'examen de la théorie littéraire proprement dite, il importe donc de définir en quoi ce texte théorique est véritablement un poème, conçu d'abord pour une fin esthétique aussi importante aux yeux de son auteur que son utilité didactique et donc de s'interroger sur son statut générique. En quoi consiste la poésie de L'Art poétique?"
GILBY, EMMA. "Sous le signe du sublime : la rencontre de Boileau et Longin." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 417–425.
Analyzes Boileau's translation and critical commentary of Longin's Peri Hupsous. "Il s'agira de faire ressortir ici la singularité de l'appropriation par Boileau de l'expérience sublime, en faisant une excursion à travers le langage de ses propres analyses."
KAPP, VOLKER. "Les Bolœana: Losme de Monchesnay et Brossette témoins des propos de Boileau et l'image du poète 'classique.'" PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 607–622.
Analyzes the different images of Boileau found in the two completely different texts, both entitled Bolœana, by Losme de Monchesnay and Brossette.
LECLERC, JEAN. "Boileau juge du burlesque." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 481–492.
Examines Boileau's criticism of the genre of burlesque, before turning to an analysis of "le rôle du burlesque dans sa propre production antérieure à la rédaction de son Art poétique. […] Ce parcours permettra de mieux comprendre le jugement de Boileau sur le burlesque et de mieux nuancer sa position vis-à-vis de cette notion polymorphe."
MABER, RICHARD. "Boileau et l'esthétique de l'ode héroïque : l'Ode sur la prise de Namur." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 387–399.
Places Boileau's ode in the context of the evolution of the heroic ode from 1614 to 1730.
MERON, EVELYNE. "Influences de Boileau : la poésie classique en Nouvelle-France." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 427–445.
Provides an overview of the poetry produced in "la Nouvelle France" at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteeenth centuries.
NEDELEC, CLAUDINE. "Boileau, poète héroï-comique?" PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 493–510.
"Dans un premier point, je voudrais montrer que le parallèle Boileau / Scarron fonctionne comme le parallèle Corneille/Racine: né dans un contexte polémique, à implications autant idéologiques qu'esthétiques, il est aussi partial et au bout du compte faux que celui-ci. Dans un second point, je tenterai de montrer que Boileau, 《 réveille 》 en réalité un autre sens du terme, son sens italien."
NOILLE-CLAUZADE, CHRISTINE. "Boileau, moraliste cynique?" PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 591–605.
"L'œuvre satirique de Boileau nous met… en prise avec les apories d'une rhétorique complexe, en marge de l'aristotélisme, enracinée dans une philosophie d'obédience cynique."
PETERS, JEFFREY N. "Boileau's Nerve, or the Poetics of Masculinity." E Cr 43 (2003): 26–36.
Ponders the puzzling absence of nervus in Boileau's "recasting of Horace's Epistula ad Pisones in the 1674 Art poétique" (26). Instead of retaining the "familiar image of masculine discourse," Boileau "translates around it," and reformulates it "in an ineffable, abstract place" (27, 33). Important for its contributions to scholarly discourse on the body, as well as on poetics, Peters brings in useful considerations of being and appearance by Faret and Méré.
ROYE, JOCELYN. "Boileau entre pédants et beaux esprits." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 523–537.
"Ce long parcours dans le royaume de pédanterie à travers les œuvres bien différentes de Boileau montre combien le poète satirique perçoit parfaitement les enjeux intellectuels, littéraires et éthiques liés à la question du pédantisme. Ses idées, sa notoriété et ses ouvrages le placent à la fin du siècle au centre de ce débat pour le moins houleux."
SASAKI KEN-ICHI. "Le sens historique de Boileau : volonté de la métapoétique dans son Art poétique." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 447–459.
"Il faut nous demander s'il est possible d'être absolutiste sans faire l'effort de fonder les vérités qu'on affirme. Autrement dit, quand il s'agit de prouver la justesse d'un goût ou la validité d'une théorie esthétique, est-ce que la raison peut avoir le dernier mot? En prenant cette question comme point de départ, j'aimerais prouver que Boileau se sert de l'histoire pour fonder sa théorie."
SCHOLL, DOROTHEE, "Le Bestiaire de Boileau." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 573–589.
Asks "Quelle est… la place que Boileau accorde à l'animal? Et quels sont les animaux auxquels il accorde une place? Comment situer Boileau dans cette " poétique de l'animal "?" Concludes "Il y a au niveau du bestiaire chez Boileau un décalage entre théorie et pratique poétique dû à la conception du sublime. […] Ainsi cette poétique de l'animal nous fait découvrir en fin de compte un autre Boileau, un Boileau ironique et non-conformiste, plus profond, plus proche de la nature et plus proche d'un grotesque débouchant sur un sublime tel que Boileau lui-même — en théorie — ne voulait pas l'admettre."
SCHRODER, VOLKER. "《 Ecolier, ou plutôt singe de Bourdaloue 》: portrait du satirique en prédicateur." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 539–553.
"Quels motifs, quels développements amènent Boileau, en 1694, à se réclamer du grand prédicateur jésuite? Le satirique est-il sincère et sérieux, ou se moque-t-il - mais de qui au juste? [. . .] Pour apporter quelques éléments de réponse, j'essaierai de situer ce rapprochement entre sermons et satires dans le contexte culturel de la fin du XVIIe siècle, époque à laquelle la prédication fait l'objet de débats particulièrement intenses."
SCOTT, PAUL A. "Cloisters, Teaching, and Tragedy: A Rediscovered Lost Play of 1663" in Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 151–161.
The discovery of a copy of L'histoire philosophe ou l'histoire de saincte Catherine d'Alexandrie (1663) by the nun known only as "de la Chapelle" sheds light on a female tragedian, the genre of the religious tragedy, and the conception of patriarchal authority.
SMOLIAROVA, TATIANA. "L'Ode sur la prise de Namur: entre ode et parodie." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 401–416.
Argues that "ce texte sert de point d'intersection à plusieurs contextes culturels importants, dont la querelle des Anciens et des Modernes et l'histoire du genre de l'ode pindarique. […] En traitant le genre de l'ode côte à côte avec le phénomène compliqué de la parodie je m'appuierai sur la vision 《 dramatique 》 de l'évolution littéraire, proposée par les formalistes russes dans les années 1910–1920 et développée par de divers chercheurs dans le monde entier tout au cours du XXe siècle."
STAUDER, THOMAS. "Le Lutrin de Boileau et Le Virgile travesty de Scarron: étude comparative des procédés et des fonctions." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 461–479.
Compares the two works by Boileau and Scarron. Argues that "À la différence de Scarron, qui au temps de la Fronde avait osé se moquer du Cardinal Mazarin dans son Virgile travesty… Boileau, conforme aux préceptes du classicisme français, dans son Lutrin rend sérieusement hommage au Roi-Soleil."
TONOLO, SOPHIE. "Boileau, praticien de l'épître en vers." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 555–572.
Aims to reconsider "l'œuvre produite entre 1666 et 1698, et d'abord voir en elle un sommet dans la longue histoire d'un genre qui va d'Horace et d'Ovide à Voltaire." The second part of the article suggests "trois traits qui paraissent animer l'ensemble des épîtres," namely : "la force vitale qui les imprègne, source de discontinuité ou d'affabulation et le désir de plus en plus affirmé chez l'auteur d'exposer son moi."
WOOD, ALLEN G.. "Boileau, Régnier et le repas ridicule." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 511–522.
Analyzes "la satire culinaire" in Boileau's and Régnier's œuvre and situates them in a wider tradition of the genre.
SEIFERT, LOUIS. "The Male Writer and the 'Marked' Self in Seventeenth-Century France: The Case of the Abbé de Boisrobert." EMF 9 (2004): 125–142.
Argues that certain gendered norms (the sodomitical and the heterosexual) were not viewed as incompatible in the period, given information supplied by the life of Boisrobert.
BAYLEY, PETER. "Bossuet: Knowledge and Conversion" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 173–180.
The author re-examines Bossuet's thought to show how "knowledge rather than feeling, learning rather than mysticism seems to him to be the key to advancement along the road to religious perfection."
CAGNAT-DEBOEUF, CONSTANCE, ed. Bossuet. Sermons. Le Carême du Louvre. Paris: Gallimard (Folio classique), 2001.
Review: J.-P. Landry in RHLF 103.3 (2003), 720–21. An excellent choice of sermons, accompanied by an excellent preface detailing the nature of seventeenth-century preaching and the genesis of the Carême du Louvre. The annotation of the text is also praised, even if the review feels that the editor finds in the text too many allusions to current events.
GOYET, THERESE, ed. Bossuet. Les projets des Carêmes. Louvre (1662) et Saint-Germain (1666). Meaux-Paris: Supplément au bulletin Les Amis de Bossuet (28), 2000.
Review: J.-P. Landry in RHLF 103.3 (2003), 720. Publication of two previously unpublished manuscripts, accompanied by a postface "qui en est un véritable commentaire littéraire, théologique et spirituel." Essential documents for the comprehension of the genesis of Bossuet's sermons.
LE BRUN, JACQUES, éd. Bossuet. Le Carême du Louvre (1662). Littératures classiques, no. 46, automne 2002.
Review: R. Baustert in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 272–275. Reviewer comments briefly on the eleven articles by J. Le Brun, J.-P. Landry, P. Zoberman, A. Régent, J.-Ph. Grosperrin, C. Cagnat-Debœuf, S. Macé, Ch. Bélin, C. Joulin, K. Lanini, and J.-R. Armogathe. This "bouquet d'érudition" is followed by a "savante présentation" by J.-Ph. Grosperrin of Bossuet's "Sur le style, et la lecture des Pères de l'Église pour former un orateur." "Ce beau livre a le mérite à la fois de renouer avec la tradition des études bossuétistes et de retremper celles-ci aux sources de la science nouvelle."
Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr 47 (2003): 706–707: Praiseworthy and wide-ranging with important perspectives on the monument of Bossuet's eloquence. The theoretical and the practical are examined, themes and ideas, as well as stylistic features such as irony and interrogation.
LE BRUN, JACQUES. Spiritualité de Bossuet prédicateur. Paris: Klincksieck, 2002.
Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 443: Very welcome republication of 1972 volume with new pages of introduction and conclusion. Singles out for particular praise the central chapters where Le Brun penetrates the "meditazione fondamentale" of Bossuet, treating his psychology, his use of coeur, âme, esprit, and so forth. Bossuet's spirituality is both active and affective, drawing its vitality from Scripture.
BEUGNOT, BERNARD. "Les Entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 62–71.
Beugnot presents the critical edition of Bouhours' Entretiens (the work of G. Declercq & Beugnot), arguing that the work presents a very specific esthetic that is both mondaine and Jesuit in nature. Bouhours uses the artifice of the mise-en-scène to justify his disparate theme, an effort that masks the underlying architecture of the text, which is based on recurring themes, contrasts, and certain dominant metaphors. Beugnot also studies Bouhours' "artifice dialogique" and his choice of topics.
VIOLA, CORRADO. Tradizioni letterarie a confronto. Italia e Francia nella polemica Orsi-Bouhours. Verona: Fiorini, 2001.
Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr 47 (2003): 709: Intelligent and careful comparatist study. French focus includes not only Bouhours's Manière de bien penser dans les ouvrages d'esprit, but also, as important writers of the "République des lettres," Rapin, Boileau and Madame Dacier.
CESSAC, CATHERINE, MANUEL COUVREUR, sous la dir. de; FABRICE PREYAT, ed. La Duchesse du Maine (1656–1753): une mécène à la croisée des arts et des siècles. Bruxelles: Editions de l'université de Bruxelles, 2003.
Review: BCLF 659 (2004), 143–44: Actes d'un colloque tenu à Sceaux (25–27 octobre 2003) dont les contributions "sont toutes d'un excellent niveau" mais on regrette "l'absence d'un index et d'une bibliographie détaillée."
ZONZA, CHRISTIAN. "Les métamorphoses de l'histoire et de la fiction dans Le prince de Condé de Boursault." DFS 65 (Winter 2003), 101–111.
"La nouvelle de Boursault est… un bon exemple de travail de récriture historique. (…) Elle se définit davantage comme la concentration d'effets autour d'un événement sur lequel vient se greffer la fiction…"
LACY, NORRIS J. "Pathelin in 1706: 'De l'or dans le fumier'?" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 163–168.
Studies the 1706 Brueys's play L'Avocat Patelin as a reinvention of its medieval predecessor, noting Brueys's borrowings as well as his innovations. Maintains that which Brueys's work does hold some interest, it is inferior to its medieval counterpart.
BEASLEY, FAITH E. "Marguerite Buffet and la Sagesse Mondaine," in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 227–235.
Because women's role in the development of the French language has been largely erased, Buffet's text helps us to recognize the importance of the cultural milieu of "la sagesse mondaine"-the largely oral, worldly, salon culture dominated by women in seventeenth-century France.
DUCHARME, ISABELLE. "Une formule discursive au féminin: Marguerite Buffet et la Querelle des Femmes." PFSCL 30 (2003): 131–155.
Review: A. Giaufret in S Fr 47 (2003): 708: Demonstrates successfully the importance of Buffet's contribution to the Querelle des Femmes by an analysis of her argumentation. Situates her work, Eloges des Illustres Sçavantes, in the context of 17th c. apologetic texts.
PEKAR LEMPEREUR, ALAIN, ed. François de Callières. De la manière de négocier avec les souverains. Geneva: Droz, 2002.
Review: P. Sasso in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 443–444: Welcome edition at a time when negotiation is central to international politics. Callières's work sheds light on the theory and practice of much diplomacy. Instead of a politics of conquest such as that of Louis XIV, Callières counsels listening attentively and being persuasive, aware of cultural differences, studying foreign languages and cultivating tolerance.
GROSPERRIN, JEAN-PHILIPPE and JEAN-NOEL PASCAL, eds. Jean-Galbert de Campistron. Tragédies (1684–1685): Arminius, Andronic, Alcibiade. Toulouse, Société de littératures classiques, 2002.
Review: P. Gethner in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 255–256. Reviewer praises "the superb introduction," which makes "judicious use of both primary sources and modern scholarship", and provides "an insightful discussion of [Campistron's] dramaturgy." Comment is also made on the "extensive bibliography." "This very serviceable edition will provide useful to lovers of French classical tragedy and help to rehabilitate an unfairly neglected author."
Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr 47 (2003): 708–709: Papasogli welcomes this edition, the first since the 1800s, and its fine critical apparatus including notices and contextualizing annexes. Important new tool for researchers who in the last decade have shown a renewed interest in Campistron's work.
Review: BCLF 649 (2003), 124–25: "C'est l'oeuvre du tragédien qu'ont choisi de remettre en lumière J.-Ph. Grosperrin et J.-N. Pascal en publiant, dans l'excellente collection de la Société de Littérature classique, trois de ses tragédies les plus célébrées de leurs temps, celles qui en firent aux yeux des observateurs le digne successeur de Racine. Arminius (19 février 1684), Andronic (8 février 1685) et Alcibiade (28 décembre 1685) permettent donc d'apprécier le travail sûr d'un écrivain dont l'inspiration est pourtant limitée."
FERRARI, STEPHAN, ed. Jean-Pierre Camus. L'Amphithéâtre sanglant. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: J. Gilroy in FR 77 (2003) 148–149. A laudable new edition of one of Camus' first shadowy histories tragiques. Stéphan Ferrari's extensive (176-page) introduction provides an excellent analysis of this genre, one well liked in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
Review: E. Henein in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 250–251. "Voici une édition qui satisfera les spécialistes de Camus tout autant que les amateurs de romans ou de nouvelles. L'introduction…, le glossaire…, et le tableau des personnages… sont des chefs-d'œuvre de précision et de clarté. […] Grâce au travail de Stéphan Ferrari, nous pouvons enfin lire l'analyse attentive et conscientieuse d'un texte examiné sous tous ses aspects, qui n'est pas considéré simplement comme un maillon d'une chaîne."
Review: N. Oddo in DSS 223 (2004), 334–335: The reviewer sees this critical edition as "indispensable" to any study of Camus. "Le soin et la précision scientifique de Stéphan Ferrari sont mis au service des deux livres qui constituent ce recueil de 35 histoires au total. Dans une riche introduction de près de 200 pages, il met en relief différents éléments qui éclairent grandement l'ouvrage."
VENESOEN, CONSTANCE, ed. Jean-Pierre Camus. Divertissement historique. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2002 (Biblio 17).
Review: N. Oddo in DSS 223 (2004), 333–334: Reviewer lauds the new availability of a critical edition of Camus' Divertissement, but she is critical of the overall approach to the presentation of the 45 "nouvelles" citing a lack of "véritable synthèse, une vue d'ensemble approfondie de ces histoires."
Review: S. Poli in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 156–157: Based on the first edition of 1632, this edition includes 45 short stories, a brief but erudite introduction situating Camus in his time and indicating key themes. Ample bibliography and notes.
KRAMER, MICHAEL. "Les visages du comte de Carmain : approche textologique à l'identification d'un héritage littéraire." PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 193–222.
Sets out to "tenter d'établir l'appartenance individuelle des œuvres jusqu'à présent attribuées 《 en bloc 》 au 《 comte de Cramail 》, en utilisant l'information langagière et stylistique tirée des textes de ces œuvres."
GIROU SWIDERSKI, MARIE-LAURE and PIERRE BERTHIAUME, eds. Challe et son temps. Actes du colloque de l'Université d'Ottawa. Paris: Champion, 2002.
Review: J.-P. de Nola in S Fr 47 (2003): 718: 17th c. and 18th c. scholars such as Jean Mesnard, Frédéric Deloffre, François Moureau and others are thanked for their considerable discoveries on Challe. These Actes as well as other "mises au point collectives" named by de Nola give an idea of Challe's abundant and varied production. Wide-ranging essays treat Challe's philosophy, themes of amour-propre, humor, his life as traveler, merchant and scribe of the king, and "la problématique religieuse," among others.
MARTIN, MARGOT. "Devilish Utterance Through Sublime Expression: The Union of the Sacred and the Profane in Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Médée" in Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 231–237.
Médée offers an amalgamation of the sacred and the secular music traditions and can be interpreted as either "devilish utterance" or "sublime expression."
BANDERIER, GILLES. Note biographique sur Guillaume Colletet." Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, fasc. 3. Langues et littératures modernes 80 (2002): 945–958.
Une enquête "pour compléter une biographie parfois lacunaire" basée sur une lecture des compositions littéraires de l'auteur: "Tous les textes qu'on vient de lire [Poésies diverses, 1656 et Divertissements, 1631] forment un sérieux faisceau de présomptions en faveur d'un séjour de Colletet à Bruxelles même ou dans les environs, en 1626, puis de stations plus longues en 1629–30."
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47 (2003): 702: Praised for its organization and its informative quality, Banderier's article complements the work of P.A. Jannini and V. Pompejano Natoli. Rizza appreciates Banderier's study for the new light it sheds on Colletet's life and his presence at the court of Brussels.
SCHAPIRA, NICOLAS. Un professionnel des letters au XVIIe siècle: Valentin Conrart: une histoire sociale. Paris: Champ Vallon, 2003.
Review: C. Jouhaud in Critique 684 (mai 2004), 388–401. Through this analysis of the forgotten Conrart, Schapira "[affronte] comme neuves de grandes questions comme: qu'est-ce qu'un homme de letters au XVIIe siècle, un officier, un protestant, voire un bourgeois parisien?"
Review: BCLF 657 (2004), 142–43: "Nicolas Schapira livre... une contribution notable à l'histoire sociale, en composant un portrait sans chinoiserie du 'secrétaire d'Etat des Belles Lettres', comme on… surnommait [Valentin Conrart] de son vivant."
ALBANESE, RALPH. "Polarités métaphoriques et spatio-temporelles dans Polyeucte" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 206–213.
Albanese explores three primary antitheses present in Corneille's Polyeucte, to wit, "élévation / bassesse," "mobilité / immobilité," and "constance / incontance," highlighting the role of these metaphors in the economy of the play. Placing Polyeucte on the side of élévation and mobilité, Albanese contrasts this character with that of Pauline, in an effort to underscore the fundamental irony of the play.
APOSTOLIDES, JEAN-MARIE. "La Machine à illusions" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 82–91.
Apostolidès resituates Corneille's Illusion comique in the context of the decline of belief in magic in the 17th century, with attention to Corneille's use of the term "étrange monstre," Alcandre's magic, theatrical magic, and the relation between theater and death. Apostolidès concludes that while they do not replace magical beings, theatrical characters play a similar cultural role. The play is thus at the crossroads of two visions of the world, one based on magic and the other on reason.
BANDERIER, GILLES. "Corneille et les Jésuites: un poème inédit." DSS 212 (juillet–sept. 2001): 545–549.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 46 (2002): 441: Focuses on a Latin epigram in P. Vavasseur's 1669 work dedicated to the Queen Mother (Pierre Corneille is indicated as author of the French translation). Emphasis on connections with the Jesuits, dating and content of the text.
BOURQUI, CLAUDE et SIMONE DE REYFF, éds. Corneille. Polyeucte martyr. Paris, Librairie générale française, 2002 (Le Livre de poche: Théâtre de poche).
Review: M. R. Margiti in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 239–240. "Like Georges Forestier before them… Polyeucte's latest editors are trying to teach the modern reader how to read a 17th century tragedy on its own terms". Furthermore, "they seek the play's meaning in its dramatic form." Reviewer also comments, however, that ironically their reading of the play "tends to minimize its religious nature, intent and impact."
DEFAUX, GERARD. "Cinna, tragédie chrétienne? Essai de mise au point." MLN 119.4 (2004), 718–65.
Defaux passe en revue une quarantaine d'années de critique littéraire relative a l'interprétation de Cinna: "Il est, au vu du texte, tout autant inadmissible, comme l'ont par exemple tenté Doubrovsky ou Zuber, d'évacuer Dieu, la grâce de Dieu, le rôle de Dieu, de ce système, que d'y réduire indûment, comme l'a malheureusement fait Herland, la part de l'homme. Face à Corneille, le critique doit donc avant tout faire appel à son sens de l'équilibre."
EKSTEIN, NINA. "Corneille's Absent Characters." PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 27–48.
"Within the enormous variety of his œuvre, Corneille repeatedly experiments with the possibility of barring a significant character from the stage. It is this experimentation, as a constituent of his dramaturgical practice, that we will examine here."
EKSTEIN, NINA. "Knowing Irony: The Problem of Corneille" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 295–304.
Ekstein examines two sets of contiguous and continuous texts by Pierre Corneille (Le Menteur and La Suite du Menteur and the allegorical prologue of Le Toison d'or and the play itself) to probe the notion of the ironic gap. In the Menteur plays, Corneille creates a discontinuous sequel that subverts the concept of continuity. In the Toison, the juxtaposition of a celebration of Louis XIV's marriage with Maria Teresa of Spain and the murderous foreign queen Medea should give pause for thought. Ultimately, ironic reading requires good judgment and lucidity on the part of the reader who must avoid the trap of seeing irony everywhere.
ESCOLA, MARC. "Récrire Horace." DSS no. 216 (2002): 445–467.
Review: A. Arrigoni in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 438: Reviewer appreciated Escola's perspective on the "dualismo critico" which confronts Horace and renders it of such great interest. Focuses on the central and disturbing element of fratricide.
GOODKIN, RICHARD. "Changing Classes Changing Characters: 'Noblesse de robe' in Corneille's Le Menteur." PFCSL 29, no. 57 (2002): 419–428.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47, no.139 (2003): 157–158: Social position and the conflict between noblesse de robe and noblesse d'épée are the principal points of this investigation as Goodkin focuses on Corneille's Menteur.
GOSSIP, CHRISTOPHER J. "Truth, Deception and Self-Deception in Le Cid." PFSCL 30 (2003): 57–70.
Review: A. Giaufret in S Fr 47 (2003): 703: Focuses on the role of Chimène and how it impacts the entire work; Gossip's pertinent examination studies Corneille's modifications of the play in the 1660 version.
GUILLOT, CATHERINE. "Théâtralisation des passions et catharsis: le personnage de Cléopâtre dans le frontispiece, signé Charles Le Brun, pour la Rodogune de Corneille (1647)." PFSCL 30 (2003): 29–39.
Review: A. Giaufret in S Fr 47 (2003): 703: Confronts the representation of passion on the stage with its illustration in the frontispiece. Important for canons of esthetics of the period.
KRAUSE, VIRGINIA. "Le sort de la sorcière: Médée de Corneille." PFSCL 30 (2003): 41–56.
Review: A. Giaufret in S Fr 47 (2003): 703: Underscores Corneille's break with tradition and his innovation in the development of the character of Médée, no longer burlesque as in the Renaissance but here evoking pity on the part of the spectator.
LASSERRE, FRANÇOIS. "Le Festival Corneille 2000: les mises en scène de La Suivante, Horace, Oedipe, Tite et Bérénice." PFSCL 30 (2003): 71–88.
Review: A. Giaufret in S Fr 47 (2003): 703: Praises the festival that Lasserre presented, performed by the Compagnie de l'Elan at the Théâtre du Nord-Ouest of Paris, in particular the mise-en-scène and quality of the interpretations. Draws our attention to new light on aspects such as plot, profound thought and, in Tite et Bérénice, to "la persistance d'un appel à l'amour lucide et généreux" (n.p., qtd, in G. 703).
LASSERRE, FRANÇOIS. "La Pastorale d'Alidor et son attribution à Corneille." S Fr 47 (2003): 618–622:
The editor of Alidor ou l'indifférent (2001) furnishes several further responses to questions regarding a possible attribution to Corneille. In addition to "rapprochements stylistiques et syntaxiques," Lasserre also finds "la même configuration mentale... dans Mélite et dans Clitandre" (618). His analyses are continuing in PFSCL and elsewhere and this article also quotes the opinions (divergent) of several specialists.
LYONS, JOHN D. "Tragedy Comes to Arcadia: Corneille's Médée" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 198–205.
Lyons posits that Corneille's Médée "lays out a program for future Cornelian and even Racinian tragedy" (198). Through a comparison of Corneille's work with Seneca's Medea, Lyons demonstrates that Corneille operated a fundamental shift of perspective in the play, making the spectator / reader see the world alternately from the point of view of characters other than Médée. It is only in the last act that "full tragedy" à la Seneca returns to the stage, paving the way for the shift from tragi-comedy to tragedy in future work.
