French 17: An Annual Descriptive Bibliography of French Seventeenth-century Studies.

PART IV: LITERARY HISTORY AND CRITICISM

ALLOTT, TERENCE. "The Fable in Seventeenth-Century England." RLC 70 No. Spécial (1996), 69–84.

"The Aesopic fable maintained its special position in schools and universities. Translations, several in verse form were published. From 1615 to 1675 John Ogilby took centre stage with his poetic and satirical paraphrases foreshadowing the approach of La Fontaine."

ALPERS, PAUL. What Is Pastoral? Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1996.

Review: P. Cullen in Choice 34 (1996), 448: "This is a long awaited study," says C., who believes "the wait has been largely worth it. However, one must be prepared to disregard its grandiose ambition, which is nothing less than to define pastoral. Few are likely to agree with A.'s central conservative insistence that 'we will have a far truer idea of pastoral if we take its representative anecdote to be herdsmen and their lives'; the effort to limit the term pastoral is refreshing," according to C., "but this is too restrictive. Moreover, the book is much too limited in the range of pastoral it examines to answer its titular question. Poussin is on the book's jacket, but A. . . . says almost nothing about pastoral as a visual or musical phenomenon. The core of his work is Virgil and the pastoral of the English Renaissance, with attention in the later chapters to Wordsworth and more recent writers. . . . What [A.] does do, and beautifully," says C., "is provide a series of brilliant, lucid readings of individual works. These will serve especially students of Virgil, Spenser, Shakespeare, Marvell, and Wordsworth. To have written so well on these authors is no small achievement," in the reviewer's opinion, and the book remains, despite "shortcomings," "a major study by anyone's account."

ANNALES. HISTOIRE, SCIENCES SOCIALES 49, no. 2 (Mars-Avril 1994).

"Litterature et histoire." Special issue on tendencies since post-structuralism with an introduction by Christian Jouhaud. The entire issue turns around the 17th century as "espace littéraire." Articles (Chartier, Jouhaud, Merlin, Saint-Jacques, Viala) are entered separately.

BADINTER, ELISABETH. XY. On Masculine Identity. Trans.Lydia Davis. N.Y.: Columbia U P, 1996.

Review: Adam Kuper in TLS 4871 (9 Aug. 1966), 4: Extremely negative review by distinguished social anthropologist pointing out misuse of biological research ("bogus") and a construction of hypotheses that is "absurd" — that "all men are really females in male attire, pantomime principal boys, are the ugly sisters of history." "The psychology and ethnography that underpin her world history are wild and wooly; and her characterization of our situation today could easily be turned on its head."

BAHTI, TIMOTHY. Ends of the Lyric: Direction and Consequence in Western Poetry. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1996.

Review: Anon. in VQR 72 (1996), 82: "Contrary to its implicit claims, this volume does not indeed cannot supplant Barbara Herrnstein Smith's Poetic Closure (1968). Nonetheless," says the reviewer, "B. comments intriguingly on development, effect, and meaning in a polyglot garland of mostly early modern and modern lyrics whose last sections do seem to lack finality, stability, or integrity. B.'s carefully chosen texts and quasi deconstructive readings hardly prove that the Universal Norm of Poetry (or Good Poetry) is to bounce back from an anti closure ending to the beginning (or middle) then start out again toward another false finale and, inevitably, another rebound. Still, B.'s analyses model new, potentially useful ways to describe and categorize certain non linear structures not only those slighted by Smith but others discovered and explicated in detail during the 70's and 80's by Americans seeking to make sense of the notoriously meandering French baroque lyric."

Review: S. C. Dillon in Choice 33 (1996), 1787: "B.'s study of lyric 'ends' (directions, motivations, resolutions) contains exceedingly intricate readings of poems by Shakespeare, Leopardi, Coleridge, Keats, Hölderlin, Baudelaire, Stevens, and Celan." According to D., "[t]he discussions result in a convincing definition of lyric genre, which has to do with the way a poem directs its own reading 'as the inversion of ends.' B.'s readings often involve the interesting difference between seeing and reading, the self conscious uses of images of reflection, and, above all, the various forms of rhetorical chiasmus." ". . . B. does not argue from within an identifiable school of close reading. The author early on admits the limit of these readings: namely, that although there is rewarding use made of canonical intertextuality (Dante and Leopardi), there is essentially no attempt to explicate using a poem's 'historical moment.' But because of the extreme sophistication and clarity of each reading, the book is certainly worth perusing on its own carefully directed terms . . . ," says the reviewer.