MARGITIC, MILORAD R. Cornelian Power Games. Variations on a Theme in Pierre Corneille's Theatre from Mélite to Polyeucte. Tübingen, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002.
Review: P. Ronzeaud in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 282–283. "Milorad Margitic met ainsi en lumière, sous ses variations de surface, les permanences du jeu prismatique de la libido dominandi à l'œuvre dans les douze premières pièces de Corneille. Son livre intéressera ceux qui s'attachent à l'une ou l'autre de ces pièces: ils liront une monographie éclairante les concerant, mais il satisfera aussi ceux qui s'attachent à l'ensemble de la production du dramaturge: ils découvriront, à travers les renvois aux autres pièces, une lecture globale de l'œuvre, fine et stimulante."
MIERNOWSKI, JAN. "Le Plaisir tragique de la haine: Rodogune de Corneille." RHLF 103.4 (2003), 789–821.
Examines the larger paradox of how pleasure can be had from tragedy by looking at hate in Rodogune. Argues that Corneille proposes a cathartic purgation of hate: "Face à une Cléopâtre célébrant sa haine, le spectateur serait saisi d'une horreur que le personnage est loin de ressentir." In this way, "l'horreur de la haine" can become an "object d'admiration," thus producing pleasure.
NIDERST, ALAIN, ed. Corneille et les autres. PFSCL 28, no. 55 (2001).
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 46 (2002): 439–441: Issue dedicated to Acts of the Colloque of Rouen (2000) organized by the Mouvement Corneille-Centre International Pierre Corneille. Volume is divided into two sections: "Prédécesseurs et rivaux" and "Emules et héritiers" and essays are wide-ranging treating significant questions involving Corneille and rich analyses of connections and affiliations in theory and practice (for example, Catherine Kintzler's on the French opera's debt to Corneille).
O'HARA, STEPHANIE. "'Savante en poison': Médée and Madame de Brinvilliers" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 195–204.
A comparison between Corneille's Médée and the case of the infamous Madame de Brinvilliers who was executed for poisoning her father and two brothers. Juxtaposing the two shows how poison is an instrument of female power and "where and how history and literature connect and diverge."
PICCIOLA, LILIANE. Corneille et la dramaturgie espagnole. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2002.
Review: C. Carlin in IL 55.3 (2003), 48–50. A "magisterial" study that explores in all its ramifications the influence of Spanish drama on Corneille throughout his career. Author shows, among other things, that Spanish (as opposed to Roman) sources may well account for Corneille's bloodier plays; examines Héraclius in light of Spanish "philosophical" tragedy; and features an extended demonstration of precisely what the structure of Le Cid owes to Guillén de Castro.
SCOTT, PAUL. "Manipulating Martyrdom: Corneille's (Hetero)Sexualization of Polyeucte." MLR 99.2 (2004), 328–38.
"The combination of the religious and sexual tensions that underpin the work, particularly with respect to the representation of friendship and marriage, is an essential factor contributing to the play's originality. Corneille's martyr creation is radical in its presentation of a sexualized saintly hero, a fact best illustrated by comparing details in Polyeucte with those presented in any of the sizeable number of martyr tragedies that had already appeared in Paris and the provinces in the preceding four decades." Scott considers Polyeucte "an innovative heroic model whose intimacy with a woman is not posited as a fundamental obstacle to salvation."
GIBSON, WENDY, ed. Le Comte d'Essex. By Thomas Corneille. Exeter: UEP, 2000.
Review: J. Clarke in MLR 99.2 (2004), 490: Welcome critical edition. Gibson "considers Thomas Corneille's play of 1678 in relation to La Calprenède's earlier version (1639) and, as is so often the case with Thomas, in terms of literary fashions of the day. She finds the theory that Thomas might be commenting on Franco-British relations unconvincing, but notes the fashion for literary works based on sujets d'actualité and recent history." Reviewer cites need for broader theatrical contextualization for this play which "appeared at a decisive moment in the history of Parisian theatre, written by a man who was a prime mover in theatrical affairs."
BLANC, ANDRÉ, ed. Cyrano de Bergerac, Oeuvres complètes, tome III: Théâtre. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: J. Royé in IL 55.4 (2003), 46–47. An edition which proposes "une lecture résolument neuve de l'oeuvre théâtrale de Cyrano." Editor reproduces the original (1656) edition of Le Pédant joué, plus later variants, and includes "une nouvelle traduction tout à fait convaincante de son patois" and an examination of literary sources of the play's characters. The presentation of La Mort d'Agrippine stresses the author's relative lack of interest in the actual plot, as opposed to the efforts he devotes to the "violence verbale" that pits the characters against one another.
ERBA, LUCIANO, and HUBERT CARRIER, eds. Cyrano de Bergerac, Oeuvres Complètes II, Lettres, Entretiens pointus, Mazarinades. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: P. Ronzeaud in RHLF 103.3 (2003), 716–17. Reviewer lauds especially the work done by Hubert Carrier to present and annotate the Mazarinades, including a significant and convincing confirmation of their attribution to Cyrano. Luciano Erba's introduction to the Lettres and Entretiens gives their history, and sketches out the problem of how we are to read them; reviewer takes issue, however, with some editorial choices (punctuation, capitalization), and feels the presentation of each letter is insufficient to facilitate the reader's access.
PERFETTI, AMALIA. "L'hypothèse atomistique dans L'autre monde de Cyrano de Bergerac." RHSA 55.2 (2002): 215–238.
Focuses on the author's knowledge and use of atomism to explain the phenomena of his world, a "universe... composed of an 'infinite number of invisible small bodies' whose characteristics were solidity, incorruptibility, and simplicity."
PIOFFET, MARIE-CHRISTINE. "Le Choc du dépaysement dans l'oeuvre romanesque de Cyrano de Bergerac." LR 56 (2002): 171–180.
Pioffet interrogates closely Cyrano's fiction to verify her hypothesis that "la stupéfaction marque une étape préliminaire vers la découverte de nouveaux concepts" (172). Organized in the following sections: "l'altérité physique," "la diversité culturelle," et "l'hétérodoxie religieuse," Pioffet's essay documents numerous instances of confusion and/or astonishment: "l'étonnement craintif, crédule ou sceptique cède presque toujours le pas à une tentative de rationalisation en faveur de la supériorité des autres espèces" (174).
SZAMES, ALEXANDER. "Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac premier spazionaute de la littérature." L'Astronomie (2002): 528–532.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 158: Focuses less on the geographical voyage and more on values and laws governing the world and their possible renewal by Cyrano's protagonists.
JASMIN, NADINE. Naissance du conte féminin. Mots et Merveilles: Les Contes de fées de Madame d'Aulnoy (1690–1698). Paris: Champion, 2002.
Review: A. Duggan in Marvels and Tales 18.1 (2004), 122–124: Jasmin "defines the object of her study to be an analysis of the 'birth of a new literary genre,' that of the literary fairy tale, out of the oral tale" and consequently emphasizes d'Aulnoy's corpus as being "more representative of the larger trend" than Perrault's. A study in three sections, the first of which treats d'Aulnoy's combinations of various sources to create new, autonomous literary genre, while the second centers on the sociocultural context of the tales. In the final sections (Duggan claims there are four, not three), Jasmin looks at d'Aulnoy's style, narrative technique, and "her original imaginary worlds." Duggan finds the first section to be most successful, but states that the work has too much in the way of detail and digressions, along with too little attention to current scholarly debate surrounding the fairy tale (Mainil, Hannon, and Seifert, in particular). However, there are many "worthy arguments" that enable Jasmin to show that "d'Aulnoy indeed creates an autonomous literary genre that has its own set of aesthetic norms."
THIRARD, MARIE-AGNES. "La réception des contes de fées de Madame d'Aulnoy ou l'histoire d'un malentendu." PFSCL 30 (2003): 167–195.
Review: A. Giaufret in S Fr 47 (2003): 707: Reassessment and explanation of the contradiction between fascination of D'Aulnoy's contemporaries and later disinterest on the part of the public and the critics. Possible cause is the simplistic consideration of D'Aulnoy's work as popular and moralizing literature.
SCOTT, PAUL A. "Cloisters, Teaching, and Tragedy: A Rediscovered Lost Play of 1663" in Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 151–161.
The discovery of a copy of L'histoire philosophe ou l'histoire de saincte Catherine d'Alexandrie (1663) by the nun known only as "de la Chapelle" sheds light on a female tragedian, the genre of the religious tragedy, and the conception of patriarchal authority.
STONE, HARRIET. "Petitions for Justice: Molière's Tartuffe Viewed in the Mirror of Pierre de Lancre's Witches" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 92–99.
Stone juxtaposes de Lancre's Tableav de l'inconstance with Tartuffe, asserting that they are reverse images of the "knowledge constructed and disseminated within the monarchy" (92). Tartuffe mirrors de Lancre's witch trials, representing the crown's attempts to restrict the flow of information; the ability of absolute power to control meaning is undermined by the work. Extensive commentary on Molière's efforts to persuade the king not to censor his work. Stone stresses the importance of the victims' voices, heard through Molière.
BANDERIER, GILLES. "Les Livres de Louis Guillaume de Montlor, Baron de Modène." BHR 66,1 (2004), 111–116:
"La Bibliothèque municipale d'Avignon conserve, aux f. 81vo– 82ro de son manuscrit 2311, une courte liste" comportant dix-sept titres du livre de raison de Louis Guillaume Raymond de Montlor, baron de Modène et d'Aubenas.
MAITRE, MYRIAM. "La Précieuse de Michel de Pure: De l'impossible corps des femmes à la personne de la lectrice" in Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 61–75.
De Pure's critical novel offers a double vision of the précieuse body and functions as an important "fiction heuristique" at a moment in history when the individual begins to emerge from the social sphere.
CLARKE, DESMOND. Descartes's Theory of Mind. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003.
Review: W. Desmond in Choice 41 (2004), 2056. Clarke argues that we mistake Descartes in our typical understanding of his dualism. "Clarke grounds his argument on the assumption that to understand a historical work, one must put the work into historical context, noting that "we cannot assume without serious anachronism, that…[Descartes's] matter-mind distinction is conceptually isomorphic with what is not called the mind-body problem" (2056). In Clarke's view, Descartes toyed only briefly with dualism in the context of contributing to the Counter-Reformation, and it is from this that we derive an exaggerated sense of a material-mental binary in his thought. Highly recommended by the reviewer.
GIOCANTI, SYLVIA. "Descartes face au doute scandaleux des sceptiques." DSS no. 217 (octobre–decembre 2002): 663–673.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 437: This "punctual confrontation" of Montaigne's Essais and Descartes's Discours de la méthode along with other works considers the question of doubt in numerous ramifications, for example the moral consequences of libertine skepticism.
JULLIEN, VINCENT et ANDRE CHARRAK. Ce que dit Descartes touchant la chute des graves: de 1618 à 1646, étude d'un indicateur de la philosophie naturelle cartésienne. Villeneuve-d'Ascq: PU du Septentrion, 2002.
Review: BCLF 647 (2003), 46: "Le but avoué est simple: d'une part, la prise en compte de tous les textes, sur une question où les rapports physique-mathématiques sont particulièrement visibles, permet d'éviter les généralisations hasardeuses dans lesquelles on s'est trop souvent complu... D'autre part, cette approche permet d'éviter la tentation d'une lecture dans laquelle on se contente de corriger les erreurs d'un auteur à partir de conceptions modernes."
KISNER, MATTHEW J. "Descartes' Naturalistic Rationalism." DAI 64/11 (2004), 4073.
Study "argues that Descartes resisted treating human reason as resembling divine reason" and that there are "significant differences between Descartes' rationalism and [that of] other rationalists."
LOJACONO, ETTORE, dir. La recherche de la vérité par la lumière naturelle de René Descartes. Textes établis par Erik Jan Bos. Milano: Franco Angeli, 2002.
Review: M. Devaux in DSS 222 (2004), 145–147: This large volume provides important commentary, translations and "concordances". Descartes' text serves as, "un prétexte en trois sens [...] a) La recherche de la vérité est un prétexte puisque le texte que nous avons n'est connu dans la langue même de Descartes que dans sa première moitié [...], la seconde jusque-là n'était connue que par la traduction latine (1701). Erik Jan Bos rétablit ces textes, et rend accessible la traduction néerlandaise (1684) de la totalité du texte, négligée jusqu'alors. b) La recherche de la vérité est un prétexte, ensuite, au sens où, par la datation (1634) proposée ici par Ettore Lojacono, il s'agit d'un texte antérieur au Discours de la méthode, et non pas d'un texte tardif comme on le dit souvent. c) Enfin, l'édition des différentes versions (le français et les traductions) est le texte à partir duquel les index et concordances sont établis — ce travail étant l'essentiel, par le volume, de cet ouvrage."
MONSMA, FREDERICK JOHN. "Descartes and the Gods of Piety and Science." DAI 64/07 (2004), 3327.
Dissertation argues that "The Meditations is... a work of spiritual transformation, comparable to the meditations of the Ignatian tradition, but looking to produce an opposite effect. It aims to confirm the reader in the scientific vocation, for which the truth is the only standard, against the interference of piety and decent opinions."
RILEY, PATRICK. "Fables of the Self and Subject: on Cartesian Autobiography with and against Augustine." PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 151–173.
Focuses on "the play between the convergence of autobiographical structure in the Confessions and the Discours on the one hand, and their contrary visions of subjectivity and autonomy on the other hand."
ROMANO, CLAUDE. "Les trois médecines de Descartes." DSS no. 217 (octobre–decembre 2002): 675–696.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 437: Appreciative review of article signals Romano's "scientific rigor." As Romano elucidates Descartes's texts analyses are included of the Cartesian's conviction "che esista una rapporto di causalità tra l'anima e il corpo" (reviewer). Draws consequences that indicates both Descartes's innovative quality for his time and his modernity: "Si nous savons écouter notre nature, nous sommes nos propres et nos meilleurs médecins" (n.p.).
ROZEMOND, MARLEEN. Descartes' Dualism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2002.
Review: K. Smith in Ren Q 56 (2003): 1285–1286: Recommended for its clarity and good writing and judged "one of the best historic-philosophical treatments of Descartes' dualism" (1285). Rozemond's approach is primarily "in the light of scholastic Aristotelianism"; topics include: "The Real Distinction Argument, Natures of Mind and Body, Sensible Qualities, Mind-Body Union, and Sensation" (1285). Despite some controversial views, Smith finds the volume a "must read" for both Cartesian scholars and students in general.
SARKAR, HUSAIN. Descartes' Cogito: Saved from the Great Shipwreck. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003.
Review: M. Bertman in Choice 41.5 (2003), 923. Though narrowly focused, an admirable work. "Sarkar moves, with care and erudition, through several centuries of scholarly examination of the cogito. Most interesting and mind-stretching are collateral arguments previous to Descartes, e.g., between Porphyry and Eudoxus" (923). Also considers Descartes' influence on Arnauld.
SCHMALTZ, TAD. Radical Cartesianism: The French Reception of Descartes. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002.
Review: A. Pyle in TLS 5270 (Apr 2 2004), 28: Study of strange branch of Cartesianism found in Dom Robert Desgabets and Pierry-Sylvain Regis. Belief that every substance indestructible even by God and that the "cogito" establishes the existence of the body as well as of the mind. Fundamental doctrine has impeccable roots in Descartes. A "richly rewarding excursion into a forgotten branch of Cartesianism illuminating the intellectual context of the French reception of Descartes." Also "helps us to focus on those aspects of mainstream Cartesianism that may be mistaken either exegetically or philosophically."
SKIRRY, JUSTIN JAMES. "Descartes on the Metaphysics of Human Nature." DAI 64/10 (2004), 3716.
Examines the mind/body problem in Descartes, whose challenge was to understand how "efficient causal interaction take[s] place between two independently existing things that have absolutely nothing in common? My dissertation provides a detailed reconstruction of Descartes' theory of mind-body union in order to show how Descartes avoided this problem, contrary to current scholarship."
FRANCHETTI, ANNA LIA, ed. and tr. Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin. Europa. Firenze: Alinea, 2002.
Review: C. Rolla in S Fr 47 (2003): 703: Franchetti is director of a team of specialists at Florence which capably translated Desmaret de Saint-Sorlin's work into Italian. Praised for its rich critical apparatus (introduction which pertinently contextualizes the work as well as useful notes).
LOSKOUTOFF, YVAN. "Mazarin's Desmarets, Addenda au Corpus maresianum." DSS no. 217 (2002): 741–748.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 439: Useful contribution for its consideration of the various "proofs" of Desmarets's attachment to Mazarin's politics, including, to be sure, the ode of Desmarets on the 1647 riot of Naples.
GREINER, FRANK, dir., Préf. et bibliographie de Charles-Olivier STIKER-METRAL. François Desrues. Les Marguerites françoises ou Thresor des fleurs de bien dire. Fac-similé de l'édition de T. Reinsart, Rouen, 1609. Reims: PU de Reims, 2003.
Review: G.-A. Pérouse in BHR 66.2 (2004), 469–71: "...un obscur compilateur a rassemblé ici bout à bout un ou deux milliers de formules littéraires, 'fleurs de rhétorique' qu'il avait rencontrées dans ses lectures et qu'il jugeait dignes de servir d'exemples à qui se mêle d'écrire." Selon Pérouse: "Nous sortons de cette lecture confirmé dans les réserves qui nous inspire toujours le fac-similé. Est-il vraiment raisonnable de réimprimer telle quelle une édition aussi lourdement fautive? De multiplier des coquilles par quelques milliers?... A moins, il est vrai, d'être mû par le désir de mettre sous nos yeux non tellement le texte, mais l'objet même que nos pères allaient acheter chez le libraire..., avec sa typographie en très gros corps, ses verrues et ses taches?"
DE SMET, INGRID A. R. "Contre les cloches: Pour une lecture de neuf épigrammes inédites de Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553–1617). BHR 66,1 (2004), 91–110:
"Parmi les poésies latines de Jacques-Auguste de Thou, préservées dans le ms Dupuy 460 de la Bibliothèque nationale, figurent neuf épigrammes assez curieuses, dans lesquelles le poète s'attaque à la sonnerie des cloches, bruit affolant et assidu qui se fait entendre où que ce soit: fort troublé dans ses lectures et dans ses compositions, l'auteur désespère de jamais trouver moyen d'échapper au bourdonnement. Nous présentons ici une édition critique de ces épigrammes avec, en guise d'introduction, une première tentative d'évaluation et interprétation littéraire."
GRENIER, FRANK, ed. François Dorval Langlois, sieur de Fancan. Le Tombeau des romans. Texte établi d'après l'édition de Claude Morlot, Paris, 1626.
Review: R. Godenne in BHR 66,1 (2004), 238–39: "En 1626 paraissaient deux éditions du Tombeau des romans (95 P.) qu'il faut attribuer à François Dorval Langlois, sieur de Fancan (1576?–1628?), proche de Richelieu et auteur d'ouvrages politiques, comme l'établit définitivement M. Grenier (se trouve ainsi réfutée l'idée que Sorel en serait l'auteur: voir: p. 15)." Ouvrage d'esprit ludique qui est "imprégné de la morale chrétienne de l'époque" et "inspiré par les humanistes de la Renaissance"; en deux volets: Contre les romans; Pour les romans.
HAMILTON, ALISTAIR and FRANCIS RICHARD. André du Ryer and Oriental Studies in Seventeenth-Century France. Geneva and Oxford: Arcadian Library with Oxford UP, 2004
Review: E. Bosworth in TLS 5299 (Oct. 22 2004), 5: Study of the role of the French diplomat, who served in Alexandria and in Istanbul, in spreading curiosity about the Orient. Du Ryer made results of Eastern scholarship available in French, wrote a Turkish grammar in Latin and translated Persian literature and the Koran into French. Hamilton and Richard's book is "an exemplary work of scholarship, attractively written and exhaustive in its content."
MONCOND'HUI, DOMINIQUE, ed. Pierre Du Ryer dramaturge et traducteur. Littératures classiques no. 42 (2001).
Review: C. Bernazzoli in S Fr 46 (2002): 437–438: This issue of LC is devoted to several important questions regarding Du Ryer, his strategies, styles, translations, biblical adaptations, editions and generic considerations. Useful bibliography.
GUERRINI, ANITA. "Duverney's Skeletons." Isis 94.4 (December 2003), 577–603.
Guerrini analyzes the controversy caused by the 1730 will of Joseph-Guichard Duverney, professor of anatomy at the Jardin du Roi and member of the Académie des Sciences. She argues that "the ambiguity of the skeleton itself in terms of its ownership, moral and scientific significance, and authorship reveals significant tensions in the prosecution, patronage and legacy of pre-Revolutionary Parisian anatomical study."
GREINER, FRANK, ed. Pierre Jean Fabre. L'alchimiste chrétien: traduction anonyme inédite du XVIIIe siècle avec le fac-similé de l'édition latine originale. Paris: Société d'Etude de l'Histoire de l'Alchimie, 2001.
Review: J. Harrie in Ren Q 56 (2003): 846–849: Welcome facsimile of Fabre's Alchymista christianus of 1632, with 18th c. translation, copious notes and an extensive introduction by editor Greiner. Makes accessible this text whose importance is demonstrated both as a "practical art" and as "an additional weapon in the Counter-Reformation" (849).
TOUBOUL, PATRICIA. "Le Statut des femmes: Nature et condition sociale dans le traité De l'éducation des filles de Fénelon." RHLF 104.2 (2004), 325–42.
Argues that the traditional view of Fénelon's treatise—that it ascribes to women various intellectual and moral weaknesses that prevent them from attaining excellence—is in fact incomplete, and that Fénelon in fact indicts only qualities resulting from the education of women as commonly practiced. "Aussi n'est-il plus permis de douter que Fénelon, par une toute autre voie que celle empruntée par un Poullain de La Barre, apparaisse comme un penseur féministe à sa façon."
JACQUIN, GERARD, ed., notes & trad. latine et grecques. Jacques Ferrand. Traité de l'Essence et Guérison de l'Amour ou De la Mélancolie érotique (1610). Paris: Anthropos, 2001.
Review: A. Lanavère in DSS 222 (2004), 110–112: This medical treatise is published here with extensive translations, notes and corrections as well as an interesting contextual introduction. The reviewer remarks on the timeliness of this edition given the reference made to it by Starobinski, Pigeaud and Dandrey, among others. He notes that it is destined for a non-academic public, therefore, some of the spelling, notations and abbreviations have been normalized.
HEPP, NOEMI et VOLKER KAPP, eds. Claude Fleury. Ecrits de jeunesse. Tradition humaniste et liberté d'esprit. Paris, Champion, 2003.
Review: J.-P. Collinet in RHLF 103.4 (2003), 951–53. Reviewer lauds the "impeccable travail" that went into editing and annotating the text of overlooked early texts of Fleury's—"Si on doit citer dans les plaidoyers," "Remarques sur Homère," and a "Discours sur Platon." The introduction is a "modèle du genre." Reviewer argues that the texts presented touch on a number of issues central to the period—judicial rhetoric, the Ancients and Moderns, and the entire Classical attack on pedantism. Texts seem to anticipate, then, La Fontaine, Racine, and Lamy.
Review: M.-O. Sweetser in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 259–261. "Les éditeurs ont accompli un remarquable tour de force en faisant revivre les œuvres de jeunesse de Fleury, en les introduisant de façon précise, claire et agréable, en donnant dans les notes concises tous les renseignements utiles pour en faciliter la lecture."
THOUVENIN, PASCALE, éd. Nicolas Fontaine, Mémoires ou histoire des solitaires de Port-Royal. Paris, Champion, 2001.
Review: B. Guion in DSS 222 (2004), 129–130: The reviewer underscores the extraordinary accomplishment of Thouvenin, not only in finding the original Fontaine manuscript, but in bringing out such an important critical edition with a praiseworthy preface, detailed annotation, and indices. "Sainte-Beuve estimait que c'était l'ouvrage qui en offrait 'la plus vive et la plus parfaite idée', donnant à voir et à entendre les Messieurs dans leur vie la plus quotidienne," and the reviewer finds that this complete edition of Fontaine's memoirs will interest "pas seulement les spécialistes de Port-Royal, mais tous les curieux de la vie, et de la langue, du XVIIe siècle."
Review: M.-F. Hilgar in FR 77 (2003), 149–150. The behemoth memoirs of Fontaine, who became a member of the Solitaires community in 1644. The book constitutes an immense contribution to our understanding of Port-Royal. Addresses the abbey's efforts to defend its self-reform in the 1630s and 40s, while also recording "des signes de l'operation de la grâce chez des contemporains," and "les persecutions puis la détention des religieuses et des solitaires" (149). Contains transcriptions of numerous letters as well as an index of proper names, a glossary, and a 229-page introduction.
Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr 46 (2002): 444: Judged of "inestimable value" for the rediscovery of Port-Royal and for the re-evaluation of the contribution of "Jansenist Augustinism" to 17th c. letters. Praised for the authentic and suggestive qualities of these texts and for Thouvenin's rich historical and philological apparatus, including notes, annexes with variants, biographical and bibliographical variants, analytical indices and an erudite introduction of some 200 pages. In addition, Fontaine's Mémoires are a pleasure to read.
Review: D. Wetsel in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 311–315. Reviewer refers to P. Thouvenin's discovery of Fontaine's original manuscript in the library of the Institut de France as "perhaps the most important discovery in Port-Royal studies since the discovery over fifty years ago of the importance of the two Copies of Pascal's Pensées." "The transcription and orthographic modernization of the text, the preparation of copious and always relevant notes and the writing of nothing less than a magisterial [211-page] Introduction might have taken any other scholar a lifetime to complete."
NIDERST, ALAIN, ed., Oeuvres complètes. IX. Paris: Fayard, 2001.
Review: BCLF 636 (2002), 111–12: "Ce tome n'est donc pas le premier à se procurer pour découvrir Fontenelle, mais les éléments ici réunis sont nécessaires pour comprendre l'ensemble de ses talents."
ROUSSEL, SOPHIE-AURORE. "La poétique de l'Histoire dans les Mémoires de Pierre Thomas du Fossé." DFS 65 (Winter 2003), 132–139.
"Avec son ardeur peu discrète mais touchante, malgré une historiographie très peu convaincante, c'est bien une genèse que propose Du Fossé, un récit symbolique qui se passe de confirmation rigoureuse, mais qui annonce, interprète, explique l'avenir. C'est une adhésion enthousiaste, inspiré par la foi, que l'on cherche à insuffler au lecteur."
GRELL, CHANTAL and MALETTKE, KLAUS, eds. Les Années Fouquet. Politique, société, vie artistique et culturelle dans les années 1650. En collaboration avec KORNELIA OEPEN. Münster: Lit, 2001.
Review: P. Fuchs in HZ 276 (2003): 467–468: The Acts of a two-day colloque in May 2000 at Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte. Essays by seven scholars in addition to the editors treat subjects as diverse as Vaux as an "espace littéraire" (Emmanuel Bury), the texture of relationships between Mazarin, Fouquet, Colbert, Louis XIV and Anne d'Autriche (Jean Meyer), La Fontaine's Clymène (Jean-Charles Darmon) and painting (Alain Mérot).
FERGUSON, GARY. "Masculinity, Confession, Modernity: François de Sales and the Penitent Gentleman." E Cr 43 (2003): 16–25.
Goes far in remedying the lacunae in scholarship relating to "questions of sexuality or... gender in the confessional" (18). Close examination of De Sales's letter of August 1, 1605 to Jeanne de Chantal. Ferguson demonstrates that the syntax of the passage suggests a close tie with De Sales and the gentleman (21). Finds that De Sales's kisses of peace (bestowed on the young man) "constitute a rather spectacular transgression of his own and others' pastoral counsels" (22).
GUIDERDONI-BRUSLE, AGNES. "Images et emblèmes dans la spiritualité de Saint François de Sales." DSS no. 214, janvier–mars 2002: 35–54.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 156: Important symbols of De Sales's works are analyzed as instruments "di rappresentazione della verità." Review is appreciative of Guiderdoni-Bruslé's original and captivating study, conducted with "grande finezza e sensibilità."
MERLIN-KAJMAN, HELENE, ed. Le Dictionnaire universel de "Furetière." Paris: Honoré Champion, 2002.
Review: BCLF 646 (2003), 43–44: "Prenant appui sur la thèse que Marine Roy-Garibal a soutenue en juin 1999 sur Le Parnasse et le Palais: Furetière et la genèse du premier dictionnaire encyclopédique en langue française (1649–1690), en instance d'être publiée par les éditions Champion, le présent recueil d'articles prétend étudier une oeuvre spécifique de lexicographie sous un jour qui - hélas!- réduit sensiblement cette perspective spécifique..."
VALET, JACQUES, ed. Animaux de la Terre. Paris: Zulma 2003.
Review: BCLF 656 (2004), 39: "Dans cet ouvrage, Animaux de la Terre, Jacques Vallet extrait un certain nombre d'articles du Dictionnaire universel de Furetière (1690) qu'il répartit sous cinq têtes de chapitres."
CHRAIBI, ABOUBAKR. "Galland's "Ali Baba" and Other Arabic Versions." M&T 18.2 (2004), 159–169.
A multifacted study of the tale of "Ali Baba" that includes investigation of its variations in Arabic narrative tradition. "In order to write "Ali Baba," a tale of thirty-six published pages, Antoine Galland amplified the text he had noted down in his diary, which only comprised six pages. While doing so, Galland also omitted certain details, such as the presence of food in the cave. These details enable us to decide whether the versions of the tale of "Ali Baba" recorded in the Maghreb and other Arab regions depend on Galland's text or whether they are independent. The analysis aims to contribute to a better understanding of the formation of this tale." (Abstract) Finds that Galland's version of the tale, one never before recorded and for which few oral versions exist, is a masterful, relatively modern creation that nonetheless has links to ancient tradition.
LARZUL, SYLVETTE. "Further Considerations on Galland's "Mille et une Nuits": A Study of the Tales Told by Hanna." M&T 18.2 (2004), 258–271.
"Whereas the earlier volumes of Galland's French translation are based on Arabic manuscripts, the later volumes include a variety of tales originating from the oral performance of the Syrian narrator Hanna. This second part of Galland's work leaves more room for creation than the first one and emphasizes exoticism to a larger extent. Apart from being constantly concerned with the representation of cultural specificities, the author multiplies the exotic leitmotivs and thus depicts a universe composed of khans, sofas, and veils. Galland's penchant for luxury also reigns freely in those tales, with his artistry giving rise to a magnificent Orient overflowing with gold and gems." (Abstract)
WEBER, ROMAIN. "Les Pieuses recreations du P. Gazet: un recueil de nouvelles comiques carnavalisées?" DSS 223 (2004), 213–224.
Weber "se penche ici sur le grand livre de Bakhtine, L'Œuvre de François Rabelais et la culture populaire au Moyen Âge et sous la Renaissance, qui a fourni à la modernité, à partir de l'année où il a été traduit (1970), un véritable mythe, celui de l'étroit rapport, emblématisé par le nom de Rabelais, entre culture populaire et littérature du XVIe siècle." In her introductory remarks to this article, H. Merlin-Kajman continues, "Face à la joyeuse liberté iconoclaste du rire carnavalesque, [...] le XVIIe siècle, qui allait la refouler, accusait ses traits 《 classiques 》."
CHAPLIN, PEGGY, ed. Gillet de la Tessonerie. Le Triomphe des cinq passions. Exeter: UEP, 2001.
Review: G. Snaith in MLR 98.4 (2003), 985: Critical edition that "explores such subjects as the convention of the 'play within a play', the style, structure, and dynamics of Le Triomphe, and its links to L'Art de régner [1645]. Comparisons with Corneille's L'Illusion comique of six years earlier reveal resemblances and differences, the conclusion being that, despite certain similarities, Corneille's play could only have had a superficial influence, if any."
ARNOULD, JEAN-CLAUDE. "L'Économie des oeuvres de Marie de Gournay: un livre 'moulé à l'air d'un autre siècle'." S Fr 47 (2003): 604–615.
Joins other recent attempts at reassessment of Gournay; makes persuasive claim that her work should not be judged "un apanage subsidiaire à sa filiation montaignienne." Arnould conveys his perspective "plus constructif et valorisant" through a presentation of a "vision panoramique sur cette carrière littéraire" (1587–1645) (604). Detailed and highly useful appendix cites with commentary Gournay's entire corpus while another gives the table of contents of Les Advis demonstrating its rich and varied components.
ARNOULD, JEAN-CLAUDE, ed. Marie de Gournay. Oeuvres complètes. T. I et II. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2002.
Review: BCLF 647 (2003), 124–25: "Mais les oeuvres de Mlle de Gournay ne se limitent pas à ce travail d'édition [des Essais de Montaigne], et ce n'est pas le moindre mérite de ces deux gros volumes qui forment les Oeuvres complètes publiées sous la direction de J.-C. Arnould, que de donner accès, pour la première fois depuis le XVIIe siècle, à toutes les pièces d'une oeuvre si riche et foisonnante." Un outil de travail important dont "la bibliographie critique permet de faire le point sur tout ce qui a été écrit sur Marie depuis le XVIIe siècle."
BEAULIEU, JEAN-PHILIPPE et HANNAH FOURNIER, eds. Marie le Jars de Gournay, Les Advis, ou, les Presens de la Demoiselle de Gournay (1641). Vol. II. Avec la colloboration de Delbert Russell. Présentation par Marie-Thérèse Noiset. Amsterdam / New York, Rodopi, 2002.
Review: G. Devincenzo in PFSCL XXXI (60), 234–235. "Par le biais d'une documentation très précise et très objective, ce travail éditorial permettra aux spécialistes, ainsi qu'à tout lecteur de Marie de Gournay, de saisir à leur source les mouvements de pensée de cet écrivain et d'avoir une idée plus dialectique et plus juste de cette femme de lettres".
DEVINCENZO, GIOVANNA. "La femme de lettres selon Marie de Gournay" in Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 87–92.
Marie de Gournay's example and work advanced the inclusion of women in the republic of letters.
DEVINCENZO, GIOVANNA. Marie de Gournay, Un cas littéraire. Fasano/Paris: PUP-Sorbonne, 2002.
Review: C. Venesoen in BHR 65,3 (2003), 767–69: L'ouvrage de Devincenzo "offre une remarquable bibliographie documentaire de la personne et de l'oeuvre de Marie de Gournay. A la fois étude analytique et bilan, l'ouvrage tend à déployer le vaste éventail des études, les unes anciennes, les autres plus récentes, toutes consacrées à une femme auteur, jadis moquée, aujouord'hui adulée."
HILLMAN, R. & C. QUESNEL, eds. & trans. Marie Le Jars de Gournay. Apology for the Woman Writing and Other Works. Chicago: Chicago UP, 2002.
Review: A. Plant in SCN 61 (2003), 307–310: Hillman and Quesnel have translated and edited four short works penned by Montaigne's "adoptive daughter" and first publisher of the Essays: "The Promenade of Monsieur de Montaigne," "The Equality of Men and Women," The Ladies' Complaint," and "Apology for the Women Writing." Each is prefaced with a contextual introduction as is the volume itself with a general one. The reviewer found the book to be informative and well suited to classroom work.
VIZIER, ALAIN, ed. François de Grenaille. L'Honnête fille: où dans le premier livre il est traité de l'esprit des filles. Paris: Champion, 2003.
Review: BCLF 658 (2004), 114: "Ouvrage essentiel d'un auteur prolixe et fort admiré en son temps, L'Honnête Fille parut en 1639–40 et connut un grand succès... Il faut donc se réjouir de cette réedition qui, pour ne concerner que la troisième et dernière partie d'un texte très long, permet de prendre la mesure d'un type de littérature mal connu et d'appréhender la demande qui l'a fait naître, le tout grâce à une remarquable apparat critique, variantes comprises, d'Alain Vizier."
NELLEN, H. J. M. "Editer la correspondance de Grotius." DSS no. 217 (octobre–decembre 2002): 725–740.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 437: Reviewer underscores importance of Grotius's correspondence and appreciates the difficulties inherent in editing often dispersed, mutilated and modified texts.
DELOFFRE, FREDERIC, and JACQUES ROUGEOT. "Une Lettre inédite de Guilleragues." RHLF 103.3 (2003), 693–97.
Presents a short letter from Guilleragues to Seignelay, detecting in it orthographic and lexical proof that the former is the author of the Lettres portugaises.
RANDALL, MARY M. "Mystic Edge or Mystic on the Edge? Madame Guyon Revisited" in Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 109–117.
The author urges us to vindicate Mme Guyon by considering the importance of her work for seventeenth-century literature, history, and religion.
TRONC, DOMINIQUE, ed. Jean-Marie Guyon. La Vie par elle-même et autres écrits biographiques. Etude littéraire par ANDREE VILLARD. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 443–444: Monumental (1163 p.) critical edition of Guyon's life and other autobiographical writings is "un evento che contribuisce grandemente" to illuminate this controversial and fascinating mystic (443). Praised for its rigor and critical apparatus, in particular its introduction with genealogical tree of mystic currents. With Villard's considerations of the literary aspects of the Vie, we now have all the elements necessary for a reevaluation of Guyon.
BERREGARD, SANDRINE. "Les didascalies dans cinq pièces de Hardy : Didon se sacrifiant, Alphée ou la justice d'Amour, La Force du sang, Lucrèce ou l'adultère punie et Scédase ou l'hospitalité violée." PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 9–25.
Examines the relationship between 'didascalies internes,' present in the dialogue, and 'didascalies externes,' analysing how the former can supplement the absence of the latter.
ZONZA, CHRISTIAN. "La tragédie à sujet actuel, 《 La mort d'Henri IV 》 de Claude Billard." RHLF 100e année, no. 6 (nov.–déc. 2000): 1459–1479.
Review: C. Torelli in S Fr 46 (2002): 436–437: Examines this tragedy written and performed in 1610 and focuses on the existence of a constant rapport between reality and fiction. Important for considerations on "littérature de circonstance."
GOLDWYN, HENRIETTE. "Censure, clandestinité et épistolarité: Les Lettres Pastorales de Pierre Jurieu" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 285–294.
Describes how Pierre Jurieu adapted the polemic letter after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in order to address the people's sovereignty and the desacralization of the king's person. Because writing books was too dangerous, he wrote letters as a literature of action, a call to resistance, and a testimony of a pivotal moment of French history.
DAGEN, JEAN, ELISABETH BOUGIGNAT, AND MARC ESCOLA, eds. La Bruyère: le métier du moraliste. Moralia 5. Paris: Champion, 2001.
The proceedings of a conference held in November 1996 at the Sorbonne to honor the tercentenary of La Bruyère's death. Paper topics include: La Bruyère's relationship to Descartes and Pascal, his portrayal of religious hypocrisy, his thought on ethics and morality, and his seven Dialogues sur le quiétisme. In an essay addressing the latter point, Viviane Mellinghoff-Bourgerie argues that La Bruyère's writing on quietism complements rather than rejects his other more mondain works.
Review: L. N. Cagiana in S Fr 46 (2002): 444–446: These erudite and wide-ranging Acts of an international colloque (Paris, 1996) commemorating La Bruyère's death shed light on less often explored aspects of La Bruyère's work and the world he represented. These Acts, as the various manifestations (radio program, theatrical readings by Jean-Marie Villégier of De la mode, etc.), are constructed around two poles: the Caractères' theatricality and their remarkable actuality.
WATERSON, KAROLYN. "La Bruyère ou l'art de commenter l'histoire entre les lignes." DFS 65 (Winter 2003), 112–120.
L'auteur examine Les Caractères de La Bruyère pour identifier comment il s'est exprimé sur des sujets tels que la révocation de l'Edit de Nantes et l'image de marque du Roi-Soleil dans une époque d'une censure incontournable et musclée.
GŒURY, JULIEN. L'autopsie et le théorème. Poétiques des Théorèmes spirituels (1613–1622), de Jean de La Ceppède. Paris: Champion, 2002.
Review: C. Bourgeois in DSS 222 (2004), 144–145: This favorably reviewed book is divided into four sections: "La première partie, 《 Morphologie 》, envisage les principaux effets d'architecture du recueil et de ses sonnets. La seconde partie, 《 Anatomie 》, décrit l'articulation à l'intérieur du théorème des diverses composantes de la méditation, le récit, l'analyse et la prière. La troisième partie, 《 Physiologie 》, identifie les outils du 'ressassement' méditatifs, [...] la quatrième partie, 《 Psychologie 》, cherche l'âme de ce corps en mouvement et l'origine subjective de cette voix maîtrisée, dans un questionnement redevable aux catégories définies par Jean Lecointe dans L'Idéal de la Différence."
HAHN, FRANZ. François Pétis de La Croix et ses Mille et un jours. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002.
Review: P. Sosso in S Fr 47 (2003): 717–718: Welcome study demonstrates the centrality of La Croix's work not only for the conte, but also for the evolution of romance (novel, short story) in France (innocent characters, extraordinary adventures, passion for the Oriental world, etc.). Includes the following sections: "Les contes de fées au siècle de Louis XIV," "Le problème posé dans Les Mille et un jours," "Des contes, mais quel genre de contes," and "Richesse et interprétation des motifs." Bibliography.
JOUSSET, PHILIPPE. "Armoiries écrites: Le style de la Princesse de Clèves." Poétique 131 (2002), 309–330.
A meticulous stylistic analysis of narration and various passages of dialogue in Lafayette's novel. Jousset is particularly interested in authorial "écarts" in style and how style participates in the text's definition of its meaning.
PHILIPS, JOHN. "The Prince de Clèves and the Comte de Chabannes- a Common Error?" RomN 43 (2003), 251–62.
Argues that these characters from Mme de Lafayette make mistake of thinking "they have a degree of control over their emotions which they do not have." Chabannes' belief that he can act as a disinterested friend to a woman he passionately loves will eventually ruin his life. Clèves' assertion that he can master his emotions leads to his wife's confession and his own death.
ALBANESE, RALPH. La Fontaine à l'école républicaine: du poète universel au classique scolaire. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003.
Review: BCLF 660 (2004), 86–87: "Deux siècles de réception critique de La Fontaine sont examinés dans La Fontaine à l'école républicaine."
ALBANESE, RALPH. "La Notion d'échange dans 'Le Loup et le chien.'" S Fr 46 (2002): 546–554.
Detailed and persuasive analysis of this key fable proposes that it "repose en grande partie sur le dynamisme de l'échange... principe essentiel de la culture" (546). Albanese concludes that the poet is again warning the reader "contre les méfaits d'un potentiel changement d'existence." Furthermore, given the non-realization of the contract, there is "ni gagnant ni perdant dans cette fable" (554).
CALDER, ANDREW. The Fables of La Fontaine: Wisdom Brought Down to Earth. Geneva, Droz, 2001.
Review: A.L. Birberick in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 241–242. "Notwithstanding the critical lacunae, Calder remains impressive in the breadth of his knowledge of the classical and humanist traditions. Yet he presents his erudition in a manner that is not only accessible but also stylistically pleasing to his audience."
COLLINET, JEAN-PIERRE. "Les Fables de La Fontaine et la peur du loup." TL 16 (2003): 125–148.
Analyzes masterfully the role of the wolf in La Fontaine, complex, fascinating, with "deux faces opposées" classiquement tragique en ce qu'il suscite, à lui seul, épouvante et compassion" (148). Demonstrates how La Fontaine's wolf "mérite en même temps le blâme et l'éloge, comme il inspire à la fois terreur et pitié" (128). Collinet examines a representative group among the 26 fables where the wolf is a character (he is also present briefly in 34 fables and 6 contes). Shows the remarkable depth and coherence of La Fontaine's reflections; his portrait of the wolf is not dissimilar to that found in natural history specialists such as Buffon. Finally, Colllinet traces the debt of several modern authors to La Fontaine, such as Marcel Aymé who in his transpositions of the fables "se sert de lui [La Fontaine] sans le desservir..., le rajeunit et prépare les jeunes lecteurs à le découvrir... dans le texte original" (147).
DARMON, JEAN-CHARLES. Philosophes de la Fable-La Fontaine et la crise du lyrisme. Paris: PUF, coll. "Écriture," 2003.
Review: F. Briot in RSH 273 (2004): 167: Work of great epistemological and critical importance, that provides new perspectives on "La Fontaine, sur ses rapports à l'épicurisme, sur la poésie, sur le lyrisme, sur leurs rapports à la poésie." Work examines this period of "lutte inlassable contre les passions et, simultanément, une lutte inlassable en compagnie des passions," where ennui, usure, and death loomed large. Analysis in three parts: "De l'ennui des Muses aux plaisirs d'Arcante (autour de Clymène, 《 pli critique 》); l'hypothèse d'une relation: épicurisme et crise du lyrisme; La Fontaine et la philosophie: métamorphoses de l'évidence dans les Fables."
Review: E. Bury in Critique 682 (Mars 2004), 209–218. Darmon's non-reductive reading argues for the philosophical importance of La Fontaine, characterizing his work as a "réponse à une crise du lyrisme" and a "mise en question profonde et radicale du modèle propose par Descartes."
EDMUNDS, BRUCE. "Oisiveté and danger in La Fontaine's Fables." PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 139–150.
Analyzes the "perspective of… the discontinuity of self and of the resulting sense of the necessity of constant labor, itself a response to the corrosive fear of idleness and its effects."
ESCOLA, MARC. Lupus in fabula. Six façons d'affabuler La Fontaine. Saint-Denis: PU Vincennes, 2003.
FUMAROLI, MARC. The Poet and the King: Jean de La Fontaine and His Century. Trans. Jane Marie Todd. Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P, 2002.
Review: E. Benson in Ren Q 56 (2003): 1269–1271: Welcome translation of Fumaroli's "polemical biography... which places [La Fontaine's] grace... firmly in the context of the classical and Renaissance texts from which it sprang" (1269). Judged "an original and largely persuasive presentation of the reign of Louis XIV as the end of the Renaissance, and as the inauguration of the modern insistence on mobilization of the intellectual resources of the state for its political ends" (1270). Benson objects to Fumaroli's "knowing laughter and scorn" in the treatment of Lully, charging it to homophobia and questioning the relationship of Fumaroli's "vitriol" to his principal argument (1270).
Review: J. Johnson in SCN 62 (2004), 78–81: Originally published in French (Le Poète et le Roi) in 1976, this award-winning translation brings the book to an even wider audience. First conceived as a series of lectures delivered at the Collège de France "Fumaroli sets about recreating the moral, political, cultural, and intellectual context in which a profoundly engaged La Fontaine wrote."
GUTWIRTH, MARCEL. "Quand l'Histoire d'acoquine avec la fable: Le Paysan du Danube" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 91–97.
Although considered an "atemporal" genre, the fable can and does function as historical commentary. Drawn from Antonio de Guevara's Livre d'or de la vie et des letters de l'empereur Marc-Aurèle, La Fontaine's Le Paysan du Danube blurs the lines between fiction and reality, fable and history, through its adaptation of the commonplace "cet heureux temps n'est plus."
LOCKWOOD, RICHARD. "Fabled Ceremonies: Epideictic Persuasion in the Fables of La Fontaine" in Frédéric Canovas & David Wetsel, eds., Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Ceremonies and rituals in XVIIth century France. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), Vol. 4. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlage, 2002: 211–223.
After examining how epideictic rhetoric and ceremony can produce flattery, the author turns to La Fontaine's treatment of the question in "La Cour du Lion" and "Les Obsèques de la Lionne" which portray monarchs who are taken in by "fabulous ceremonial oratory."
PAUVERT, JEAN-JACQUES, ed. Jean de La Fontaine. Contes interdits. Paris: La Musardine, 2002.
Review: BCLF 640 (2002), 125: "...cette oeuvre apparaît comme un enjeu qui permet d'assister en filigrane au jeu du chat et des souris entre les bien-pensants tenus très en laisse par madame de Maintenon et les esprits plus libres comme madame de Sévigné, laquelle défendit La Fontaine."
SLATER, MAYA. The Craft of La Fontaine. London: Athlone P, 2000.
Review: Anon in FMLS 39 (2003): 478: Slater's masterful analysis reveals La Fontaine's depth and accessibility at multiple levels. Attentiveness to imagery and characters reveals important "patterns;" reviewer appreciates the "vision" of the whole.
GHEERAERT, TONY, ed. Bernard Lamy. Nouvelles réflexions sur l'art poétique. Paris: Champion, 1998.
Review: V. Kapp in RF 115 (2003): 540–541: Valuable edition with pertinent commentary demonstrates Lamy's "attitude nouvelle d'envisager la poétique" (44), a renunciation of a poetics of rules. Significant treatment of theological perspectives.
NOILLE-CLAUZADE, CHRISTINE, ed. Bernard Lamy. La Rhétorique ou l'Art de parler. Paris: Champion, 1998.
Review: V. Kapp in RF 115 (2003): 540–541: Praiseworthy new edition is the product of an original reading of Lamy; the modern reader will gain a deeper appreciation of Lamy's program or "formation de bons écrivains grâce à la théorie rhétorique" (66). Noille-Clauzade finds Lamy's remarkable innovation to lie in his concept of the figure "comme détermination matérielle de la passion" (47). Important contribution to present-day discussions on rhetoric and aesthetics of literature; Noille-Clauzade stresses that Lamy demonstrates the link betweem rhetoric and philosophy, identifying, as Malebranche, "le goût à la possession d'un savoir idéal" (91).
PRIMER, IRWIN, ed. Moral Maxims by the Duke de la Roche Foucault. Translated from the French. With notes. [London: A Millar, 1749]. A dual language edition with introduction and further notes. Newark/London: U Delaware P/Associated University Presses, 2003.
Review: D. J. Culpin in MLR 99.3 (2004), 774–75: "This edition of the Maximes will be of value to all those interested in the reception, in eighteenth-century England, not only of La Rochefoucauld's text but also of seventeenth-century French literature in general. The edition of 1749, the first annotated edition of La Rochefoucauld's Maximes in English, is a fascinating palimpsest as the French moraliste is mediated via the anonymous translator, who drew in turn on the French edition published by Amelot de la Houssaye in 1714."
WARNER, STUART D. and STEPHANE DOUARD, trans. and eds. La Rochefoucauld. Maximes. South Bend, Indiana: St. Augustine's P, 2001.
Review: Anon in FMLS 39 (2003): 341: Reviewer sees the physical beauty in this volume which has scanty critical apparatus and a bibliography which, for example, omits notable experts such as Jean Lafond. In French and English, the volume will be appreciated by the general reader.
GUILLOT, CATHERINE. "Théâtralisation des passions et catharsis: le personnage de Cléopâtre dans le frontispiece, signé Charles Le Brun, pour la Rodogune de Corneille (1647)." PFSCL 30 (2003): 29–39.
Review: A. Giaufret in S Fr 47 (2003): 703: Confronts the representation of passion on the stage with its illustration in the frontispiece. Important for canons of esthetics of the period.
PIOFFET, MARIE-CHRISTINE. "Marc Lescarbot et la littérature géographique de la Renaissance." DSS 222 (2004), 91–103.
The author studies Lescarbot's Histoire de la Nouvelle-France from a particularly unique perspective; that of illuminating "la dette de l'avocat de Vervins envers les voyageurs et cosmographes de la Renaissance qu'il cite à profusion et avec qui il partage une épistémè commune."
THIERRY, ERIC. Marc Lescarbot (vers 1570–1640). Un homme de plume au service de la Nouvelle-France. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2001.
Review: J. Dubé in DSS 222 (2004), 138–139: A history of Lescarbot as humanist, lawyer, writer, poet, and adventurer. "Nous est présenté dans ce livre le destin peu banal d'un avocat, né à Vervins, qui passa la majeure partie de sa vie à Paris, mais qui connut des expériences assez originales en dehors de la France — dans l'Acadie naissante, par exemple, ou en Suisse — , et dont il a laissé des observations — souvent sous forme de poèmes — qui lui ont assuré la célébrité." The reviewer remarks that the book also contains a useful choronology and a very impressive bibliography.
ASSAF, FRANCIS. 1715: Le soleil s'éteint. Fasano, Schena / Paris, Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2002.
Review: O. Ranum in PFSCL XXXI (60) 233–234. "Not directly seeking to bring new knowledge to bear on what happened in 1715, Assaf's aim is to offer what the "citoyen" (not the 'subject') might wish to know about courtly and learned culture in that year."
Review: P. Sosso in S Fr 47 (2003): 713–714: Unusual and compelling study demonstrates the complexity of a crucial year and provides a reconstruction of the last day and death of Louis XIV. Informed by Saint-Simon's Mémoires and by the journal of the brothers Anthoine (garçons de chambre of the king). Also includes a small section on the events of the last year, interesting documents on Louis XIV's last words and medical discourse, analyses of periodicals such as Le Journal des Sçavans. Selected bibliography.
CHRISTOUT, MARIE-FRANÇOISE. "Louis XIV et le ballet de cour ou le plus illustre des danseurs 1651–1670." Revue d'Histoire du Théâtre (juillet–septembre 2002): 153–178.
Review: M. Lagier in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 441: Analyzes the numerous and varied roles of Louis XIV from the 1651 Cassandre to the Flore of 1669. Important consideration for a number of domains: esthetic, political, social and ideological. Reminds us that Louis XIV founded the Académie royale de danse and that while the ballet de cour became more and more professional, "c'est la cour elle-même avec ses évolutions minutieusement réglées aui fait penser à un ballet dont le roi est le metteur en scène permanent" (reviewer).
MARAL, ALEXANDRE. "Portrait religieux de Louis XIV." DSS no. 217 (2002): 697–723.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 441: Maral analyzes the Mémoires pour l'instruction du Dauphin in order to understand Louis XIV's religious convictions. Christian duty is intertwined with a conception of political power legitimatized by its divine origins.
PEREZ, STANIS. "Les brouillons de l'absolutisme: les 《 mémoires 》 de Louis XIV en question." DSS 222 (2004), 25–50.
The author undertakes a close analysis of both the form and intention of Louis XIV's scattered memoirs, illuminating the mechanism of their authorship and the ultimate value of their message.
SARMANT, THEIRRY. Les Demeures du Soleil: Louis XIV, Louvois et la surintendance des Bâtiments du roi. Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 2003.
Review: BCLF 656 (2004), 143–44: "Cet ouvrage propose au lecteur une savante étude, dont les arguments sont solidement étayés et nuancés, accompagnée de documents publiés en annexe, de huit pages d'illustrations en couleur, et de nombreuses reproductions de gravures du temps, ainsi que d'une abondante bibliographie."
DUVERGE, CHRISTINE. "Entre théorie et pratique: Madame de Maintenon et la cité des Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr (1685–1719)." DAI 64/05 (2003), 1680.
Argues that Maintenon did not give up on her "utopian and feminist impulses" when Saint-Cyr was transformed into a convent. Examines the establishment of Saint-Cyr, its curriculum, its practice of theater, Maintenon's writings, and the latter's image in recent film and fiction.
RIFFAUD, ALAIN. "Deux aventures éditoriales: Chryséide et Arimand de Mairet (1630), Cléagénor et Doristée de Rotrou (1634–1635)." PFSCL 30 (2003): 9–27.
Review: A. Giaufret in S Fr 47 (2003): 702: Sheds light on quality of these editions as well as on publishing itself in Rouen during the period.
CURRAN, MARY BERNARD. "The Relationship between the Concept of God and Ideas in Malebranche." DAI 64/10, 3708.
Compares Malebranche's account of ideas in relation to Descartes's, especially with respect to the issue of intentionality and the conception of God as infinite.
PYLE, ANDREW. Malebranche. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
Review: N. Jolley in TLS 5298 (Oct 15 2004), 6: An "illuminating account of Malebranche's conception of the relationship between philosophy and theology." Shows that Malebranche's attempts to rationalize Christian theology provide ammunition to free thinkers of a later age. Malebranche depicted as unknowlingly engaged in project of undermining Cartesian rationalism from within.
GALLINA, BERNARD. Jules Mascaron. Les Oraisons funèbres, texte présentée, établi et annoté par Bernard Gallina, Testi Stranieri n°34, Biblioteca della Ricercha, Schena Editore, Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2002.
Review: F. Briot in RSH 271 (juillet–sept. 2003), 189–90: An edition of Jules Mascaron's (1634–1703) oraisons funèbres, which include those of Anne d'Autriche (1666), Henriette d'Angleterre et le duc de Beaufort (1670), le chancelier Séguier (1672), and le vicomte de Turenne (1675). Each oraison is introduced and well documented concerning variants of this oral genre. A general introduction on Mascaron opens the volume, and a glossary, grammatical notes, bibliography, and index of names cited closes it. Copious quotations, digressions and metaphors fill Mascaron's texts, making Bossuet look all the more unique in his style, and Louis XIV preferred Mascaron as a preacher to Bossuet, probably because of this. Reviewer thinks one of the strengths of such an edition is to debunk many traditional notions of literary history, and regrets the author's desire to see an evolution towards "classicism" in his work. Moreover, the reviewer does not see the question of the literary value of these texts as pertinent.
Review: BCLF 652 (2003), 122–23: Grand orateur de son temps, Mascaron a prononcé les oraisons funèbres d'Anne d'Autriche, d'Henriette d'Angleterre, le duc de Beaufort, le vicomte de Turenne, et le chancelier Séguier parmi d'autres au XVIIe siècle. "Etablie à partir des éditions existantes et corrigée ensuite à partir des nombreux manuscrits, dont les variantes sont consignées en notes, cette édition, proposée par Bernard Gallina, est en tout point remarquable."
LIM, SEUNG-HWI. "Mathieu de Morgues. Bon français ou bon catholique?" DSS no. 213 (octobre–décembre 2001): 655–672.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 156. Illuminating for the political life of the Grand Siècle, this "attenta lettura" of Mathieu de Morgues's pamphlets includes an examination of several written against Richelieu during the "journée des Dupes."
DULONG, CLAUDE. Mazarin et l'argent. Banquiers et prête-noms. Paris: École des chartes, 2002.
Review: K. Malettke in HZ 277 (2003): 744–746: Highly praised, this examination of the many layered subject of Mazarin and money reveals in a particularly penetrating manner the close association between power and money. Subtitle indicates emphasis of the work and its focus on particular and precise cases of banking families. Extensive investigation of archival sources contributes to the volume's value as do the indices and appendices.
LOSKOUTOFF, YVAN. "Mazarin's Desmarets, Addenda au Corpus maresianum." DSS no. 217 (2002): 741–748.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 439: Useful contribution for its consideration of the various "proofs" of Desmarets's attachment to Mazarin's politics, including, to be sure, the ode of Desmarets on the 1647 riot of Naples.
KRUGER, REINHARD. "L'art d'être honnête-homme ou la vie bal masqué, à partir des Maximes du Chevalier de Méré" in Frédéric Canovas & David Wetsel, eds., Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Ceremonies and rituals in XVIIth century France. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), Vol. 4. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlage, 2002: 91–102.
Méré's Maximes show how the concept of "honnêteté" depends on one's playing the role of the honnête homme in a "société-spectacle-bal masqué." The honnête homme's behavior is an artificial affectation of the natural: he plays a theatrical role in a theatrical world.
BLAIKNER-HOHENWART, GABRIELE. Der deutsche Molière. Molière-übersetzungen ins Deutsche. Frankfurt a.M: Peter Lang, 2001.
Review: J. Grimm in RF 115 (2003): 80–86: A systematic diachronic overview of German translations of Molière from 1670 to 1987. In early periods the translations acted as a substitute for German comedy; in the 18th and 19th c. the manner of translating reflected the German literary changes; in the 20th c. translations and adaptations were analyzed, in particular the creative work of certain authors and translators.
DALLE, MATTHIEU. "De Molière à Bluwal: les formes baroques de Dom Juan." Revue d'Histoire du Théâtre (juillet–septembre 2002): 179–192.
Review: M. Lagier in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 439–440: Judged pertinent for its comparative treatment of Molière's play and Bluwal's 1965 cinematographic adaptation as well as for its examination of baroque esthetics and "angoisse."
DANDREY, PATRICK. "Molière et Racine: un théâtre d'anatomie?" CAEIF 55 (2003), 347–362.
One of a series of papers delivered at the LIVe Congrès de l'Association (2002) under the auspices of Louis Van Delft on the subject of "littérature et anatomie (XVIe–XVIIe siècle)." Dandrey engages in an engrossing discussion referring to La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, etc., and more specifically, Racine and Molière: "tous eurent en commun d'être poètes de l'intime: rigoureux comme des médecins, dont la spécialité serait la pathologie des âmes, et fins comme des confesseurs, habiles à accoucher les esprits." Co-opting the language of anatomy, "encore fallait-il un théâtre pour cette anatomie du corps souffrant et de l'âme en peine. Comme par pente de langage, le théâtre, celui où l'on joue la comédie, s'offrit pour théâtre d'anatomie, celui où l'on autopsie quand le rideau est tombé sur l'autre comédie, celle de la vie."
DOTOLI, GIOVANNI. "Dom Juan de Molière-comédie burlesque?" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 130–138.
Dotoli proposes a new philological reading of the play with attention to the essential elements of burlesque, including "son comique de décalage, de rupture, d'opposition" (131). Suggests Molière was influenced by Scarron and logically came to burlesque in a period of social crisis. Attention paid to discontinuities in the play, as well as anarchic individualism and particular burlesque registers. (See below for similar article by Dotoli.)
DOTOLI, GIOVANNI. Don Juan de Molière, comédie burlesque? In Collage. Studi in memoria di Franca Caldari Bevilacqua, a cura di Gisella Maiello e Rita Stajano. Salerno: Oedipus, 2002: 201–218. (See above for similar article by Dotoli.)
Review: C. Rolla in S Fr 47 (2003): 704: By means of a "lecture philologique exacte" (201), Dotoli examines the burlesque characteristics of the play, ranging from liberty of form, use of suspense to gestures, among others. Reconstructs the play's cultural panorama, contributes to the study of the genre and suggests new possibilities for Molière research.
DUCHENE, ROGER. Molière. Paris: Fayard, 1998.
Review: A. Niderst in RHLF 103.3 (2003), 719–20. Nearly each chapter of this biography is centered around a legend that the author proceeds to confirm, nuance, or refute. Reviewer praises the feeling the biography give of a contact with the most concrete aspects of Molière's life. On the other hand, the author sometimes goes to far in casing into doubt aspects of Molière's life that are, if not absolutely proven, at least likely; review feels that the biography aims to show us more what Molière wasn't than what he was, and that some unprovable anecdotes deserve to be retained.
FERNEY, FREDERIC. Performance review of Le Misanthrope. Dir. Stéphane Braunschweig. Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. Le Point 1636 (January 22 2004), 131.
"Une vision freudienne puissante mais discutable.... Au-delà des atours névrotiques de l'interprétation [Claude Duparfait as Alceste], la leçon de psychanalyse mérite d'être entendue: qui n'a pas de secret a perdu son âme."
GAINES, JAMES F. "Skepticism, Belief, and the Limits of Knowledge in Molière" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 161–171.
The author develops a theory of knowledge in the work of Molière by contrasting the plays' representation of knowledge and belief, skepticism and doubt, and the role of the senses in distinguishing knowledge from belief.
GALA, CANDELAS. "The Name of the Game is in the Signifier: Molière's Dom Juan and the Binding Power of Words." PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 49–67.
"The goal of this essay is to show how Wittgenstein's view of language is applicable to Molière's Dom Juan and his use of language."
GAMBELLI, DELIA. "Frêles voix et morales en mouvement dans le théâtre de Molière" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 122–129.
Gambelli studies Molière's own "auto-ré-écriture" in the context of a small group of female characters in his theater, with particular attention to the characters' discovery of their own identities through their questioning of constraints imposed from without and their development of personal moral beliefs. Particular attention to L'Ecole des maris, L'Ecole des femmes, Dom Juan, Le Misanthrope, Georges Dandin, and Les Femmes savantes. Molière's theater thus looks both backward, to established institutions, and forward, toward future changes of those institutions, at the same time.
GUARDIA, JEAN DE. "Les impertinences de la répétition: Portée et limites d'un outil d'analyse textuelle." Poétique 131 (2002), 489–505.
A methodical stylistic analysis of repetition in several of Molière's plays. Draws on Genette's postulate that "on ne peut varier sans répéter, ni répéter sans varier" (494). Finds that what we often recall as 'famed' repeated phrases (such as "Je ne dis pas cela" in Le Misanthrope or "Mais que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère" in Les Fourberies de Scapin) are not in fact reiterated so much as are particular syntactic structures, verbal elements, and proper names. Suggests that all repetition is, and is only, a creation and function of analysis.
HENIN, EMMANUELLE. "Du portrait à la fresque, ou du Sicilien au Val-de-Grâce: Molière et la peinture." OeC 29,1 (2004), 30–56.
"Les deux oeuvres, écrites à un an d'intervalle, s'éclairent réciproquement en révélant à la fois la nature et les enjeux du discours moliéresque sur la peinture, à une époque où les arts du langage n'hésitent pas à emprunter à leur tour les concepts des arts de l'image: ces années correspondent à la naissance de la théorie de l'art française, marquée par la publication des Conférences de l'Académie (données en 1667, publiées en 1668), après les deux ouvrages pionniers de Fréart de Chambray et de Félibien."
HILGAR, MARIE-FRANCE. "Molière en l'an 2000 à la Comédie-Française" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 258–265.
Hilgar offers a compte-rendu of six of the eight Molière plays presented by the Comédie-Française in 2000: George Dandin, L'Ecole des maris, Le Mariage forcé, L'Avare, and Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. Each section begins with a summary of the circumstances of the play's original representation. Hilgar is struck by the relatively dark nature of some of these plays, but credits Molière's modern metteurs-en-scène with reinvigorating the playwright's work while respecting the old Molière.
KECK, THOMAS A. Molière auf Deutsch. Eine Bibliographie deutscher übersetzungen und Bearbeitungen der Komödien Molières. Mit Kurzbeschreibungen. Hannover: Revonnah Verlag, 1996.
Review: J. Grimm in RF 115 (2003): 80–86: Grimm, himself a widely respected Molière specialist (note, for example, his 30-page bibliography of mises-en scène of Molière in German theatrical productions for 1995–1998 in Le Nouveau Molièriste 4–5, 1998–1999), here reviews recent publications dealing with Molière's reception in Germany (see also MELONI, below, and BLAIKNER-HOHENWART, above). Keck's bibliography of German translations and adaptations includes entries from 1670 to the 1990s. Informative if unadorned, Keck's work is a first-rate tool for researchers.
KOPPISCH, MICHAEL S. "Monsieur de Pourceaugnac: Comedy of Desire" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 147–154.
Koppisch studies Pourceaugnac's desire and its consequent threat of disorder in Molière's play, with particular attention to opaque language and its ability to obscure truth. Koppisch cites the doctors' complicity in the expansion of disorder, noting that Pourceaugnac's banishment at the end of the play does not eliminate all of the problems present at the beginning.
McCARTHY, GERRY. The Theatres of Molière. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
Review: M. Leon in TJ 56 (2004), 131–33: Part biography, part script analysis, part acting theory. Plural of title reflects different performance occasions, spaces and spectators of Molière's career. Explores Molière's deep knowledge of physical expression and its disruptive potential vis-à-vis verbal expresssion. Author studies "symbolic experience of physical forms and associated rhythms of thought" (McCarthy 2, 3).
MELONI, FABRIZIO. La ricezione di Molière in territorio di lingua tedesca nel diciassettesimo e nel diciottesimo secolo. Dissertation, Wien, 1998.
Review: J. Grimm in RF 115 (2003): 80–86: Meloni's dissertation (U of Vienna) of over 1000 pages is oriented toward theatre history. Molière's reception is taken as particularly representative of the important "engouement" of 17th and 18th c. German courts for French theatre. Rich information and new perspectives.
MERLIN-KAJMAN, HELENE. "Mamamouchi-Molière, ou les enjeux du signifiant au XVIIe siècle." DSS 223 (2004), 317–332.
In addition to this article, the author introduces this very interesting number on the "XVIIe siècle et modernité." "Il est bien vrai que les textes du XVIIe siècle gagnent à être lus avec les outils critiques de la modernité, démarche à laquelle je soumets Le Bourgeois gentilhomme ici même: non seulement ces outils critiques — qui, du reste, n'ont pas surgi ex nihilo du chapeau de la modernité, mais d'une longue tradition de réflexion philosophique et herméneutique — ne forcent, ne trahissent en rien leur lettre ni leur sens, mais font au contraire apparaître des aspects — ici, le nom de Molière en quelque sorte tapi derrière celui de Mamamouchi — qu'on ne peut déceler qu'avec leur aide."
NIDERST, ALAIN. Molière. Parios: Perrin, 2004.
Includes bibliography and index.
PEACOCK, NOEL. "Tartuffe on Screen and/or the Metaphysics of Performance" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 250–257.
In his study of Murnau's film Herr Tartüffe and Depardieu's Tartuffe, Peacock suggests that, for the most part, the notion of the Supreme Being has been replaced in 20th-century versions of the play by the play's director, particularly by means of the films' self-reflexivity.
POLSKY, ZACHARY. The Comic Machine, the Narrative Machine, and the Political Machine in the Works of Molière. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003.
Examines the nature of comedy and how comedy was practiced in 17th century France in six works by Molière (L'école des femmes, Tartuffe, Dom Juan, Le misanthrope, George Dandin and Le bourgeois gentilhomme).
Review: C. Kerr in Choice 41.10 (2004), 1886. Drawing on Freud, Foucault, and Bergson's notion of the comic as the encrustation of the mechanical on the living, Polsky "highlights the particular kind of comic machine that Molière made so popular: one that is just as likely to break down as to carry out its intended function" (1886). The text proper concentrates on close readings of L'École des femmes, Tartuffe, Dom Juan, Le Misanthrope, George Dandin, and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Deemed "optional" by the reviewer, who expresses regret at the state of the book's editing and proofreading.
SCOTT, VIRGINIA. Molière: A Theatrical Life. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000.
Review: S. Bold in Romance Quarterly 54 (2004), 75–77. Negligent in its consideration of literary criticism/scholarship on Molière, and hence directed toward the theater-minded public more than toward the student or professor of French literature. Scott also displays a tendency to overliteralize her readings of the plays, funneling material from these dramas into her account of Molière's life. The book gives consideration to the undocumented notions that Armande Béjart may have been Madeleine's daughter, rather than her sister, as well as to Molière's supposed "sexual attraction to a young orphaned member of his troupe" (75). This adds interest, if not solidity, to Scott's account. Reviewer concludes that the book is a "useful reference and compendium on what is currently known about Molière's life and times" (77).
SORMAN, RICHARD. Savoir et économie dans l'œuvre de Molière. Studia Romanica Upsaliensia 62. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2001.
Review: M. Koppisch in FR 77 (2003), 589–590. Sörman's searching analysis of character desire in Molière presents us with figures who suffer from a lack of fullness and who seek to become whole. Whether they attempt to supplement their inadequacies from without, as does Argan, seeking fortification from his doctors, or whether they look inward in the manner of Alceste, Molière's characters always butt against the realization that fullness remains unobtainable. This leads to the argument of the second half of Sörman's book, which examines how the dynamic of equitable exchange is thwarted by the refusal of all perfect equilibria. According to Sörman, Molière's characters want fullness for themselves at all costs rather than a balanced exchange between partners. Sörman builds upon but also moves beyond important work by Michel Serres and Pierre Force on Molière's treatment of exchange. In the end, we are left with a playwright who "ridicules desire and at the same time understands its central role in human experience" (590).
STONE, HARRIET. "Petitions for Justice: Molière's Tartuffe Viewed in the Mirror of Pierre de Lancre's Witches" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 92–99.
Stone juxtaposes de Lancre's Tableav de l'inconstance with Tartuffe, asserting that they are reverse images of the "knowledge constructed and disseminated within the monarchy" (92). Tartuffe mirrors de Lancre's witch trials, representing the crown's attempts to restrict the flow of information; the ability of absolute power to control meaning is undermined by the work. Extensive commentary on Molière's efforts to persuade the king not to censor his work. Stone stresses the importance of the victims' voices, heard through Molière.
TAYLOR-WOODROUGH, ELIZABETH. "A People's Festival: Molière's Parody of Royal Ceremonial Ritual and Religious Ritual in Dom Juan ou le festin de pierre" in Frédéric Canovas & David Wetsel, eds., Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Ceremonies and rituals in XVIIth century France. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), Vol. 4. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlage, 2002: 243–261.
This article examines how Molière's participation in royal festivals such as Les Plaisirs de l'Ile Enchantée (1664) influenced his representation of royal ceremony in Dom Juan. Special attention is paid to recreating the play's lost scenery through the analysis of a variety of visual sources that are reproduced in an appendix. The play's final act in particular serves up an irreverent mélange of royal ceremony and ritual whose combination of "symbols, myth, and invention... cannot be given a fixed or one-dimensional interpretation."
WATERSON, KAROLYN. "Savoir et se connaître dans Les Femmes savantes de Moliére" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 185–194.
An examination of knowledge and self-knowledge's various "mises en jeu" in the play which uses paradox, uncertainty, multiple voices, and openness to skirt definitive interpretation and ultimately undoes itself, leaving the audience/reader to create his or her own meaning from the variety of material and perspectives selected.
WATERSON, KAROLYN. "L'univers féminin des comédies de Molière" in Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 193–201.
This taxonomical study surveys and classifies women's roles in Molière's comedies.
WINE, KATHLEEN. "Le Tartuffe and Les Plaisirs de l'île enchantée: Satire or Flattery?" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 139–146.
Wine examines Le Tartuffe in the context of Louis XIV's dazzling fête, citing the play as an anomaly in an otherwise light selection of works. Wine suggests that, in likening the devout whom he targets with hedonistic courtiers, Molière can denounce the former, thereby offering Louis XIV "a gratifyingly repulsive portrait of his critics" (142) through his overt disapproval of the royal audience.
WORVILL, ROMIRA. "Roger de Piles' Theory of Art and New Techniques for Opening Scenes in Molière, Landois and Diderot." British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 24 (2001): 77–90.
Review: R.A. Francis in S Fr 47 (2003): 717: According to Worvill's establishment of "rapprochements probants," Molière in his Malade imaginaire, Landois in Silvie and Diderot in two of his plays (unnamed in the review), were influenced by Roger de Piles, a theoretician of painting and "le vrai simple," a spontaneous vision of nature (717).
WYNNE, CLARA NOELLE. "Dying for a Laugh: Death in the Comedy of Moliere." DAI 64/09 (2004), 160.
Studies themes of death and recognition, as well as other elements of selected plays "that could be seen as more tragic than comic."
PITTS, VINCENT. La Grande Mademoiselle at the Court of France, 1627–1693. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2000.
Review: E. Chapco in FR 77 (2003), 1257–1258. "Attempt[s] to see history as Mademoiselle saw it" (1257). Considers the full gamut of her writing, including her portraits, but of course gives preeminence to her Mémoires, whose tripartite structure informs Pitts' own. Pitts expresses an interest in "Mademoiselle's observation that her Mémoires are a narrative exploration of the limits of public and private authority" (1257).
GUION, BEATRICE. Pierre Nicole moraliste. Paris: Champion, 2002.
Review: S. Papasogli, in S Fr 47 (2003): 705–706: Praiseworthy and highly readable, this erudite and monumental study (890 pages) is important not only for Nicole studies but also for the genre itself. Reviewer retraces recent research on Nicole, noting as well Guion's 1996 edition of De vera pulchritudine. Wide-ranging with very helpful perspectives on ideas and form, anthropology and spirituality, political thought and Christian "civilité," esthetics and rhetoric, constantly referring to Nicole and situating his work and its pertinence in the thought of his day (706).
HODGSON, RICHARD G. "Littérature morale, philosophie politique et théologie à Port-Royal: le contrat social chez Pierre Nicole" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 101–108.
Although Nicole is not known for political philosophy, his work offers traces of the notion of the social contract.
KOCH, EREC R. "Individuum: The Specular Self in Nicole's De la connaissance de soi-même" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 259–268.
Nicole shows that the individual cannot exist without the other: the birth of the atomic individual therefore depends on the "subject's insertion into the social and political order."
LACHENAL, HELENE. "Pierre Nicole et l'histoire." DFS 65 (Winter 2003), 58–67.
"Nicole reprend… dans les Essais de morale la conception augustinienne de l'histoire, qu'il respecte fidèlement, et l'applique à l'histoire individuelle et quotidienne de ses lecteurs issus de la haute société du XVIIe siècle, afin d'en tirer des enseignements sur un plan moral."
PAPASOGLI, BENEDETTA. "Le Modèle anatomique chez Pierre Nicole." CAEIF 55 (2003), 333–346.
One of a series of papers delivered at the LIVe Congrès de l'Association (2002) under the auspices of Louis Van Delft on the subject of "littérature et anatomie (XVIe–XVIIe siècle)". "Anatomie et mélancolie, ascèse et finitude, est-ce encore une constellation thématique cohérente qui s'ébauche dans l'œuvre de Nicole et, à l'arrière-plan, dans la culture de son époque?" "Il reste que le modèle anatomique garde dans l'œuvre du moraliste janséniste une profonde ambivalence. Et c'est ce clair-obscur, [...] qui confère[nt] au discours moral de Nicole son volume psychologique et sa chair vivante, un peu triste, que le goût de l'analyse n'a pas complètement disséquée."
ADORNO, FRANCESCO PAOLO. "L'Efficacité de la volonté chez Pascal et Arnauld" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 91–100.
This examination of a crucial critical concept seeks to offer a better understanding of Port-Royal as a reform movement with the Counter-Reformation. Furthermore Pascal and Arnauld's logical and linguistic theorizing seeks to corner their ideological adversaries in a trap of logical incoherence.
ALMQUIST, KATHERINE. "Individual Will and Contract Law in Pascal's Lettres Provinciales" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 239–246.
In the Letters, Pascal's Jesuits use and abuse arguments based on property law and contractual obligation, thereby revealing a flawed and contradictory ethical system.
BERENSMEYER, INGO. "No Fixed Address: Pascal, Cervantes, and the Changing Function of Literary Communication in Early Modern Europe." NLH 34 (2003): 623–638.
Here, Berensmeyer invokes Pascal's Pensées in order to frame a larger argument about literary texts' role in response to growing uncertainty about the universe. Pascal's awareness that science would continue to generate uncertainties as well as knowledge, and that systems of knowledge could very well continue to supercede each other, offers a background against which it becomes important to consider how information transfer could have occurred between radically different waxing and waning systems. For Berensmeyer, literary works such as Don Quixote figure as hybrid texts that served such a function, or at least called attention to their ability to do so.
BOITANO, JOHN F.. The Polemics of Libertine Conversion in Pascal's Pensées. A Dialectics of Rational and Occult Libertine Beliefs. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002.
Review: T. M. Harrington in RF 115 (2003): 392–394: Boitano's volume includes chapters on the libertin (an intellectual portrait), occult beliefs which may have received Pascal's approval, historical authority and the different voices of the Pensées. Reviewer appreciates Boitano's well-documented response to the question of the occult content of the "bagage intellectuel" of Pascal's interlocutor, but takes issue with a number of Boitano's theses (for example, because of Pascal's approval of the ideal of universality, Harrington agrees with Pintard that Pascal writes for "l'homme quelconque" (26) rather than only for "le libertin." Additionally, Pascal's word of choice, "incrédule," has much broader application than "libertin" or "libertinage."
Review: A. McKenna in IL 55.3 (2003), 50. Work analyzes the nature of the philosophy advocated by the libertine Pascal proposes to convert. Following Pintard, this philosophy cannot be that of rationalist libertinage érudit, but instead, the author argues, involves the tradition of occult thought; "Ainsi, toute l'apologie de Dieu caché serait une tentative de réfuter l'interprétation cabalistique et libertine de ce même thème" (AM). Reviewer, in opposition to the author and Pintard, feels that the philosophical premises of Pascal's libertine are, in fact, close to those of Gassendi. Review also regrets that the author did not delve more into the work on seventeenth-century occultism, and instead relied on more general secondary work.
Review: T. Parker in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 237–239. "La nouveauté de l'analyse de Boitano tient en ce que le critique met en lumière des aspects 《 occultistes 》 de l'Apologie qui seraient sans doute restés dans l'obscurité. Reste que cette lecture innovatrice intègre de nombreuses citations des meilleurs critiques de Pascal: si le lecteur ne les connaît pas déjà, il prendra plaisir à en prendre connaissance et s'il les connaît, cela sera comme de retrouver de bons vieux amis. S'il y a un point qui peut gêner, c'est cette question qui reste suspendue à la fin de le refléxion comme elle l'était au commencement: qui est le libertin?"
BJØRNSTAD, HALL. "The road not taken: A Benjaminian approach to a Pascalian Baroque" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 157–166.
Benjamin's theory of the baroque proves a useful and original tool for considering Pascal as a baroque author because both writers present "a clear image of a fallen king or angel being weighed down by his earthly, animalistic side."
BOLD, STEPHEN C. "Hyperbole in the Pensées" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 181–187.
The figure of hyperbole shows how questions of hermeneutics, rhetoric, and geometry intersect in the Pensées.
BRAIDER, CHRISTOPHER. "Pascal's Machine: Science and Theology in the Proviniciales and the Pensées" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 345–355.
Examines the parable of "mon ami Janséniste" in the second of the Provinciales and the "discours de la machine" in the Pensées.
DELEHANTY, ANNE T. "Morality and Method in Pascal's Pensées." P&L 28.1 (2004), 74–88.
Points out that Pascal updates Christianity to deal with new advances in science, such as the assertion of an infinite universe. Asserts "that the work of Pascal seeks both to question the limits of human perspective in an infinite world, and to describe a model for the acquisition of moral truth that allows the subject to escape the limitations of perspective."
FORCE, PIERRE. "L'argumentation sceptique dans les Pensées" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 129–136.
While the form of Pascal's arguments is grounded in Pyrrhonism, the content of the arguments belongs to the tradition of academic skepticism.
GRASSET, BERNARD. Les Pensées de Pascal, une interprétation de l'Ecriture. Paris: Kimé, 2002.
Review: L. Susini in DSS 223 (2004), 340: The reviewer characterizes this work as "une synthèse sereine et méditative" concerning "les rapports entre écriture des Pensées et interprétation des Écritures.
HAMMOND, NICHOLAS. "Mémoire et éducation chez Pascal" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 269–276.
Because his work on pedagogy parallels the theories of memory developed at Port-Royal, Pascal is "l'éducateur port-royaliste par excellence."
HARRINGTON, THOMAS MORE. "Ambiguïté et ambivalence dans les Pensées de Pascal" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 137–142.
It is necessary to focus more on semantic rather than syntactical ambiguity in the Pensées, because semantic ambiguity was an intentional strategy for the project of the Apologie.
HOWELLS, ROBIN. "Polemical Stupidity in the Lettres provinciales" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 231–237.
The author argues that the Lettres are a seminal text in the history of the strategy of polemical stupidity described by Bakhtin.
JONES, MATTHEW L. "Geometry and Fallen Humanity in Pascal and Leibniz" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 189–202.
Because of its ability to provoke wonder, both Pascal and Leibniz privileged mathematics, especially geometry, as a means of discovering higher truths about the human condition and God.
LØVLIE, ELIZABETH. "Reading as Ceremony, or Towards a Ceremonial Hermeneutics. —Explorations of Religious Language in Pascal and Martin de Barcos" in Frédéric Canovas & David Wetsel, eds., Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Ceremonies and rituals in XVIIth century France. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), Vol. 4. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlage, 2002: 225–242.
By applying Derrida and Gadamer's work to selected Pascalian fragments as well as de Barcos' letter on translating the Bible, the author compares reading and ceremony in order to enlarge our understanding of reading religious texts. "Reading ceremoniously" gives us access to a moment of abêtissement where we are freed from the restraint of reason in a "singular, silent, monstrous experience."
LUDWIN, DAWN M. Blaise Pascal's Quest for the Ineffable. New York: Peter Lang, 2001.
Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr 47, no 139 (2003): 159–160: Wide-ranging if "rapide e un po' avventurose," Ludwin's analyses of Pascal as mystic accentuates cognitive and epistemological aspects.
MACKENZIE, LOUISE. "Evidence, regard, preuve: le poids de la vision chez Pascal" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 143–148.
Throughout his oeuvre, Pascal consistently privileges visual metaphors as a means of persuading a hostile, intellectually blind reader to consider the evidence before his very eyes.
MARINER, FRANCIS. "Family Perspectives in Gilberte Périer's Vie de Monsieur Pascal" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 203–217.
The author does not assess the Vie's historical accuracy but instead tries to uncover the motivations and cultural mentalities that inform the biography.
MESNARD, JEAN. "L'Histoire secrète de la recherche pascalienne au XXe siècle" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 13–38.
The author surveys scholarly interest in Pascal in the last century and identifies three major currents: the ordering of the Pensées, Pascal and science, and Pascal as a Christian.
NATHAN, STÉPHAN. "La Tonalité ironique et ludique des Pensées de Pascal." IL 55.2 (2003), 29–34.
Argues that humor and playfulness—arrived at via irony and wordplay—are essential to the apologetical project of Pascal, who is careful not to adopt "le ton habituellement mort et morne des apologies traditionnelles."
NATOLI, CHARLES M. "Révélation/Révolution: une réflexion sur la nouveauté dans les Provinciales de Pascal" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 243–253.
While the text of Pascal's Provinciales demonstrates stylistic and linguistic innovation, it nevertheless advocates for doctrinaire orthodoxy: "innovateur" is a pejorative term reserved for revolutionaries and enemies of the peace who threaten total destruction and promise the emergence of a new order. In the midst of this tension between permanence and change, Pascal embraces innovation so long as the authority of Augustinian dogma is respected.
PARKER, THOMAS R. "Intentionality and non causa pro causa in Pascal" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 173–180.
The author offers a case study of the logical error of "taking for a cause something that is not" and applies current work in analytical philosophy to the logical structures of Pascal's writing.
POUZET, REGINE. Chronique des Pascal: "les affaires du monde d'Étienne Pascal à Marguerite Périer (1588–1733). Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: M. Hilgar in FR 77 (2003), 150–151. Examines the famed thinker's family with a wide-angle lens. Uses archival documents that "témoignent, certes, d'une authentique ferveur religieuse mais [qui] montrent combien les Pascal étaient attachés au monde" (150). Reviewer notes that "un livre se basant sur des actes notaries pourrait sembler aride mais le talent de Régine Pouzet transforme ces relations économiques et sociales en un récit limpide dans lequel elle établit une relation personnelle avec chacun des innombrables membres de la famille" (151).
PUGH, ANTHONY R. "Imagination and the Unity of the Pensées" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 65–73.
This article examines how the style and syntax of the Pensées bring contradictory elements together into a single unified vision.
PUGH, ANTHONY R.. "The Order of Pascal's Pensées: A Continuing Debate." PFSCL 30 (2003): 89–111.
Review: A. Giaufret in S Fr 47 (2003): 705: Focuses on the manuscript of the Bibliothèque Nationale and its project of presenting Christianity as the unique and authentic religion. To be read in conjunction with other theories put forth by H. Gouhier and Ph. Sellier.
REGENT, ANNE. "La figure du juge dans les Provinciales et dans les Pensées: rupture ou continuité?" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 75–90.
The author examines the representation of judges, magistrates, and justice and the inter-relationship between the Pensées and Lettres Provinicales to show how Pascal's apology grew out of his polemics.
SELLIER, PHILIPPE. "Pascal: imaginaire et théologie" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 39–57.
The author confronts the separation of the study of the imagination and theology in Pascal's work and proposes that the inter-relationship between these two currents be given greater atttention.
SFEZ, GERALD. "Pascal et la diversité de la justice." DSS 223 (2004), 303–316.
Héléne Merlin-Kajman explains that Sfez is able to revisit Pascal, "débarrassé de la 《 tâche de notre modernité 》" to demonstrate "ce que ni Marin, ni Lyotard, ni Foucault n'y avaient entendu: non pas une critique radicale des critères de jugement et de représentation réduite à la force, mais une limitation des sphères de jugement et de représentation afin d'éviter la tyrannie des unes sur les autres."
SHIOKAWA, TETSUYA. "Les limites de l'apologétique pascalienne" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 149–156.
The author considers whether Pascal addresses his apology uniquely to the faculty of reason and whether he seeks to persuade through an appeal to heart.
WETSEL, DAVID and FREDERIC CANOVAS, eds. Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), t. 1. Tübingen: G. Narr (Biblio 17), 2002.
Individual articles summarized in the appropriate section, organized by author.
Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr 47 (2003): 704–705: Judged fascinating if at times incongruent, these Actes of the May 2001 conference of NASSCFL, held in Phoenix, are dedicated to Jean Mesnard. Wide-ranging, rich and highly informative, the volume includes magisterial lectures of Jean Mesnard and Philippe Sellier as well as three sections: "Port-Royal et la littérature" (dir. Pascale Thouvenin), "Pensées de Pascal" (dir. Philippe Sellier) and "New Trends in Port-Royal Studies" (dir. Pierre Force).
Review: L. Susini in DSS 223 (2004), 337–339: One of six volumes "nécessaires à la publication des Actes de cet imposant colloque dédié au Pr Jean Mesnard." An extraordinary volume showcasing current work on Pascal and Port-Royal.
POUZET, REGINE. Chronique des Pascal: "les affaires du monde d'Étienne Pascal à Marguerite Périer (1588–1733). Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: M. Hilgar in FR 77 (2003), 150–151. Examines the famed thinker's family with a wide-angle lens. Uses archival documents that "témoignent, certes, d'une authentique ferveur religieuse mais [qui] montrent combien les Pascal étaient attachés au monde" (150). Reviewer notes that "un livre se basant sur des actes notaries pourrait sembler aride mais le talent de Régine Pouzet transforme ces relations économiques et sociales en un récit limpide dans lequel elle établit une relation personnelle avec chacun des innombrables membres de la famille" (151).
DUPOUY, JEAN-PIERRE, ed. Etienne Pasquier. Les Jeux poetiques (1610). Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: V. Mecking in ZRP 119 (2003): 342–348: Important, newly organized by themes (Loyauté, Liberté, Ambition, Vieillesse amoureuse, Vieillesse rechignée) and with new interpretations, Dupouy's edition includes an informative introduction of some 100 pages which situates the work in its literary history and treats its reception and versification. Abundant commentary of individual poems with numerous notes of a lexical nature. Critical apparatus includes a bibliography, a glossary and indices.
CARABIN, DENISE, ed. Nicolas Pasquier. Le Gentilhomme. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2003.
Review: BCLF 658 (2004), 114–15: "Mais ce Gentilhomme, publié à Paris en 1611 et rédité aujourd'hui pour la première fois par Denise Carabin dans une édition critique d'une qualité en tous points remarquable, se révèle pourtant comme un texte important de la littérature politique d'expression française. Présenté par l'auteur comme une institution à l'usage de ses propres fils, le livre revêt en fait la forme plus ambitieuse d'un manuel de formation à l'usage de la noblesse d'épée."
MARINER, FRANCIS. "Family Perspectives in Gilberte Périer's Vie de Monsieur Pascal" in Pascal/New Trends in Port-Royal Studies. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 1. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 143, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002. 203–217.
The author does not assess the Vie's historical accuracy but instead tries to uncover the motivations and cultural mentalities that inform the biography.
POUZET, REGINE. Chronique des Pascal: "les affaires du monde d'Étienne Pascal à Marguerite Périer (1588–1733). Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: M. Hilgar in FR 77 (2003), 150–151. Examines the famed thinker's family with a wide-angle lens. Uses archival documents that "témoignent, certes, d'une authentique ferveur religieuse mais [qui] montrent combien les Pascal étaient attachés au monde" (150). Reviewer notes that "un livre se basant sur des actes notaries pourrait sembler aride mais le talent de Régine Pouzet transforme ces relations économiques et sociales en un récit limpide dans lequel elle établit une relation personnelle avec chacun des innombrables membres de la famille" (151).
CULPIN, D. J., ed. Charles Perrault. Les Hommes illustres. Avec leurs portraits au nature. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2003.
Review: J.-P. Chauveau in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 242–246. Reviewer praises "les vertus fondamentales d'une édition qui vient à son heure pour attirer l'attention sur un précieux texte témoin, et valant aussi par lui-même pour mettre en lumière les qualités indiscutables d'historien et de moraliste d'un Charles Perrault qui, encore de nos jours, n'est pas seulement l'auteur des Contes."
SAUPE, YVETTE, ed. Les Frères Perrault et Beaurain, Les Murs de Troye ou l'origine du burlesque, Livre I. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2001.
Review: J. Royé in IL 55.3 (2003), 56–57. This first modern edition of an unjustly neglected text is accompanied by "une très riche documentation." The introduction studies the milieu of the Perrault brothers, textual influences, and the motivations behind the creation of this work in 1653; also studied are mythological travesty, the reasons behind Charles's silence regarding the text, and its literary merits. The annotations, for their part, "rendent cet ouvrage savant et pédagogique et permettent d'apprécier toutes les finesses et toute la drôlerie du texte."
SEBAG, PAUL, ed. François Pétis de La Croix. Les Mille et un jours: contes persans. Paris: Phébus, 2003.
Review: BCLF 651 (2003), 125–26: "Un orientaliste contemporain d'Antoine Galland," François Pétis de La Croix (1653–1713), dans Les Mille et un Jours, "ait rédigé un ouvrage original inspiré en partie par des récits, des recueils de contes et des traités d'histoire, qu'il avait pu lire, notamment dans l'Empire ottoman." Ses contes se caractérisent "par leur richesse d'inspiration, leur style caractéristique de la langue classique française et la critique de la société de l'époque."
WELCH, MARCELLE MAISTRE, ed. and VIVIEN BOSLEY, trans. François Poullain de La Barre, Three Cartesian Feminist Treatises. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Review: S. Romanowski in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 280–282. "The Introduction… comprises a detailed and very complete examination of Poullain's thought and works (33 pages), with a biography that sets his life in the philosophical and religious contexts of his time, and an evaluation of his influence in his time and in our day." However, reviewer expresses "some reservation concerning the translations."
PHILLIPS, HENRY. "Poussin's Confirmation: The Staging of an Image?" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 45–52.
Adds to previous work on theatrical metaphor in Poussin, arguing that Poussin "though the interpretative gaze, transfers the significance of the roles represented in the painting to the role played in the world by a bishop in seventeenth-century France as he would have understood it" (45). Attention paid to "visibility" and the important role of costume in the painting.
VENESOEN, CONSTANT, ed. Madame de Prigny. Les Differens caractères des femmes du siècle; [suivi de] La Description de l'amour-propre. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2002.
Review: BCLF 652 (123–24): Le texte majeur de Mme de Pringy, Les Differens caractères des femmes du siècle, "publié en entier, et cela pour le première fois depuis 1699." Ce volume, accompagné de "notes abondantes et une bibliographie utile," restitue l'oeuvre de Mme de Pringy "dans des courants de pensée qui sont autant littéraires que philosophiques."
CAMPION, EDMUND J. ed. Philippe Quinault. Pausanias: tragédie (1668). Genève: Droz, 2004.
Review; BCLF 659 (2004), 117: Cette édition critique "vient utliement compléter la connaissance du théâtre classique dans toutes ses dimensions." Bibliographie "courte mais à jour."
CULLIERE, ALAIN. La fille généreuse, tragi-comédie en quête d'auteur." DSS 212 (juillet–sept. 2001): 535—544.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 46 (2002): 437: Close study of ms. 24347 (B.N.) gives Cullière reason to postulate Quinault rather than Madame Saint-Balmon as author of this tragicomedy.
NORMAN, BUFORD. Touched by the Graces: The Libretti of Philippe Quinault in the Context of French Classicism. Birmingham, AL: Summa Publications, 2001.
Review: R. Tobin in DFS 66 (2004), 115–117: A study of the eleven libretti written by Quinault for Lully between 1673 and 1686. Norman shows the Quinault-Lully operas as being "rather serious and complex works in their own right, works which may be listened to and enjoyed for their own artistic and musical merit and can have just as much appeal to the modern audience as they had in the seventeenth century... This book will be a very welcome addition to the library of any scholar of French opera or of any music lover, for it presents a very detailed and insightful study of the work of an individual who was, at least partially, responsible for a number of undisputed operatic masterpieces."
ALEMANY, VERONIQUE. "Racine et Port-Royal: d'un centenaire à l'autre" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 237–255.
Alemany recounts the Port-Royal celebration of the bicentenary of Racine's death with a chronicle of three days of festivities. In sum, an homage, complete with pilgrimage of people from all areas of Racine's life, literature, theater, church and state.
BABY, HELENE & JEAN EMELINA, eds. Racine et la Méditerranée. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999.
Individual articles summarized in the appropriate section.
BABY, HELENE. "Racine sait-il composer? De l'unité d'action dans la tragédie racinienne" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 81–98.
Baby studies the notions of "tragédie simple" and "tragédie complexe" and the varied weights given to love intrigues and politics in Racine's theater. Particular focus on Andromaque and Bajazet. Concludes that, for Racine, "La simplicité mime une unité qui est celle, linéraire, de tout événement humain, tandis que l'action principale et son épisode, indépendants l'une de l'autre, rendent compte naturellement de son impossible prévisibilité."
BENHAMOU, ANNE-FRANÇOISE. "Racine, de Copeau à Vitez: des rencontres sous le signe du paradoxe" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 41–52.
Benhamou recounts important historical moments in the staging of Racine's plays and considers the reasons various metteurs-en-scène (Barrault, Vitez, etc.) have or have not mounted his work, with specific reference to the socio-political climate of various periods. Stresses that today's playwrights don't focus on love or its pathos, yet are still fascinated by excessive passion, cruelty, and desire in Racine.
BIET, CHRISTIAN. "Présentation" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 467–471.
Tobin introduces the section "Imaginaire et anthropologie" which contains articles by D. Kambouchner, L. Giavarini, P.-J. Salazar, and R. Heyndels.
BIET, CHRISTIAN, modérateur, avec JACQUES LASSALLE, DANIEL MESGUICH, CHRISTIAN RIST, & MORIAKI WATANABE. "Table ronde sur la mise en scène: avec Jacques Lassalle, Daniel Mesguich, Christian Rist, Moriaki Watanabe" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 53–74.
A relatively faithful transcription of a dialogue among contemporary directors who discuss their various approaches to mounting Racine's plays. Mesguich focuses on Racine philosophe, while Rist suggests that reading Racine might be a better medium than live theater. Watanabe discusses difficulties translating Racine and staging his work in a Kabuki-like setting. Lassalle suggests he is perhaps not Racinian enough himself, but had his greatest success staging Racine in Norway, where he didn't understand the language in which the play was declaimed.
BLANC, ANDRE. Racine: Trois siècles de théâtre. Paris: Fayard, 2003.
Review: R. Parish in MLR 99.3 (2004), 775–76: This "undeniably substantive bipartite study," some 700 pages, "eventually affords... a broadly diachronic account of a wide range of critical and theatrical interpretations of Racine." The first part of the work contains "a readable, but excessively leisurely and discursive" biography of Racine, followed by a "relatively cursory and conventional" treatment of the plays. The second part of the study "turns to the vital role of the mise en scène in more recent times. The later chapters thus allow the reader to survey the evolving understanding both of dramatic text and of theatrical performance, in the course of a balanced sequence of summaries of a whole gamut of nineteenth-and twentieth-century critical approaches and staged productions..." No bibliography.
Review: R. W. Tobin in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 235–237. The first part of this volume is a biography which "contains a great diversity of information" and "is also distinctive in the amount of detail [it] provides." The second part "traces Racine's reception from the seventeenth through the twenty-first century;" this is followed by discussion of theatre productions of Racine's plays. "André Blanc has produced an enormous tome that might have intimidated the reader, if the text had not been attractively presented, with a handful of illustrations, and in a style that assures easy reading. It is a text to which I will certainly refer my undergraduate students when they encounter Racine — l'homme et l'œuvre — for the first time."
Review: BCLF 653 (2003), 82–83: Cette biographie est fondée "sur une érudition sans faille, quoiqu'un peu convenue, égayée par un style alerte, [qui] ne vise pas à renouveler l'historiographie racinienne, mais à lui redonner une forme attrayante pour le grand public. L'originalité de ce travail, et la majeure partie de son intérêt, réside en fait dans la seconde partie... une étude de la mise en scène théâtrale et de la lecture critique de ses tragédies depuis leur création."
BOUVIER, MICHEL. "Une dramaturgie de l'amour-propre: le théâtre de Racine" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 189–210.
Bouvier categorizes the individual struggle against l'amour de soi in Racine's theater, its tendency to take on various masks, and theater as a means to dropping this mask. Particular attention paid to obsessive will, failure to recognize humiliation or alienation, and galant or romanesque or glorious discourse used to create illusions. Dramatic techniques used to reveal l'amour-propre include the shrinking of theatrical space and the acceleration of time. Bouvier links amour-propre to children in Racine's theater, since a child is another self.
BRODY, JULES. "Langages de Racine. Récurrences lexicales et autonomie poétique" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 437–464.
Examines a kind of "surplus sémantique" of Racine's language which, for anglophones, can be off-putting. Revisits "l'analyse spitsérienne" of Racine's language. Brody advocates a philological approach to Racine's work to distinguish the étrangeté of certain elements which are therefore important. Extensive attention to Phèdre.
BURY, EMMANUEL. "Mémoire, doxa et argumentation: le délibératif à l'œuvre dans la dramaturgie racinienne" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 381–395.
Bury examines the tension created when dramatist stages a known fable (historical or mythological) while evoking alternative possibilities-the heart of l'effet tragique, for Bury, the key to which is la rhétorique. Focuses on the "double effet de la doxa, à la fois 《 interne 》 et 《 externe 》. Suggests the poet's merit comes from his ability to develop the intrigue, especially during moments where hero deliberates which puts off the fatal ending; such moments are an oratory amplification which develops "false possibilities" for the hero. For Bury, Racine's theater is a major indicator of the "inflexions" undergone by l'art rhétorique in the 17th c.
BURY, MARIANE. "Racine et Shakespeare dans la bataille romantique: beaucoup de bruit pour rien" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 645–666.
Bury questions the traditional contrast of Racine to Shakespeare by 19th c. Romantics, who jettisoned the model of Racine, all the while enraged to find they owed him so much, particularly in his painting of passion. Bury seeks to identify the true stakes in this combat of geniuses, and demonstrates to what degree the debate contributed precisely to the survival and success of the Racinian model. Bury suggests that the Romantics' praise of Shakespeare was a convenient alibi / angle of attack for those seeking a new form of dramatic art.
CAMPBELL, JOHN. "Mythologie et savoir: accouplement contre nature ou croisement heureux? L'exemple de Phèdre et d'Iphigénie" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 363–372.
Racine's use of mythological stories allows him not only to display erudition but also complements the portrayal of reason by challenging truth and knowledge and serving as a reminder of the irrational. Mythological fable recalls the limits of reason and reminds us of "la mythologie du savoir."
CAMPBELL, JOHN. "Racine, Shakespeare et la mer" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 57–70.
Campbell addresses the relative paucity of critical studies of the sea in Shakespeare's work compared to the abundance of work on this element in Racine; uses the image of the sea to "rendre visible l'image latente des oppositions et des complicités entre ces deux univers dramatiques" (58). Attributes fundamental differences to deeply different linguistic structures used in each playwright's poetry. For both, the poetics of the sea serve the writers' dramaturgy.
CAMPBELL, JOHN. "Racine's Iphigénie: A 'Happy Tragedy'?" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 214–221.
Argues that Racine's play has "an inalienably tragic dimension" (214), rejecting the notion of tragédie heureuse often imposed on the play. Campbell examines the subversion of identity, reversals, irony, the tragic context, references to flight and escape, the centrality of nation (and not just family), the role assigned to the gods, and the notion of bonheur present at the end of the play. Campbell suggests that the shadow (and threats) of the future undermines any true happiness at the end of the play.
CHEDOZEAU, BERNARD. "La tragédie racinienne et l'Histoire. L'utilisation de l'Histoire par Racine" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 187–210.
Posits that Racine's tragique "naît du rapprochement fulgurant entre ce qu'on appelle le réel historique... et al construction imaginaire et hypothétique que l'auteur invente chez ses personnages" (187). Studies Racine's use of Tacitus, Suetonius, and the Bible. Distinguishes between the character's perception of the tragic and the perception of the spectator, as well as that of the author.
CLOONAN, WILLIAM. "Society and Theater in Racine's Dramaturgy" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 222–229.
In opposition to Forestier, Cloonan examines Racine's subtle use of play-within-a-play by means of interior dramas where actor, audience, and director can be incarnated by the same individual. Particular attention paid to Iphigénie, Bérénice, and Britannicus as examples of self-conscious theatricality.
COMPAGNON, ANTOINE. "Racine and the Moderns" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 241–249.
Compagnon interrogates the apparent complicity between the classical Racine and the Moderns, particularly Claudel, Gide, Valéry and Proust. Compagnon points to the Modernist tendency to focus on horror and cruelty in Racine (particularly in Andromaque and Britannicus), and on the Moderns' ostensible preference for Shakespeare. Compagnon concludes that Racine is "a mirror of their own ambiguity, of the ambiguity of the Modern" (248).
CONEDERA-VESPERINI, CAROL. "Racine au collège: du décalage culturel à la lecture en projet" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 277–285.
A study of the difficult level of lexical and cultural references in Racine, along with suggestions on how to incorporate Racine's work at the level of the collège.
CRITCHLEY, SIMON. "I Want to Die, I Hate My Life-Phaedra's Malaise." NLH 34 (2003), 17–40.
A fascinating article which suggests that Racine's heroine will not find release from her woes in death, but rather that her bitter fate will extend onward into the afterlife. The sun, Phèdre's cosmic ancestor, watches her actions like a distant Jansenist God, and will punish her in the beyond though he offers no relief in the present. Critchley likens Phèdre's predetermined and inescapable state of defeat (which manifests itself in the play in terms of a bodily languor) to the Heideggerian notion of 'thrownness.' Critchley raises the excellent question of exactly who or what dies in this tragedy if Phèdre's suffering is indeed eternal. A remarkable and surprising article.
CUCHE, FRANÇOIS-XAVIER. "Le retour de l'absent" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 167–187.
Studies absence as a "motif fondamental de la tragédie racinienne." Absent character must be present to be an "actant," hence importance of "le retour de l'absent." Departures create suffering, anguish, especially when departure is father or loved one. Notes a paradox: absence ravages by separating; it also creates unity through desire. Stresses properly theatrical nature of this phenomenon: theater is rending an absence present, hence we have a mise-en-abyme.
DANDREY, PATRICK, ed. Jean Racine. Andromaque. Livre de Poche. Paris: Libraire Générale Française, 2003.
Review: M.-O. Sweetser in FR 77 (2003), 377. Very admirable presentation of this masterpiece play. Contains commentaries, a short biography of Racine, a selection of key passages, and reminders of the play's Greek and Latin source material. In addition, Dandrey "tente…d'attacher le choix du sujet [de la pièce] aux événements contemporains et à la situation de la monarchie française de la fin du seizième siècle à la prise du pouvoir par Louis XIV: la pièce serait un discret homage à la reine régente Anne d'Autriche qui venait de mourir en 1666: elle avait sauvegardé le royaume et la dynastie pour un fils qui lui en restait profondément reconnaissant" (377).
DANDREY, PATRICK. "Molière et Racine: un théâtre d'anatomie?" CAEIF 55 (2003), 347–362.
One of a series of papers delivered at the LIVe Congrès de l'Association (2002) under the auspices of Louis Van Delft on the subject of "littérature et anatomie (XVIe–XVIIe siècle)." Dandrey engages in an engrossing discussion referring to La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, etc., and more specifically, Racine and Molière: "tous eurent en commun d'être poètes de l'intime: rigoureux comme des médecins, dont la spécialité serait la pathologie des âmes, et fins comme des confesseurs, habiles à accoucher les esprits." Co-opting the language of anatomy, "encore fallait-il un théâtre pour cette anatomie du corps souffrant et de l'âme en peine. Comme par pente de langage, le théâtre, celui où l'on joue la comédie, s'offrit pour théâtre d'anatomie, celui où l'on autopsie quand le rideau est tombé sur l'autre comédie, celle de la vie."
DANDREY, PATRICK. "'Ravi d'une si belle vue': Le ravissement amoureux dans le théâtre de Racine" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 72–81.
Dandrey studies the dual nature of 'ravissement' in the seventeenth century, a phenomenon which is both concrete and imaginary, physical and psychological. Dandrey posits that it is during this period that the formal separation of the two orders took place, allowing for plays on the two meanings in the theater of the time. Particular attention paid to Britannicus, Andromaque, Phèdre. Cites the psychological interest of Racine's portrayal of attraction, revulsion, desire, jealousy and seduction.
DECLERCQ, GILLES. "La formation rhétorique de Racine" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 257–290.
Richly annotated and well-documented article focuses on Racine's infrequently studied "cahier d'extraits et notes de lecture" devoted to Tacitus and Quintilian. Traces Antoine Le Maistre's tutelage of Racine, especially his "authenique formation rhétorique" received in the Petites Ecoles. Declercq's reconstitution of Racine's education is both retrospective and projective. Traces the influence of various maîtres: Le Maistre, Nicole, Lancelot and Hamon. Summarizes significant (and subtle) differences between Port-Royal and Jesuit education. Includes a detailed analysis of Racine's work as an "apprenti-avocat" in terms of rhetoric. Declercq thus finds important "traces" of the formation of Racine's creative activity.
DECLERCQ, GILLES. "Racine fin de siècle: fin d'un mythe?" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France - La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 3–8.
This brief article is the "présentation du Tricentenaire" and pays particular attention to modern reception of Racine.
DECLERCQ, GILLES. "Présentation" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 375–380.
Declercq introduces the section "Rhétorique et poétique" which contains articles by E. Bury, M. Hawcroft, G. Siouffi, and J. Brody.
DECLERQ, GILLES & MICHELE ROSELLINI, eds. Jean Racine, 1699–1999. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003.
Individual articles summarized by author in the appropriate section. (Most can be found under Racine.)
DELMAS, CHRISTIAN. "Néron, soleil noir" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 217–226.
Delmas examines "l'image-mère d'un Néron soleil noir" based on the notion that "la rivalité qui structure le mouvement de l'intrigue est imaginée par référence au couple de luminaires astraux que sont le soleil et la lune" (217–218). Places this in the context of Louis XIV, Roi-Soleil.
DEPRUN, JEAN. "En marge d'un propos d'Antoine Arnauld: Phèdre et ses 《 fautes précédentes 》" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 211–216.
Deprun elaborates on Arnauld's Jansenist reference to Phèdre's "fautes précédentes" in the context of Arnauld's other writings. Compares Phèdre to Thomas Corneille's Ariane.
DUMORA, FLORENCE. "Le Songe d'Athalie ou le retour du même." Il 55.4 (2003), 18–25.
A close reading of the dream seeks to demonstrate that the passage's peculiar relation to the dramatic action of the play is partially due to the incompatible forms of time it brings together—"archaïque, familial, historique, tragique, providentiel." "[L]e songe se révèle le lieu du contact interdit entre des mondes intouchables, comme les vivants et les morts, les fil(le)s et les mères, le passé et le futur."
EMELINA, JEAN. "Racine à l'Université" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 315–316.
Emelina cites, as obstacles to the study of Racine at the university level, "trop d'ignorance ou trop de savoir" (315). Often, university faculty must "repartir à zéro," teaching students about everything from mythology to versification to Jansenism. At the other extreme, university students have so much training in rhetorical forms that they fail to see a Racinian play as a whole.
ESCOLA, MARC. "L'invention racinienne: l'action épisodique et l'art des variantes dans Bérénice et Iphigénie" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 127–166.
The longest paper in these conference proceedings, this article studies Racine's innovations with regard to Corneille's theater. Particular attention paid to Corneille's use of the "episode" and the competition of secondary narratives with the principal action of the play. Escola posits that Racine creates interferences between principal and secondary action, where the secondary action is perceived as pathetic: "S'il y a un tragique proprement racinien, il tient peut-être dans cette suspension des possibles pathétiquement traduite en impuissance" (128–129).
FORESTIER, GEORGES. "Présentation" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 77–80.
Forestier introduces the section "Lectures de la dramaturgie de Racine," which contains articles by H. Baby, J.-Y. Vailleton, B. Louvat-Molozay, and J. Lyons.
FORESTIER, GEORGES. "Le Véritable saint Racine, d'après les Mémoires de son fils" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 749–766.
Forestier focuses on "le 《 tendre Racine 》 as the pathos of the author's work is shifted to his own (personal) ethos (i.e. from public to private) by Racine's son Louis in his Mémoire of his father's life, who stresses tenderness over genius as Racine's defining characteristic. In Louis's work, Racine's career occupies limited space, while the entire second half is devoted entirely to Racine's life after giving up theater. Louis situates Phèdre as a moment of conversion, and presents the end of Racine's life as a martyr. Forestier argues that Louis structures text as a "vie de saint" along the model (studied by Ph. Sellier) of Gilberte Périer's Vie de Pascal. Louis eliminates unsavory tales about his father's behavior (mistresses), presents Racine as a saint, and does his best to prevent philosophes from appropriating his father's memory.
FRANCE, PETER. "Présentation" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 467–471.
France introduces the section "Métamorphoses de Racine" which contains articles by N. Guibert, M.-Cl. Planche-Tournon, M. Bury, B. Norman, and R. Parish.
GIAVARINI, LAURENCE. "Mélancolie du prince et représentation dans la tragédie racinienne" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 543–569.
Giavarini explores the tradition by which heroism is identified with melancholy in relation to the fact that Racinian tragedy articulates the mimetic process of the representation of the mortal body of the king. Notes that melancholy in Racine is not the strict domain of princes; the topos is found in discourse of many characters subject to torments of passion. Melancholy has a political dimension in Racine as well. Extensive attention to Britannicus, Mithridate, Phèdre.
GUIBERT, N. "L'iconographie et la scénographie des œuvres de Racine: réflexions à partir des planches d'Esther dans les Recherches sur les coutumes et les théâtres de toutes les nations, par Levacher de Charnois, 1790" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 609–628.
Beautifully illustrated article demonstrates the ways in which scenography impacts theatrical iconography through the lens of Jean-Charles Levacher de Charnois, 18th c. journalist, who wrote long treatise in which he develops "une démonstration sur l'exactitude du costume" based on his own ample historical research of periods represented in Racine's plays. Levacher's was a systematic, documented study based on "la science de son temps."
HAWCROFT, MICHAEL. "L'Apostrophe racinienne" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 397–414.
Creates a taxonomy of Racine's use of the apostrophe, with reference to d'Aubignac. Studies important elements of the apostrophe, such as "le détournement du discours, la nature de l'apostrophé, l'expression de la passion chez le locuteur, et la fonction de persuasion de la figure." Conclusion notes the multidimensional richness and suppleness of Racine's use of apostrophe, which is more frequent than that of his contemporaries.
HEED, SVEN ÅKE. "Jean Racine mis en scène" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 25–39.
Heed measures the current place of Racine in repertoire of classic texts in Europe (especially France, Germany and Sweden). Finds a greater interest in Corneille than Racine in Germany and Sweden, perhaps due to a greater interest in the baroque and in performance rather than spectacle. Notes that innovative approaches to Racine in France have inspired directors in other countries, including representations with musical (operatic) emphasis/musicality.
HEYNDELS, RALPH. "La Violence au coeur de l'homme: Racine entre Rousseau et Sade" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France – La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 585–601.
Heyndels explores how Racine's tragedies can be associated with the beginnings of modern anthropological thought through an examination of l'inhumain and the (im)possibility of man living in community with his fellow men (i.e. between Rousseau and Sade). Addresses thematics of violence, hatred, hostility, madness.
HILGAR, MARIE-FRANCE. "Le Comté de Nice au temps de Racine (et auparavant)" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 9–14.
Brief history of the city of Nice, followed by a more detailed description of Nice in the 17th century, with particular attention to the late 17th-c. siege.
HOURCADE, PHILIPPE. "Sur Racine historiographe : interrogations et points de vue." DFS 65 (Winter 2003), 121–131.
Hourcade propose que, pour étudier l'œuvre historiographique de Racine, il faut "une mise à l'écart, relative ou provisoire, des cadres mentaux, théoriques, méthodologiques auxquels le spécialiste en littérature est accoutumé, mais encore, de la curiosité intellectuelle, et une certaine imagination."
JOUHAUD, MARIE-FRANCE. "Le théâtre de Racine ne serait-il qu'une vieille beauté?" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 305–309.
Attributes (hypothetically) students' failure to find pleasure in reading Racine to Racine, to those who teach Racine, and to time. Racine does not seem to speak to modern adolescents, and is not perceived as either useful or sublime. Suggests teachers' obligation to propose pleasure, mediating for students when pleasure is not immediate.
KAMBOUCHNER, DENIS. "Racine et les passions cartésiennes" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France - La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 531–541.
Compares Descartes's study of the passions to Racine's representation of the passions in his theater, identifying first a variety of differences, then suggesting proximité between them in the relation that the Racinian character has with its own passions, cf. the "théorie des 《 émotions intérieures de l'âme 》. Kambouchner concludes that "la méditation racinienne sur les passions commence là où la méditation cartésienne s'arrête."
LELOUCH, CLAIRE. "Les Notices biographiques dans les Œuvres complètes de Racine (1722–1783)" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 729–746.
Excellent in-depth analysis of the role of notices biographiques in Racine's Œuvres complètes whose work is part of the birth of this new genre. Considers notices with and without specific authors' names attached to them, and the legitimacy of case, as well as the role of the notice in forming the reputation of a specific author. Argues convincingly for careful attention to be paid to this revelatory paratext.
LOUVAT-MOLOZAY, BENEDICTE. "Esther et Athalie, tragédies avec musique: Racine et la dramaturgie de l'introduction musicale." in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 113–126.
Studies Racine's new model for a spectacle musical which included rehabilitating the Greek chorus. Racine did not necessarily only seek out "realistic" places to put music; he also legitimized the placement of music by other means. Louvat-Molozay hypothesizes that Racine wanted to preserve the alternation between chant and déclamation, and wanted to keep the "caractère d'étrangeté — mais aussi peut-être du sublime" of the mix.
LOUVAT-MOLOZAY, BENEDICTE & DOMINIQUE MONCOND'HUY, eds. Racine Poète. Poitiers: La Licorne/Maison des sciences de l'homme et de la société, 1999.
Review: H. Baby in DSS 223 (2004), 336: A series of articles "portant sur la langue versifiée de Racine (poésie ou théâtre) permettent de passer du texte à lire au texte à dire et à la musique à entendre, comme le révèle la place des entretiens avec les metteurs en scène intégrés à la deuxième section consacrée au théâtre."
LUMINET, ISABELLE. "Racine au lycée: de l'identification à l'analyse" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 299–303.
Cites several difficulties in teaching Racine at the high school level, with particular attention to les trois unités, the exposition, and the "codes" (i.e. rules) associated with classical theater. Solutions proposed include seeing the play before reading it; beginning with topics that interest students (family conflicts, dreams, passion, etc.), and then moving on to rules and more formal elements of 17th-c. theater.
LYONS, JOHN D. "Racine et la dramaturgie du temps" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 127–137.
Noting Racine's reputation for "une construction spécialement rigoureuse du temps," Lyons maintains that Racine's success has to do with how he manages the public's relationship to the story represented on stage with regard to time, as the spectators' experience of time is vastly different from that of the poet who must fix spectators' attention on the present of the tragic story and its inexorable denouement so as to hide the artifice, thereby marrying logic to chronology. Comparing Andromaque to Euripides, Lyons finds that time is more important in Racine, who has three-part perspective on time: "celle du dramaturge/critique, celle (fictive) du personnage, et celle enfin du spectateur."
McCLURE, ELLEN. "Sovereign Love and Atomism in Racine's Bérénice." P&L 27.2 (2003), 304–317.
Relates Racine's exploration of the possibility of love between sovereigns to ongoing debates concerning the composition of the universe and the possibility of two points making a line without ceasing to be points. Uses Racine's consideration of "creux" and "solide" in his letters to reconsider the role of Antiochus in the play.
MESNARD, JEAN. "Racine, Nicole et Lancelot" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 291–372.
A lengthy and fascinating article which traces Racine's engagement with Port-Royal from early childhood, suggesting along the way new interpretations which alter previously established "facts" about Racine's life. A minutely detailed archival study. Specific attention to the influences of Nicole and Lancelot who were essential in guiding Racine's studies. Mesnard posits Racine's mistresses, more than his theatrical endeavors, as the source of rupture with Nicole and Lancelot, then traces Racine's eventual reconciliation with his masters. Concludes that not one of Racine's contemporaries' biographies was trustworthy.
NIDERST, ALAIN. "Le 《 soleil rayonnant sur la mer 》: de Claude Lorrain à Racine" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 47–56.
Niderst speculates on Racine's knowledge of Lorrain and the role this knowledge might have played in the development of Racine's dramaturgy. Some attention to Valéry and Baudelaire; color reproduction of Lorrain's Port de mer au soleil couchant, p.56.
NIDERST, ALAIN. Le Travail de Racine. Essai sur la composition des tragédies de Racine. Eurédit, 2001.
Review: J. Dubu in OeC 28,1 (2003), 236–38: "En dix pages judicieusement nommées Prolégomènes, l'auteur définit son propos, le délimite: 'huit tragédies. C'est peu. Deux romaines, deux orientales, deux grecques, deux bibliques', évolution résumée d'une formule lapidaire: 'De l'histoire au sacré, en passant par la fable'."
NOILLE-CLAUZADE, CHRISTINE. "Simplicité, violence et beauté: poétique comparée de la mimesis dans Bérénice et Bajazet" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 71–93.
Posits that these two plays are experimental for Racine, Bérénice in the domain of the spectacular effects of pain, and Bajazet in the area of anticipation and suspense. In both, spectators witness a common ability for "oriental" characters to render poetic a particular moment of an exemplary story.
NORMAN, BUFORD. "Racine et la musique sacrée: poésie, chant, cantique" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 667–683.
Situates Racine's Cantiques spirituels in the context of the poetry and music of his time. Includes history of the Cantiques' transposition to music. Extensive comparison of Quinault to Racine, stressing both similarities and differences in versification, content, etc. Norman's analysis discovers more similarities between Phèdre and the Cantiques than between the Cantiques and the sacred tragedies.
NORMAN, LARRY. "Iphigenia at Versailles, or Playing with Fire" in Frédéric Canovas & David Wetsel, eds., Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Cérémonies et rituels en France au XVIIe siècle. Ceremonies and rituals in XVIIth century France. Actes du XXXIIIe Congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (May, 2001 - Arizona State University), Vol. 4. Berlin: Weidler Buchverlage, 2002: 267–279.
The production of Racine's Iphigénie at the royal fêtes at Versailles in 1674 suggests that Racine, far from serving as a mouthpiece for Louis XIV, instead provoked his audience with a "brilliant perversity" by creating a tragic anti-fête. An implicit analogy between the play and the era of Louis XIV presents not so much the triumph of modernity over the brutality of antiquity, but rather a disturbing and explosive parallel.
PAPAPETROU-MILLER, MARIA. "Racine en Grèce: l'exemple de Mithridate" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 95–113.
Studies the reception of Racine's theater in Greece by tracing the fortune of Mithridate in Greek. Posits that the Greeks of the 19th century turned to Racine as a model for a new theater. Considerable attention paid to translations of Racine into Greek.
PARISH, RICHARD. "Métamorphoses de Racine: la Phaedra de Benjamin Britten" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 685–695.
Parish studies Britten's dramatic cantata for mezzo-soprano, Phaedra, written in 1975 and based exclusively on Robert Lowell's 1963 translation of Racine's Phèdre. The cantata is based on short extracts taken from four long tirades. Britten's musical austerity works well with Racine's esthetic. Extensive musical analysis of piece. Raises question of genre of the piece: is it really a cantata? Scena might be a better term. Believes Racine would have appreciated this version of his work.
PHILLIPS, HENRY. "Racine et le temps du futur, temps tragique" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 147–165.
Phillips suggests Racine's characters have solid idea of their own possible future; but individual plans contradict each other and annul each other, since characters work to destroy others' futures. Particular reference to Andromaque, Bérénice, Phèdre; Athalie. Categorizes instances of future tense (facts; intentions; threats); studies circumstances under which they are produced. Notes that many put into doubt the very possibility of enunciation. Studies relationship of conditional to future. Concludes that in Racine,"le futur est un temps qui n'a pas d'avenir."
PLANCHE-TOURNON, MARIE-CLAIRE. "A propos d'un tableau de Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, Andromaque et Pyrrhus" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 629–643.
Amply illustrated, in-depth analysis of Guérin's picture in the context of Racine's Andromaque. Guérin adds Astyanax into painting; he also condenses several moments in the play into one picture. Guérin stressed the importance of the regard and characters' capacity for expression. Guérin captures the primacy of movement in this example of visual art which harmonizes with Racine's play, as gestures reveal the soul.
PROBES, CHRISTINE MC CALL. "La rhétorique des sens et la célébration des secrets de la nature chez Racine poète: soleil et mer" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 227–241.
Probes explores the rhetoric of the five senses and the way in which nature is celebrated by Racine in his odes, demonstrating, as she has done in many contexts, that "le goût pour la nature est déjà vif au dix-septième siècle" (228). Particular attention is paid to the sun and the sea.
RANGER, JEAN-CLAUDE. "La mer et le tragique dans les tragédies de Racine" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 167–186.
Point of departure is Barthes's link between the sea and the tragic. Ranger demonstrates that Racine does not simply reproduce the sea of his literary predecessors, but rather develops its political and strategic potential. As an "elsewhere," the sea creates hopes; as a presence, the sea fosters claustrophobia and catastrophe.
RICORD, MARINE. "《 Ô ciel! Ô mère infortunée! 》 ou le sacrifice d'Iphigénie entre ciel et terre" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 17–31.
Ricord demonstrates "comment une poétique de l'élémentaire, principe de l'organisation spatiale, révèle l'enjeu de la pièce" (17). Sections include: "Une topographie tragique," "La parole tragique ou la circulation entravée," "La vanité de la dépense énergétique ou l'imaginaire de l'élémentaire," and "Le dénouement de la tragédie ou la circulation retrouvée."
ROHOU, JEAN. Jean Racine. Andromaque. Paris: PUF, 2000.
Review: A. M. Mazziotti in S Fr 46 (2002): 444. Important for its analysis of context and structure, Rohou's volume also includes a biography of Racine, a reconstruction of the play's performance and a bibliography.
ROHOU, JEAN. "Pour une étude humainement profitable d'Athalie." IL 55.3 and 55.4 (2003), 10–16 and 11–17.
Author proposes a series of "hypothèses" on how Athalie can be read as a reflection on "la condition et personnalité humaines"; play is best approached not through erudition, but by understanding "les rapports toujours vivants, toujours fondamentaux entre le désir qui nous anime, l'idéal auquel aspire notre conscience et la loi qui la surplombe."
ROHOU, JEAN. "Présentation" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 141–145.
Rohou introduces the section "Racine: métaphysique, éthique, politique," which contains articles by H. Phillips, Fr.-X. Cuche, M. Bouvier, and P. Zoberman.
ROLLINAT-LEVASSEUR, EVE-MARIE. "La création des personnages mythologiques par Racine: Eriphile et Aricie" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 33–46.
Attempts to discover "comment et pourquoi le dramaturge français a inséré dans des intrigues fort connues des personnages qu'il a imaginés à l'image des héros des mythes grecs" (33). Sections include: "Racine mythographe," "Petite mythologie racinienne," "Pour une concentration de l'atmosphère mythologique," "Des histoires de famille," "Contamination, intertextualité et efficacité dramatique," "Identité tragique," and "Infini jeux de miroirs."
SAID, SUZANNE. "Mythes et tragédies: les leçons de l'Antiquité" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 493–516.
Reflects on the relation of tragedy to myth, uncovering the huge gap that separates Racine from the three Greek tragedians. Establishes a definition of myth applicable to the Greeks and to Racine; interrogates the mise-en-scène of myth, including both distance with regard to contemporary reality and also immediate presence of the story to spectators; points out the fluidity of myth both in Greeks and in Racine, but for very different reasons. Focusing on context, Saïd notes that, whereas in Greek society, myth was an integral part of politico-religious reality, in Racine's time, myth is entirely of the "monde fabuleux," profane.
SALAZAR, PHILIPPE-JOSEPH. "L'Effet rhétorique, Bérénice" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 571–584.
Furthers the work of Ch. Biet on the rhetoric of tears in Bérénice, which can be used to prove, and to persuade. Also explores the arts of louange and censure, as well as Titus's cure for Titus, a cure de parole, and the phenomenon of purgation. Ultimately, Racine persuades his audience that the prince has to maintain his distance from contagion; the audience's tears will never be on the order of those of a prince.
SAMUEL, CHRISTIANE. "Enseigner Racine aux élèves en spécialité 《 Théâtre 》 au lycée. Du jeu théâtral à la découverte du texte" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 287–297.
Addresses two difficulties related to teaching Racine at the level of the lycée: "l'obstacle du vers classique" and "les codes de la tragédie classique: un effet de distance." Responds to these difficulties by constant alternation between "texte et jeu, jeu et texte."
SCHRODER, VOLKER. "Situations des études raciniennes: histoire et littérature" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 11–24.
Schröder focuses on the role history can play in critics' approach to Racine's theater, including work in contextualization (especially the cérémonial attached to Racine's work), cultural studies, reception studies, and interdisciplinary approaches to Racine.
SELLIER, PHILIPPE. "Présentation" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003.
Sellier introduces the section "Racine et Port-Royal," which contains articles by V. Alemany, G. Declercq, J. Mesnard.
SIOUFFI, GILLES. "Les tragédies comme représentation de la langue française" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 415–435.
Siouffi studies Racine's contemporaries who commented on his language in particular: Subligny's Folle Querelle; a group of writers who mostly praised Racine (Saint-Evremond, Longepierre, La Bruyère, François de Callières); 18th c. grammatical commentary on Racine's language by D'Olivet; grammatical commentary by Racine's son, Louis Racine (also 18th c.); and finally, Voltaire. Particular attention to reception and language usage.
STALLONI, YVES. "Plaisir à Racine... Quelques suggestions" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 311–313.
Suggests pleasure in studying Racine could come from: students' attendance at actual plays; students' study of Racine as a poet first, then as a dramatist; a "retour au sens [du texte]."
SZUSKIN, MARC. "La mer comme espace tragique dans les tragédies de Racine" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 115–125.
A semantic analysis of Racine's tragedies based on the notion that, beginning with Bajazet, Racine sets all of his plays in the "décor marin" (115), overtly contrasting the sea with architecture. The sea, in Racine, thus becomes a symbolic space, without reference to realism or vraisemblance, and with an entirely poetic function as the quintessential space of divine intervention. For Racine, it is a place of ambivalence and contradiction.
TOBIN, RONALD. "Andromaque's Choice." OL 58.5 (2003): 317–334.
Countering the traditional analysis of the pivotal moment in Racine's Andromaque, when the heroine announces her plan to save her honor and Astyanax), Tobin argues that her "choice of self over son" reveals her true priorities and thus the complexity of Racine's first great female protagonist. Scholars have long perpetuated a myth of the lead character's moral perfection that impoverishes her complexity and, in turn, that of Racine's vision of humanity.
TOBIN, RONALD. "La poétique du lieu dans Phèdre" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 243–265.
Tobin studies place ("lieu," as opposed to space, "espace") and in particular the cruel implications of place as part of the tragic in Phèdre. Special attention paid to the notion of geography in the 17th century, and to the role of mythology in the particular geography of the play, namely, the cities of Athènes and Trézène. Amply illustrated with 11 maps of the geography referenced in the play.
TOBIN, RONALD W. "Présentation" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 467–471.
Tobin introduces the section "Mythe et religion," which contains articles by Jacques Le Brun and Suzanne Saïd.
TOBIN, RONALD W., ed. Racine et/ou le classicisme. Actes du colloque conjointement organisée par la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature et la Société Racine. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 2001.
Review: T. Gheeraert in IL 55.3 (2003), 50–53. Reviewer summarizes all the contributions to the "volume riche et touffu" that allows us to "confront[er] les approaches anglo-saxonnes et françaises sur Racine."
Review: S. Vecchiato in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 161–226: Praiseworthy Acts of the October 1999 Colloque Racine of Santa Barbara focus on pedagogy, Racine's reception, Racine and history, dramaturgy and the concept of classicism itself. Includes, in addition to sections of pertinent and stimulating analyses of particular themes and plays within the indicated foci, a section composed of conférences magistrales by Gilles Declercq ("Poéticité versus rhétoricité..."), Georges Forestier ("Editer Racine aujourd'hui"), and Catherine Kintzler ("L'Opéra, révélation et trahison du théâtre").
VIALA, ALAIN. "Présentation" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 467–471.
Viala introduces the section "Ecrire la vie de Racine: les genres de la biographie et du parallèle" which contains articles by E. Mortgat-Longuet, J.Goldzink, C. Lelouch, and G. Forestier.
VIALLETON, JEAN-YVES. "Dramaturgie et civilité: Racine et ses critiques" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 99–112.
Examines critical texts written about Racine in his own time (Subligny's La folle querelle, the anonymous Sur les tragédies de Phèdre et d'Hippolyte, Villars' La critique de Bérenice, and Barbier d'Aucour's Apollon charlatan) as documents pertinent to reception studies and as sources for Racine's subsequent modifications to his plays. Vialleton looks at alternate forms of civilité in Racine's work. Critics find a lack of honnêteté in Racine's characters; Vialleton asserts that Racine can be read in the light of les traités du comportement of the period.
VOGEL, CHRISTINE. "Une correspondance entre réalité et fiction: Les lettres amoureuses de Julie de Lespinasse." Poétique 137 (2004), 87–98.
Discusses the deployment of citations from Racine's Phèdre in the 18th-century correspondence of Julie de Lespinasse and the Comte de Guibert. According to Vogel, Julie uses the figure of Phèdre to organize her self-presentation, casting herself as a tragic heroine through a "héroïsation de son moi" (91). Julie is also said to identify with Phèdre's subjugating, ungovernable passion. The article includes a useful if typical synopsis of the evolution of epistolary writing and the flexibility it enjoyed as a genre.
WINTER, GENEVIEVE. "De la suprématie au doute: Racine, classique scolaire" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 269–275.
Traces the fortune of Racine in French schools, from his "installation précoce, stable et exclusive" before 1980, to the problematic place of Racine from 1980 to 1996, followed by the impressive reappearance of Racine on the baccalauréat program in 1996.
WINTER, GENEVIEVE. "《 Où fuyez-vous, Racine? 》 Quel avenir pour la tragédie à l'école?" in Racine et la Méditerranee. Soleil et mer. Neptune et Apollon. Hélène Baby & Jean Emelina, eds. Actes du Colloque International de Nice des 19–20 mai 1999. Université de Nice: Sophia Antipolis, 1999. 317–318.
Concludes pedagogical session on Racine by citing once again the need to "inventer patiemment et modestement les moyens pédagogiques qui permettront aux lycéens de regarder la scène racinienne aant d'en explorer les coulisses textuelles, eet d'entendre le vers racinien avant de l'analyser" (317).
ZOBERMAN, PIERRE. "Représentation de l'homme, représentation du roi" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 211–229.
Explores the dialectique idéologique of Racine's theater, which neither glorifies absolute monarchy nor insists unilaterally on unfavorable monarchical representation. Suggests the monarch is by nature "un homme hyperbolique, en ce qu'il dispose d'un pouvoir matériel bien supérieur aux autres pour donner libre cours à ses mouvements." Indicates that, while spectactors look for parallels with own world, there is also a form of distanciation going on. What distinguishes a "royal text" from a Racinian tragedy is that in Racine, political discourse is in competition with a metaphysical discourse.
FORESTIER, GEORGES. "Le Véritable saint Racine, d'après les Mémoires de son fils" in Jean Racine: 1699–1999. Gilles Declercq & Michèle Rosellini, eds. Actes du colloque Ile-de-France — La Ferté-Milon, 25–30 mai 1999. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003. 749–766.
Forestier focuses on "le 《 tendre Racine 》 as the pathos of the author's work is shifted to his own (personal) ethos (i.e. from public to private) by Racine's son Louis in his Mémoire of his father's life, who stresses tenderness over genius as Racine's defining characteristic. In Louis's work, Racine's career occupies limited space, while the entire second half is devoted entirely to Racine's life after giving up theater. Louis situates Phèdre as a moment of conversion, and presents the end of Racine's life as a martyr. Forestier argues that Louis structures text as a "vie de saint" along the model (studied by Ph. Sellier) of Gilberte Périer's Vie de Pascal. Louis eliminates unsavory tales about his father's behavior (mistresses), presents Racine as a saint, and does his best to prevent philosophes from appropriating his father's memory.
BRUNEL, JEAN. Un Poitevin poète, humaniste et soldat à l'époque des guerres de religion. Nicolas Rapin (1539–1608). La carrière, les milieux, l'oeuvre. Paris: Champion, 2002.
Review: G. Banderier in BHR 65,3 (2003), 757–60: "M. Brunel nous a donné sur Rapin un ouvrage que l'on peut, sans grand risque de se tromper, considérer comme définitif et déjà classique. Mais, au-delà du poète fontenaisien, ces deux précieux volumes deviendront des usuels pour tous ceux qui étudient les années 1570–1620, une période à la fois fascinante, brouillonne et féconde."
WOOD, ALLEN G.. "Boileau, Régnier et le repas ridicule." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 511–522.
Analyzes "la satire culinaire" in Boileau's and Régnier's œuvre and situates them in a wider tradition of the genre.
WELLMAN, KATHLEEN. Making Science Social: The Conferences of Théophraste Renaudot, 1633–1642. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.
Review: J.T. Tolbert in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 317–319. Volume is "a useful summation and analysis of some of [Renaudot's public] conferences." To date, these "have not been the subject of thorough study." "To construct her argument, the author has consulted more than 2,500 pages of conference proceedings, which were published and distributed by Renaudot and later appeared in English. […] This analysis contributes to our understanding of the interaction of individuals and groups that gave science its shape. Seventeenth-century scholars who work with correspondences and are familiar with Renaudot's conferences will welcome this book as a resource and as a gateway to new areas of research."
PERNOT, MICHEL, ed. Cardinal de Retz. Mémoires. Paris: Gallimard, coll. "Folio Classique" n°3835, 2003.
Review: Y. Le Bozec in RSH 273 (2004): 164–66. Pocket edition based on the collaborative edition conceived by Pernot and Marie-Thérèse Hipp for the "Bibliothèque de la Pléiade" 25 years ago. Solid dossier including chronology, illustrations, geneology, maps, and index, in addition to introduction, notes and bibliography. Homme d'église and politician, with a talent for persuasion and crowd manipulation, Retz should interest anyone fascinated by extraordinary lives and beautiful style. Pernot paints a picture of Retz as a contradictory figure, motivated by great ambition and competition with Richelieu and Mazarin. His memoirs can be read not only like a novel but also a lesson in politics and the art of eloquence. Reviewer regrets only that the editor has not brought references up to date since the Pléiade edition of 1984.
BLUCHE, FRANCOIS. Richelieu: essai. Paris: Perrin, 2003.
Review: BCLF 646 (2004), 145: "François Bluche présente, sous forme d'essai, un très vivant portrait du cardinal Richelieu, en même temps qu'un rappel de son oeuvre. Tous les aspects du personnage sont étudiés dans Richelieu: essai: le grand politique, certes, mais aussi le prélat cultivé, l'amateur d'art, le collectionneur, le théologien."
MORGAIN, STEPHANE-MARIE et FRANÇOISE HILDESHEIMER, eds. Armand Jean Du Plessis Cardinal due de Richelieu, Œuvres théologiques. Tome I: Traité de la perfection du chrétien. Paris, Champion, 2002.
Review: V. Mellinghoff-Bourgerie in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 286–288. "C'est au niveau de l'annotation que l'édition procurée par Stéphane-Marie Morgain apporte le plus de nouveautés. De façon aussi exhaustive que probante, ce grand spécialiste de Bérulle a réussi à repérer les multiples références aux Pères de l'Eglise, aux auteurs de la tradition catholique et à divers écrivains tridentins et posttridentins'. Reviewer also praises "la qualité de la présentation des œuvres théologiques" by Françoise Hildesheimar: "nulle n'était mieux placé que cette éminente spécialiste pour évoquer le climat dans lequel s'est constitué l'ouvrage, entre pastorale et controverse".
BABY, HELENE, ed. Jean Rotrou. Théâtre complet, vol. 5: L'Hypocondriaque, Amélie, La Doristée. Paris: Klincksieck, 2002.
Review: C. Bernazzoli in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 157: Welcome fifth volume of Rotrou's theatre includes three tragi-comedies. Includes important information on the material conditions of the writing of these plays as well as on key themes and structural qualities.
BOURQUI, CLAUDE, ed. Jean de Rotrou. Théâtre complet III: La Soeur, Célie ou le vice-roi de Naples. Paris: STFM, 2000.
Review: J.-M. Civardi in IL 55.3 (2003), 47–48. Two plays united by their Italian sources. The introduction examines problems of adaptation, genre, scenography, and world-view; the annotations are praised as "savantes et précises"; volume also include a list of editions, a glossary, and a bibliography, to which the review adds a couple of omitted studies.
DUMAS, CATHERINE. "Les paradoxes du roi et du bouffon dans Le Bague de l'oubli de Rotrou (1629). DSS no. 215 (2002): 323–342.
Review: A. Arrigoni in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 157: Important examination of this opera which is practically unique. Demonstrates the complementary action of the two protagonists.
DUROUX, ALICE, PIERRE PASQUIER and CHRISTIAN DELMAS, eds. J. Rotrou. Théâtre complet. Vol. 4: Crisante, Le véritable saint Genest, Cosroès. Paris: Klincksieck, 2001.
Review: C. Bernazzoli in S Fr 46 (2002): 438–439: This fourth volume of the complete theatre of Rotrou includes a classical example of baroque tragedy which served to revitalize the genre (Crisante 1640), Rotrou's best work (Saint-Genest 1647) and his play centering on the interiorization of moral and dynastic conflict (Cosroès 1649). Useful introductions, appendices, bibliography and glossary.
RIFFAUD, ALAIN. "Deux aventures éditoriales: Chryséide et Arimand de Mairet (1630), Cléagénor et Doristée de Rotrou (1634–1635)." PFSCL 30 (2003): 9–27.
Review: A. Giaufret in S Fr 47 (2003): 702: Sheds light on quality of these editions as well as on publishing itself in Rouen during the period.
PEUREUX, GUILLAUME. Le Rendez-vous des enfants sans soucy: la poétique de Saint-Amant. Lumière Classique 39. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2002.
Review: R. Corum in FR 77 (2003), 984. Identifies the comic and the descriptive as the two antithetical guiding principles in Saint-Amant's poetics. Peureux, calling attention to Saint Amant's use of the caprice, "contends that the poet adopted a genre particularly suited to his contradictory objectives" (984), and suggests that even those works not bearing the title of 'caprice' evidence its mood. However, Peureux stresses that Saint-Amant's innovative, improvisational writing was not pejoratively capricious, nor was it limited to freewheelingness as an end in itself. Instead, Saint-Amant's verses convey "the studied manner of an artist who veiled his art behind the façade of independence and freedom" (984).
ROBERTS, WILLIAM . "Saint-Amant, Holland House, and the Queen of England." Analecta Husserliana, LXXXI (2004), 45–60.
Recalls the character of the marriage of Louis XIII's sister to Charles I, and Saint-Amant's visit to the couple in 1631, at Holland House in London. Reconstructs much of this Jacobean mansion in considerable detail, attempting to visualize its effect on the poet as he composes his "Ode" to the royal pair. This "delayed epithalamium" is seen as a baroque metamorphosis blending literary and classical allusions, Marinist techniques, and realistic nocturnal allusions to the surrounding forest. Author's English translation of the poem follows.
CULLIERE, ALAIN. La fille généreuse, tragi-comédie en quête d'auteur." DSS 212 (juillet–sept. 2001): 535–544.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 46 (2002): 437: Close study of ms. 24347 (B.N.) gives Cullière reason to postulate Quinault rather than Madame Saint-Balmon as author of this tragicomedy.
HOPE, QUENTIN M. Saint-Evremond and His Friends. Genève: Librairie Droz, Travaux du Grand Siècle n°13, 1999.
Review: J. Gallucci in DFS 66 (2004), 113–115: "This study seeks both to examine Saint-Evremond's works and to place them within the context of Saint-Evremond's own life" in order to follow Saint-Evremond's own convictions that "literature and social and political conditions are closely intertwined and mutually enlighten one another." In so doing, Hope highlights "Saint-Evremond's intellectual independence and originality, while underscoring an essential element of Saint-Evremond: the value he places on friendship and sociability." Though the reviewer has some suggestions for greater clarity in Hope's exposition, he concludes that "overall, Hope's study will be an important reference work for anyone with a serious interest in Saint-Evremond."
POTTS, DENYS, ed. Saint-Evremond: A Voice from Exile. Newly Discovered Letters to Madame de Gouville and the Abbé de Hauteville (1697–1701). Oxford: Legenda, 2002.
Review: N. Hammond in MLR 98.4 (2003), 986: "...previously unknown or inaccessible letters by Saint-Evremond, all written towards the end of his life while he was exiled in London, are now available to a wider readership." The "exemplary introduction and notes" by Denys Potts offer "an erudite yet highly readable account of Saint-Evremond's life and his importance as both thinker and stylist."
SALE, GIORGIO, ed. César Vichard de Saint-Réal. Dom Carlos. Nouvelle historique (1672–1691). Milan: LED, 2002.
Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr 47 (2003): 709: Despite the fact that Saint-Réal's work has had several recent editions, Sale's inspires special praise for its useful introduction, its attention to the establishment of the text (there are two distinct traditions), its notes and its rich bibliography.
CAHIERS SAINT-SIMON. No.32 (2004).
Proceedings of "La Journée du 13 mars," with articles by Ph. Hourcade ("L'œuvre écrit de Saint-Simon hors les Mémoires," 3–18) , M. Hersant ("Les Collections sur feu Monseigneur le Dauphin et l'écriture de l'individu dans l'œuvre de Saint-Simon," 19–30), M.-P. de Weerdt-Pilorge ("Perspectives politiques, idéologiques et religieuses: la Lettre anonyme au Roi," 31–42), Garidel, D. de ("Le Mémoire sur les Légitimés: Saint-Simon face à l'indicible," 43–58), B. Guermonprez ("Du Parallèle des trois premiers rois Bourbons," 59–70), Fr. Formel ("Essai bibliographique," 71–78), H. Himelfarb ("Madame de Sévigné chez Saint-Simon: témoignage, ou vision du XVIIe siècle?" 79–88), C. Blanquie ("Le seigneur haut justicier," 89–96), G. Poisson ("Saint-Simon et Torcy," 97–102).
DUSO-BAUDUIN, JEAN-PIERRE. "Saint-Simon and the Mask: 'Hypertelic' Duplicity?" Littérature 131 (sept. 2003): 3–17.
Expands Elias's reading of the masquerades of court society to include the cruel manipulations that one could inflict from behind a mask. Examines how Saint-Simon, regardless of his apparent distaste for dissimulation, orchestrated the discomfiture of the royal bastards on Aug. 26, 1718 and elevated himself and his memorial project.'
SCHRENCK, GILBERT. Nicolas de Harlay, sieur de Sancy (1546–1629). L'antagoniste d'Agrippa d'Aubigné: Etude biographique et contexte pamphlétaire. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: E. M. Ancekewicz in Ren Q 56 (2003): 225–226: Attempted rehabilitation of Sancy through a biographical study stressing "the vital role played by Sancy in the era's political life" (225). Sancy's contribution is seen as central to the "defense and strengthening of the monarchy" (225). While Ancekewicz praises the extensive documentation including archival materials, the end result is a Sancy who is still more of an "arriviste, rather than [an] ideological purist" (225).
SCHRENCK, GILBERT. Nicolas de Harlay, sieur de Sancy (1546–1629). Discours sur l'occurrence de ses affaires. Paris: Champion, 2000.
Review: E. M. Ancekewicz in Ren Q 56 (2003): 225–226: First critical edition of Sancy's "apologia cum memoir, written in 1611–12" (226). Sancy wished by his text to justify his past conduct and prove the case for "reimbursement for the funds he spent in support of the crown" (226). Based on the "earliest available text with its variants... it is a fine contribution to the history and debates of the era and gives us additional materials for literary and historical study" (226).
BERREGARD, SANDRINE. "Les animaux dans trois oeuvres de Scarron: Jodelet ou le maître valet, Don Japhet d'Arménie et le Roman comique." PFSCL 30 (2003): 113–130.
Review: A. Giaufret in S Fr 47 (2003): 702: Competently demonstrates the fundamental role of animals in these three works of Scarron; not only do they contribute to the realism and the burlesque of the works but they also provide a perspective of the world they modify-"le regard que nous avons l'habitude de porter sur le monde" (n.p.) (qtd. by Berregard 702).
CARSON, JONATHAN. "Women in Scarron's Theatre: The Good, the Bad, and the Independent" in Les femmes au Grand Siècle; Le Baroque: musique et littérature; Musique et liturgie. David Wetsel & Frédéric Canovas, eds. Actes du 33e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Volume 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, May 2001. Biblio 17 Number 144. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 175–191.
The author surveys the varied representations of women in Scarron's theater and finds not a "radical call to arms" but rather a sophisticated understanding of women's status.
STAUDER, THOMAS. "Le Lutrin de Boileau et Le Virgile travesty de Scarron: étude comparative des procédés et des fonctions." PFSCL XXXI, 61 (2004), 461–479.
Compares the two works by Boileau and Scarron. Argues that "À la différence de Scarron, qui au temps de la Fronde avait osé se moquer du Cardinal Mazarin dans son Virgile travesty… Boileau, conforme aux préceptes du classicisme français, dans son Lutrin rend sérieusement hommage au Roi-Soleil."
CEDRO, ISABELLA, ed. Georges de Scudéry. La Comédie des Comédiens. Fasano: Schena, 2002.
Review: C. Rolla in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 437–438: Appreciative review of this translation which is neither literal nor liberal but "oscilla tra questi due poli" (438). Cedro bases her translation on both the original version and consults L. Maranini's 1974 edition. Rolla has good words for the long introduction by Cedro which includes perspectives relating to biography, the contemporary poetic debate and theatrical life (especially that of the Marais troupe to which Scudéry entrusted this work), and analyses of various aspects of theatrical aesthetics.
SPICA, ANNE-ELISABETH. Savoir peindre en littérature. La description dans le roman au XVIIe siècle. Georges et Madeleine de Scudéry. Paris: Champion, 2002.
Review: B. Piqué in S Fr 47 (2003): 703–704: Focus is on the pictural and literary in their numerous rapports. Valuable for presentation of historical definitions of description from Antiquity to the 17th c. (part 1), analyses of theory and production of the Scudéry siblings (part 2), and assessment of the Scudery siblings' contributions (along with that of others) to the galant esthetic (part 3). Piqué stresses the erudition, originality, even revolutionary character of Spica's work.
DUGGAN, ANNE E. "Clélie, Histoire Romaine, or Writing the Nation" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 71–79.
In Clélie, Scudéry uses the techniques of early-modern historiography to write an allegorical history of France that includes female heroes and proposes a republican model which reconciles public and individual interests.
GRANDE, NATHALIE, ed. Madeleine de Scudéry. Mathilde. Paris: Champion, 2002.
Review: R. Godenne in LR 56 (2002): 378–379: Praiseworthy edition includes a "judicious" introduction, "un état définitif de tout de ce qu'il faut savoir de l'oeuvre" (378). Godenne appreciates Grande's use of "nouvelle" to characterize Célinte and quotes her assessment of this new kind of writing "plus historique et plus brève, une écriture qui se cherche, qui s'interroge, et qui n'hésite pas à montrer au lecteur ses tensions, ses contradictions" (Grande 25).
Review: B. Piqué in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 440: Welcome edition of this second nouvelle by Scudéry with particularly ample critical apparatus and pertinent appendices including the cited sonnets of Petrarch and, along with other documents, the letter of Madeleine to her friend Mlle Paulet where she recounts the visit to Laura's tomb.
LALLEMAND, MARIE-GABRIELLE, ed. Madeleine de Scudéry. La Promenade de Versailles. Paris: Champion, 2002.
Review: R. Godenne in LR 56 (2002): 379: Reviewer would have appreciated less on "la portée galante et mondaine de l'oeuvre" and more on its place in the history of the nouvelle (379). In particular he suggests an analysis of the work to see if this last nouvelle confirms Scudéry's orientation in her first two.
Review: B. Piqué in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 161: Welcome volume is the last of three nouvelles from the 1660s by Scudéry. Editor Lallemand analyzes in her rich and intelligent introduction the evolving nature of Scudéry's narrative form, especially as regards "ornamental" writing and the problematic of the vraisemblable. Bibliography and useful table of "ornements du récit."
MORLET-CHANTALAT, CHANTAL, ed. Madeleine de Scudéry. Clélie, histoire romaine. Troisième partie. 1657. Paris, Champion, 2003.
Review: R. Godenne in LR 56 (2002): 378: Rather than presenting a review of Morlet-Chantalat's two edited volumes of Clélie, Godenne offers several ironic remarks on Scudéry scholarship, notably its focus on the novel as a "roman à clé", a "document historique sur la société mondaine et galante." Godenne insists that "la vraie question [est] de voir enfin si Clélie... tient la route en tant qu'oeuvre romanesque... et quelle est sa place dans une histoire générale du roman français" (378).
Review: M.-G. Lallemand in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 288–289. Reviewer praises the analysis of intertextuality in the introduction, the 'notes liminaires' and the summary of the narrative at the end of the volume. 'Au total, une fois refermé ce troisième volume, le lecteur attend le quatrième avec une impatience non moindre que celle de madame de Lafayette. Le chercheur aussi, parce que l'édition de Chantal Morlet-Chantalat lui est un aide précieuse."
Review: B. Piqué in S Fr 46 (2002): 442–443: Morlet-Chantalat, well-known for her work on Scudéry (her bibliography and her 1994 monograph on Clélie, for example), here edits this important romance. Includes in Morlet-Chantalat's introduction a competent and clear analysis of key questions concerning Clélie in relation to Scudéry's other works and 17th c. narrative as well as considerations of galant values versus heroic ideals. Highly useful notes (historical, lexical, literary, philological) invite specialist and non-specialist alike to immerse themselves in Scudéry's work.
Review: B. Piqué in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 440–441: Although, as Piqué suggests, the fervor of the general reader may not be at quite a pitch as in the 17th c., specialists and lovers of romance cannot help but be grateful for this edition "cui si sta dedicando con competenza magistrale Chantal Morlet-Chantalat." Important for central discourse on gloire as Morlet-Chantalat had demonstrated in her 1994 monograph. Important also for the understanding of the galant aesthetic, this edition provides in its rich critical apparatus essential references on sources, to other Scudéry works as well as to 17th c. culture, illuminating critical comments on narrative structure, etc.
NEWMAN, KAREN, trans. The Story of Sapho. Chicago and London: U of Chicago P, 2003.
Review: V. Desnain in MLR 99.4 (2004), 1049–50: Volume in "The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe" series: "contains two texts by Mlle de Scudéry (one, The Twentieth Harangue, short, the other, The Story of Sapho, about 120 pages long) extracted from much longer works (Artamène, ou, Le Grand Cyrus and Les Femmes illustres, ou, Les Harangues héroïques) and placed in a carefully defined context." Reviewer finds that Newman "has created 'a readable English text'," but challenges the assumption that "Scudéry's Sapho is not meant to be the same person as the poet Sappho..."
NIDERST, ALAIN, DELPHINE DENIS & MYRIAM MAÎTRE, eds. Madeleine de Scudéry, Paul Pelisson et leurs amis, Chroniques du Samedi, suivies de pièces diverses (1653–1654). Paris, Champion, 2002.
Review: M.-G. Lallemand in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 292–294. "L'apparat critique de cette édition lui confère un grand intérêt scientifique. Il manifeste, par la collaboration d'A. Niderst, D. Denis et M. Maître, que la richesse des études scudériennes est le fruit de leur continuité et de leur complémentarité."
PIQUE, BARBARA. "L'Anatomie précieuse." CAEIF 55 (2003), 317–332.
One of a series of papers delivered at the LIVe Congrès de l'Association (2002) under the auspices of Louis Van Delft on the subject of "littérature et anatomie (XVIe–XVIIe siècle)". Piqué concentrates on the internal theme of "l'anatomie scudérienne" and concludes that, "l'anatomie pratiquée par Madeleine de Scudéry tient essentiellement d'une opération langagière qui stabilise les mots, dégage les défaillances des signifiants, met en place les notions, les classifie, les expose à des fins persuasives qui sollicitent avec bonheur la promesse d'une transformation."
SPICA, ANNE-ELISABETH. "Une Madeleine au chevalet: Mademoiselle de Scudéry et les peintres." OeC 29,1 (2004), 11–29.
Madeleine de Scudéry "a su tirer profit de son goût pour la peinture et de son observation des peintres, tout particulièrement de Nanteuil, avec qui la conversation entre peinture et poésie est la plus étroitement suivie... L'art du portrait favorise la représentation, narrativement visible, des passions qui constituent l'objet fondamental de la parole scudérienne en général.
SPICA, ANNE-ELISABETH. Savoir peindre en littérature. La description dans le roman au XVIIe siècle. Georges et Madeleine de Scudéry. Paris: Champion, 2002.
Review: B. Piqué in S Fr 47 (2003): 703–704: Focus is on the pictural and literary in their numerous rapports. Valuable for presentation of historical definitions of description from Antiquity to the 17th c. (part 1), analyses of theory and production of the Scudéry siblings (part 2), and assessment of the Scudery siblings' contributions (along with that of others) to the galant esthetic (part 3). Piqué stresses the erudition, originality, even revolutionary character of Spica's work.
DUCHENE, ROGER. "Un horizon qui se perd dans l'infini. A propos de la traduction récente du livre de Fritz Nies, Les Lettres de Madame de Sévigné." PFSCL 30 (2003): 209–230.
Review: A. Giaufret in S Fr 47 (2003): 706: Duchêne's analysis of Nies's recent publication appreciates the quality of its scholarship and its new and original perspectives on Sévigné. Criticizes Nies's conclusion which adopts Jauss' theory of interactive communication between author and reader and which, as well, debates the sincerity of Sévigné's letters. (See Nies's response, below.)
DUCHENE, ROGER. Madame de Sévigné. Paris: Fayard, 2002.
Review: M. Sweetser in FR 77 (2003), 986–987. Duchêne returns to the subject of Sévigné twenty years after his initial account of her life. This time, he engages "une nouvelle approche délibérément adoptée... Madame de Sévigné en son temps et son milieu pour s'addresser à un public curieux de pénétrer dans l'intimité d'une femme exceptionnelle" (986). The volume contains a great deal of paratextual material: genealogic tables, a chronology, maps, etc. In his text, Duchêne elaborates ample portraits of Mme de Sévigné's relatives, and of course undertakes an analysis of her famed correspondence. "On recommandera chaleureusement cette remarquable et passionnante biographie à toutes les bibliothèques et au public cultivé" (987).
FREIDEL, NATHALIE. "Le badinage de Mme de Sévigné : respect des conventions ou attitude originale ?" PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 175–191.
"Plus la civilité recommande de refouler l'intime, plus celui-ci accède à la conscience de l'écrivain. L'idéal du badinage devient alors un moyen d'exprimer l'inexprimable et l'éthique mondaine se fait voile d'invisibilité derrière lequel progresse l'exploration intérieure."
HIMELFARB, HELENE. "Madame de Sévigné chez Saint-Simon: témoignage, ou vision du XVIIe siècle?" Cahiers Saint-Simon, no. 32 (2004): 79–88.
NIES, FRITZ. "Roger Duchêne, un lecteur (pas?) comme les autres". PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 223–230.
A reply to Duchêne's harsh review (PFSCL XXX, 58, 2003) of Nies' Les Lettres de Madame de Sévigné. Conventions du genre et sociologie des publics (Champion, 2001).
NIES, FRITZ. Les Lettres de Madame de Sévigné. Conventions du genre et sociologie des publics. Trad. M. Creff, pref. B. Bray. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: F. Wild in RHLF 103.3 (2003), 721–22. A belated translation of a book that originally appeared in 1972. Author uses Jauss's esthetics of reception, and a wealth of primary documentation ("à elle seule une mine pour le chercheur") to understand the horizon of expectations Sévigné's readers shared. Author first shows that Sévigné is conscious of her epistolary art, disputing therefore Romantic ideas of her naturalness; and examines in depth the various editions and readings her letters have received since the eighteenth century. Although new methodologies have emerged since the original publication that make it impossible to frame these questions in the same terms, reviewer feels that many subsequent developments have confirmed most of the authors "intuitions."
GOUVERNEUR, SOPHIE, ed. Samuel Sorbière. Discours sceptiques. Paris: Champion, 2002.
Review: B. Papasogli in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 160–161: This critical edition of Sorbière's skeptical discourses is welcome as a rare contribution to the bibliography of this unusual doctor and scholar who was passionately interested in political theory. Gouverneur includes an ample and illuminating introduction along with the three discourses (on Paris, on governments and on the role of the individual).
TREPANIER, HELENE. "Les grâces extraordinaires ou les 'surnaturelles connaissances expérimentales' de Jean-Joseph Surin" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 151–160.
Surin's work on a "science experimentale" based on human experience addresses the question of grâce extraordinaire ("visions, apparitions, extases, paroles intérieures, consolations sensibles") in order to explain and account for the inexplicable. In spite of the Jesuits' mistrust and disbelief in the supernatural, Surin seeks to convince that possession is legitimate and constitutes an essential proof of the existence of supernatural forces and therefore God.
CULLIERE, ALAIN. "La Mort du comédien Adrien Talmy (1603)." BHR 65, 3 (2003), 601–12.
Article sur Adrien Talmy, comédien et chef de troupe réputé, basé sur recoupement d'archives. Un acte notarié dans les archives de Metz "qui fait apparaître qu'Adrien Talmy est mort à Metz au printemps 1603, dans un état misérable" offre de nouvelles perspectives sur le théâtre messin et l'histoire théâtrale des décennies 1570–1620.
CHAUVEAU, JEAN-PIERRE, ed. Théophile de Viau. Après m'avoir tant fait mourir: œuvres choisies. Paris: Gallimard, 2002.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 155–156: Welcome anthology is also a testimony to Chauveau's "profonda conoscenza della letteratura e in particolare della poesia della prima metà del Seicento" (156). Demonstrates the modernity and coherence of Théophile and offers insights and appreciation of Théophile's language, both in his poetry and his prose. Highly useful critical apparatus.
Review: M.-O. Sweetser in FR 77 (2003) 983–984. Texts are sectioned off in chronological order. Chauveau's selection of poems taps us into all the major aspects of De Viau's thought and feeling. The volume encompasses De Viau's addresses to his protectors, his amoro-erotic works, his satiric writing, and his sallies into philosophy and Epicureanism. The reviewer notes that "si une large part est faite à un choix d'œuvres poétiques, l'editeur s'est efforcé de donner un échantillon significatif de la prose ferme et vigoureuse de son auteur" (982). Index, bibliography, chronology, etc.
ACTUALITES DE TRISTAN, Actes du Colloque International (22, 23 et 24 novembre 2001) Université de Paris X - Nanterre, Centre des Sciences de la Littérature, "Littérales" n° spécial, 3 (2003). Présentation de J. Prévot.
Contains articles by L. Picciola ("Deux dramaturges de la jalousie: Marianne de Tristan et El Mayor monstruo del mundo, los celos de Calderon"), A. Génetiot ("Le lyrisme tristanien: une idylle héroïque en éclats?"), D. Scholl ("Un mixte composé de lumière et de fange: Tristan et le grotesque"), E. Desiles ("L'Histoire tragique de deux illustres amants et les enjeux romanesques du Page disgracié"), L. Grove ("Tristan et la tradition emblématique"), V. Sternberg ("Le Parasite ou le sens du jeu"), I. Pantin ("Les principes de cosmographie (1637). Quelques interrogations"), M.-O. Sweetser (Paysages, jardins et parcs, miroirs de l'affectivité et des goûts de Tristan"), G. Peureux ("Stances poétiques et stances dramatiques: les enjeux d'une récriture"), R. Ganim ("L'excitation insolite: la perversité amoureuse chez Tristan"), P. Dandrey ("La Folie du sage entre mélancolie et stoïcisme"), M. Bombart ("Roman personnel ou roman familial? Autour de la clef du Page disgracié"), B. Donné ("Tristan dans l'espace des topographies morales et galantes: La Carte du Royaume de l'Amour"), F. D'Angelo ("Humanisme chrétien et libre pensée dans La Mort de Sénèque"), C. McCall Probes ("《 N'ois-tu pas soupirer Zéphire 》, 《 Goûtons mille douceurs 》: Une exploration de la profusion des sens dans la poésie de Tristan"), S. Robie ("L'amour des fictions, ou l'identité impossible"), G. Mathieu-Castellani ("La mythologie de Tristan, ou Eros travesti"), V. Adam ("Les Univers imaginaires de Tristan l'Hermite"), R. Zaiser ("Le Page disgracié de Tristan L'Hermite et la naissance du roman moderne en France"), and S. Berregard ("Avatars de la figure tristanienne dans l'histoire littéraire").
Review: C. Rizza. CTH 26 (2004): 102–104: Actes of the conference celebrating the 100th anniversary of the author's birth, edited and presented by Jacques Prévot. Reviewer sees this volume as testament to the revolution in scholarship that has contributed to reestablishing Tristan L'Hermite as an important literary figure, previously known only for his plays. Those who do treat his dramatic work place emphasis on the author's philosophical preoccupations. Contributions on the author's poetry dominate the volume, painting a fuller picture of the complexities of the poet and his engagement in the philosophical and scientific problems of his time. This collection provides new perspectives on Tristan and the cultural life of the period.
CAHIERS TRISTAN L'HERMITE. 24 (2002).
Review: F. Robella in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 439: This volume includes the Acts of the 2001 Colloque de Limoges, one of several celebrating the 4th centenary of Tristan. Claude Abraham's "Ce fameux précurseur" opens the volume with an reexamination of Bernardin's thesis and considers in particular how Tristan and Racine express with "la musica delle parole le profondità dell'animo umano." Other perceptive analyses treat Tristan's melancholy (S. Berregard), Tristan's baroque rhetoric in letter LVIII (C. Grisé), new insights on several particular works and sources (A. Howe, M. Livera), his heroine Isabelle-Claire-Eugénie (A. Mansau) and his brother's poetry and possible attribution to Tristan (L. Grove).
CAHIERS TRISTAN L'HERMITE 25 (2003).
Dedicated to Amédée Carriat. Contains articles by R. Rougerie ("Eloge d'un poète"), J. Morel ("Pour Amédée"), J. Dubu ("Pour Amédée Carriat), F. Graziani ("L'ami des livres"), C. Abraham ("Tristan outre-Atlantique"), N. Mallet ("L'aumône à la belle disgraciée"), J. Serroy ("Tristan/Bernard: Le Tristan l'Hermite de Jean-Marc Bernard"), L. Grove (Un précurseur de Carriat: Napoélon-Maurice Bernardin"), D. Guillumette ("Tristan et la fable"), J. Prévot ("Le Je [sic] de cache-cache"), D. Dalla Valle (El Hado et le songe dans 《 La Mariane 》 de Tristan"), R. Guichemerre ("Un lyrisme burlesque"), R. Landy ("Sur quelques airs de Tristan"), and J.-P. Chauveau ("Quand Tristan inspirait les musiciens.")
CAHIERS TRISTAN L'HERMITE 26 (2004).
Nouvelles perspectives tristaniennes. Contains articles by A. Labenheim ("Une esthétique du flou, entre dissimulation et travestissement"), G. Peureux ("Un douleureux sillon diversement creusé. Notes sur Tristan et les misères humaines"), L. Philipps ("Sens et pratique de l'achèvement dans les 《 Vers héroïques 》"), S. Tonolo ("L'épître chez Tristan: Une forme poétique vigoureuse et révélatrice," as well as "La métaphore du nourrisson à l'époque mondaine. Autour de quatre épîtres" with présentation de Tonolo), and F. Duval and A.-M. Spica ("《 Le Cabinet de Louis XIV 》 ou l'histoire d'une imposture").
CHAUVEAU, JEAN-PIERRE, ed. Tristan L'Hermite. Œuvres complètes. Tome II, Poésie (I). Paris: Honoré Champion, coll. "Sources classiques" n°41, 2002.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 438–439: Welcome edition includes three texts of prose published for the first time "in veste moderna." Reviewer appreciates the scientific rigor of this edition, but also the modernization of the characters and the inclusion of a glossary which makes these works more accessible to the general public. Presentations and bibliographies accompany each work while an introduction, a general bibliography and index are also furnished.
Review: A.-E. Spica in CTH 25 (2003): 105–107: Edition of the lyrical production of Tristan, Les Amours and La Lyre, along with three prose texts linked to the poetry, Annotations sur les Paintes d'Acante, Principes de Cosmographie, and the Carte du Royaume d'Amour. Contributors include Véronique Adam, Alain Génetiot, and Françoise Graziani. Jean-Pierre Chauveau's introduction retraces the author's career and examines the musical harmony in the diversity of his works. Adam's edition of the Amours includes abundant documentation, with a few minor errors reviewer points out. Génetiot's edition of La Lyre surprisingly succeeds in enriching Chauveau's 1977 documentation of the text, and elucidates the context in which Tristan published the text. Graziani's appendices bring new light to this collection of poetry. Volume includes solid bibliographies, index, and glossary. Review greatly regrets the modernization of spelling.
CHAUVEAU, JEAN-PIERRE, ed. Tristan L'Hermite. Œuvres complètes. Tome III, Poésie (II). Paris: Honoré Champion, coll. "Sources classiques" n°42, 2002.
Review: M. Bombart in CTH 26 (2004): 99–102: This second volume of the author's poetry includes the Vers héroïques, the lesser-known and never reedited in their totality L'Office de la Sainte Vierge and Les Hymnes de toutes les Fêtes solennelles, and a variety of texts, some manuscripts never previously edited, Vers épars, with an appendix including the 13 manuscript poems held in Glasgow. This disparate collection, which ranges from spiritual texts to libertine diverstissements and addresses lavish praise to several different patrons, highlights the complexities and ambivalences of the life of a 17th-century poet. Editions of individual texts and their introductions by Véronique Adam, Amédée Carriat, Jean-Pierre Chauveau, Laurence Grove, and Marcel Israël. Reviewer faults the edition for typos, lack of editorial consistency (repetitions, incoherences), and modernization of spelling.
GUICHEMERRE, ROGER, ed. Tristan L'Hermite, Œuvres complètes. Tome IV. Les Tragédies. Avec la colloboration de Cl. Abraham, J.-P. Chauveau, D. Della Valle, N. Mallet et J. Morel. Paris, Champion, 2001.
Review: J. F. Gaines in PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 256–257. "Unavailable since the 1975 edition of theatrical works of Tristan… these plays can now be consulted by scholars… in a much enhanced framework that includes excellent notices on each by the collaborators, extensive editorial information, and an updated critical bibliography." The edition is "no doubt destined to serve as a point of reference for more than the present generation."
Review: F. Robello in S Fr 46 (2002): 439: Noted Tristan specialists have collaboratively produced this remarkable edition complete with notes, variants, glossary, indices and bibliography. Daniela Dalla Valle's introduction takes up the theatrical fortunes of Tristan and presenta La Mort de Chrispe. Claude Abraham presents La Mariane, Roger Guichemerre presents Panthée, Jean-Pierre Chauveau presents La Mort de Sénèque and Nicole Mallet presents Osman.
LABENHEIM, AURORE. "Lorsque 《 l'agrément du style contrebalance le malaise moral 》: la moralisation de l'écriture mélancolique chez Tristan L'Hermite," PFSCL XXXI, 60 (2004), 115–138.
"En intégrant dans son écriture toutes les incohérences du monde et les soubresauts d'une conscience mélancolique, Tristan, tout comme le peintre, s'attache à exprimer ce chaos des 《 choses humaines 》 dénoncées par Bossuet. Il connaît, en tant qu'homme et artiste, 《 le secret 》 de la mélancolie. Il sait que cette 《 confusion est un art caché 》, et que derrière la souffrance se trouve la délivrance."
PEUREUX, GUILLAUME. "Un douloureux sillon diversement crusé. Notes sur Tristan et les misères humaines." CTH 26 (2004): 25–31.
Argues that Tristan's "Méditation sur le 'memento homo'" owes its success to the "ressassement tristanien autour des misères humaines et de la mort." Sees this poem as a moment of poetic exploration that began with the writing of the "Misères humaines" at the beginning of the 1620s.
PEUREUX, GUILLAUME, ed. Tristan L'Hermite. La Mariane. Paris: GF Flammarion n°1144, 2003.
Review: D. Dalla Valle in CTH 25 (2003): 107: Reviewer is thrilled to have a pocket edition of La Mariane, which she sees as part of a renewed interest in Tristan in recent years. Peureux presents a chronology of the author's life in historical-cultural context, and a clear introduction that underlines several interesting points including Les stances et la constance de Mariane, Le corps de Mariane, enjeu d'une lutte de pouvoirs, Mélacolie et folie du tyran, etc. The dossier that follows the text encourages reflexion on several themes (Vers l'âge classique, Mélancolie, folie et images . . . Tristan et la politique) and topics (the rules of theater, philosophy, other works by Tristan linked to La Mariane, politics). This edition in modern French includes a helpful glossary and bibliography, which unfortunately omits the only edition previously accessible, by J. Madeleine.
SHEPARD, JAMES C. Mannerism and Baroque in Seventeenth-Century French Poetry: The Example of Tristan L'Hermite. Chapel Hill, NC: North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, 2001.
Review: A. Arrigoni in S Fr 46 (2002): 439: Shepard's study is divided into two sections as the title suggests. Part one presents an analysis of the mannerist and baroque styles. Part two focuses on Tristan's poetry and its great stylistic versatility. While mannerism and baroque characterize Tristan's style, it is possible also to find examples of préciosité and classicism.
Review: J. Gilroy in FR 77 (2003), 373–374. Clarifying the temporally co-existent aesthetic categories of mannerism and the baroque, Shepard identifies the former as having "an essentially ludic quality"-a preoccupation with display and mastery of convention in the context of élite games-whereas "baroque literature is passionately serious" (374), personal, and religious. These terms are defined in the book's first third, while Shepard uses his remaining pages to illustrate how the poetry of Tristan L'Hermite spans both styles.
MEDING, TWYLA. "Le temps, les services et la perseverance: Time and Secrets in L'Astrée" in Le Savoir au XVIIe siècle. Eds. John D. Lyons & Cara Welch. Actes du 34e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14–16 mars 2002. Tübingen: Biblio 17 Number 147, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2003. 271–283.
Meding explains how the paradigms of confidence, revelation, and fame are transformed through storytelling in the "Histoire d'Euric, Daphnide et Alcidon," introduced in Book 2 and told in Books 3 and 4 of the Third Part of L'Astrée. Her examination reveals the functioning of Urfé's paradoxical mode of telling stories already known and its valorization of the dynamic act of storytelling.
WINE, KATHLEEN. Forgotten Virgo: Humanism and Absolutism in Honoré d'Urfé's L'Astrée. Geneva: Droz, 2000.
Review: L. Horowitz in FR 77 (2003), 1231–1232. "[A]n intensive but at all times controlled… portrayal of L'Astrée within the social, cultural, and political parameters of d'Urfé's era" (1231). Wine reads L'Astrée as aligning 5th-century Forez, a region invaded by the Franks, with the coalescing, emergent French nation of d'Urfé's own time. She demonstrates a masterful understanding of the relationships one can find between literature and history, while also managing the literary very well in its own right, particularly as concerns "the complicated intersections of epic and pastoral" (1232). Wine's treatment of d'Urfé's erotic material is original, non-Freudian, thoroughly convincing, and remains laudably connected to the work's political themes. "Painstakingly researched" and deserving of readership.
FOUCAULT, DIDIER. Giulio Cesare Vanini (1585–1619): un philosophe libertin dans l'Europe baroque. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2003.
Review: BCLF 655 (2004), 14–15: "En s'attaquant à une figure philosophique sulfureuse et mal connue, Guilio [sic] Vanini, convaincu d'athéisme et brûlé à Toulouse en 1619, Foucault propose en effet une biographie intellectuelle complète: il analyse le milieu familial de Vanini, ses influences intellectuelles, les évolutions de sa carrière ainisi que la destinée de ses ouvrages."
SIECLE DE VATEL: LA TABLE, SES PLAISIRS ET SES PERILS AU XVIIe SIECLE. DSS, no. 217 (2002): 579–662.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 441–442: These Proceedings of a journée d'étude at Chantilly (September 22, 2002) offer contributions from both literary and historical-sociological perspectives. Particular textual analyses complement theoretical reflections such as Ron Tobin's "Qu'est-ce que la gastrocritique?" (621–630).
VIROL, MICHELE. Vauban: de la gloire du roi au service de l'Etat. Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 2003.
Review: BCLF 657 (2004), 141–42: "L'auteur s'est proposé d'étudier l'oeuvre théorique du maréchal: une oeuvre beaucoup plus considérable qu'on ne le croit généralement et qui est loin de se limiter au seul (fameux) Projet d'une dîme royale."
COMBAZ, ANDRE. "Vaugelas, ce fameux Savoyard qui a réformé la langue française." S Fr 47, no. 139 (2003): 39–51.
The author of the recent biography of Vaugelas (Klincksieck, 2000) offers here a succinct history of Vaugelas and reflects on the "racines et les raisons de sa passion pour le français" (39). Demonstrates how Vaugelas is both one of the principal "artisans" of the Grand Siècle's "essor culturel" and its "écho intelligent" (400). Perceptive and exceedingly engaging, Combaz's treatment allows us to discover this "âme de l'Académie Française" (40).
BANDERIER, GILLES. "Corneille et les Jésuites: un poème inédit." DSS 212 (juillet–sept. 2001): 545–549.
Review: C. Rizza in S Fr 46 (2002): 441: Focuses on a Latin epigram in P. Vavasseur's 1669 work dedicated to the Queen Mother (Pierre Corneille is indicated as author of the French translation). Emphasis on connections with the Jesuits, dating and content of the text.
ROSENBERG, AUBREY, ed. Denis Veiras, L'Histoire des Sévarambes. Paris: Champion, 2001.
Review: P. Ronzeaud in RHLF 103.3 (2003), 723–24. A very useful edition of a difficult-to-find text, especially useful because of its minute bibliography of the work's editions and its extremely prudent approach to Veiras's authorship of the text. The analysis of the novel emphasizes, rightly, according to the reviewer, its religiously subversive nature. Reviewer only regrets that the actual edition of the text does not contain the least note.
DEMORIS, RENE, ed. Marie-Catherine Hortense Desjardins. Mémoires de la vie d'Henriette-Sylvie de Molière. Paris: Desjonquères, 2003.
Review: BCLF 652 (2003), 122: Edition critique (établie sur l'édition de 1702). "...ces Mémoires de la vie d'Henriette-Sylvie de Molière doivent être lus pour le seul plaisir de jouir de leur style vif et léger, et d'un rythme si animé que, selon Voltaire, il a fait perdre, en son temps le goût des longs romans."
KUIZENGA, DONNA. "Playing to Win: Villedieu's Henriette-Sylvie de Molière as Actress" in Theatrum Mundi. Studies in Honor of Ronald W. Tobin. Claire Carlin & Kathleen Wine, eds. EMF Critiques. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 2003. 113–121.
Kuizenga situates Villedieu's work between heroic idealism / idealization and the realism of the 18th c. By looking at the work through the lens of theater, Kuizenga demonstrates that Villedieu's text is not simply a parody of heroic romance because it posits its protagonist as actor and Villedieu's readers as audience. Important study of social marginality and the ways in which this marginality allows individuals to assume a variety of roles, to their own advantage. Kuizenga calls Sylvie "an emerging modern self" (120).
LALANDE, ROXANNE DECKER, ed. A Labor of Love: Critical Reflections on the Writings of Marie-Catherine Desjardins (Mme de Villedieu). London: Associated University Presses, 2000.
Review: M. Hilgar in FR 77 (2003), 588–589. A collection of critical analyses of the work of Mme de Villedieu. Organized by genre, with sections on dramatic works; short stories, annals, and letters; and finally, novels. Quotations have been translated into English.
LETEXIER, GERARD. Madame de Villedieu (1640–1683). Une chroniqueuse aux origines de La Princesse de Clèves. Paris-Caen: Lettres Modernes Minard, 2002.
Review: C. Nédélec in DSS 222 (2004), 118: "Ce petit ouvrage [...] se donne pour objectif de cerner les qualités de cette 'romancière sinon géniale du moins très estimable' (p.9), au travers d'un parallèle et d'une comparaison avec Mme de Lafayette." The reviewer finds certain inadequacies in the author's analysis and concludes that it constitutes "une utile invitation à la réflexion et à l'approfondissement, plus qu'un bilan fiable."
BREJON DE LAVERGNEE, BARBARA, ed. Simon Vouet ou l'éloquence sensible: dessins de la Staatsbibliothek de Munich. Musée des beaux-arts de Nantes/Beyerische Staatsbibliothek, 2002.
Review: BCLF 651 (2003), 67: Catalogue de l'exposition "du fonds de dessins de Simon Vouet, maître de l'école française de peinture du XVIIe siècle" présentée au Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes (5 décembre 2002–20 février 2003).
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