BALMAS, ENEA et al. Gianni Nicoletti, Le forme et il senso. Omaggio degli amici et degli allievi. Fasano: Schena Editore, 1994.

Review: G. Jucquois in LR 48 (1994), 388: Tribute to Nicoletti on his 70th birthday, this volume contains a number of his previously published studies. Includes an impressive range of subjects from Rabelais to Mallarmé. Any subjectivism is tempered by N.'s rigorous application of history and philology. Lauds the acuity of his textual analysis.

BALSAMO, JEAN. "Du Bellay au XVIIe siècle: entre le jugement des savants et le goût mondain." OeC 20.1 (1995), 79–86.

"Les érudits du début du XVIIe siècle connaissaient Du Bellay. Ils l'évoquaient comme un vrai poète, dans l'histoire des lettres françaises qu'ils commençaient à écrire. Mais ils ne l'évoquaient que sous la forme d'un nom, joint à d'autres noms fameux et souvent offusqué par leur gloire, un nom qui marquait comme une étape dans une histoire qui avait un sens que DuBellay, deux générations plus tôt, avait contribué à fonder. . . . Mais dès le début du XVIIe siècle, le poète échappait, mieux que Ronsard lui-même, à la critique de la nouvelle école, qui était aussi une critique portée sur une conception 'héroïque' de la poésie. L'option rhétorique que Du Bellay a fait choisir, celle du servo humilis et du naturel, dans le genre 'bas', pouvait mieux que toute autre, au gré des curiosités, répondre à un goût mondain, définitivement remarqué par l'empire de la conversation et du jugement."

BAUDE, JEANNE-MARIE, éd. Ethique et écriture. Actes du Colloque international de Metz, 14–15 mai 1993. Metz: Université de Metz, Centre de recherche "Michel Baude",1994.

Review: M. Petersen in OeC 21.1 (1996), 170–72: "A l'origine de ce colloque donc, une question, extrêmement simple, formulée dans l'avant-propos: la finalité de l'écriture n'oblige-t-elle pas l'écrivain à se reférer à un code à partir duquel sont réglées les valeurs qu'il met en scène?" L'analyse par F.-X Cuche des Caractères de La Bruyère "ouvre le difficile problème de l'ascèse de l'écriture."

BAYLEY, PETER. "Resisting the Baroque." SCFS 16 (1994), 1–14.

Explores the now antiquarian controversy over the baroque of the 1950s and examines its causes in France (resistance to a firmly entrenched national literary canon) and in continuing acceptance of the nature of the baroque in its descriptive power. Interesting indicators of the status of research methods.

BEACH, CECLIA. French Women Playwrights before the Twentieth Century. Westport, Ct.: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Review: L. R. N. Ashley in BHR 57 (1995), 655: Checklist based on doctoral research suggests need for further scholarship.

See French 17 (1995).

BEC, PIERRE. Pour un autre soleil . . . Le sonnet occitan des origines à nos jours. Une anthologie. Orléans: Paradigme, 1994.

Review: J.-F. Courouau in RLR 99 (1995), 146–51: Title refers to Jacques Roubaud's 1990 anthology of the French sonnet, Soleil du soleil, and Bec's volume provides its occitan complement. Part I includes works from the Middle Ages through the 18th c.; part II, works from 19th and 20th c.. Reviewer indicates certain problems with translations into French and datation but is generally appreciative. Critical apparatus includes "repères bio-bibliographiques" for each of the 102 authors as well as glossary for rare occitan words. 17th c. scholars will rediscover the love sonnets of Jacòb de Gassion (1578–1635).

BELLENGER, YVONNE, éd. Du Bellay devant la critique de 1550 à nos jours. OeC 20.1 (1995).

Review: F. Rouget in BHR 57 (1995), 787–88: Le troisième volet de cet ouvrage "présente la fortune que Du Bellay connut après sa mort." Au XVIIe siècle en France, "on ne trouve que de rares pièces parmi les oeuvres que rassemblent les anthologies poétiques . . . ." Ouvrage de référence utile "qui permet de voir le chemin parcouru par la critique et de dresser un état des lieux."

BERCHTOLD, J., C. LUCKEN, and S. SCHOETTKE, eds. Désordres du jeu poétiques ludiques. Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1994.

Review: Anon. in FMLS 31 (1995), 277: Judged inviting, this study, which includes a postface on literature as game by Michel Butor, examines gaming and chance in multiple contexts from medieval times to our own day.

BERGER, GUNTER. Pour et contre le roman. Anthologie du discours théorique sur la fiction narrative en prose du XVIIe siècle. PFSCL/Biblio 17 92 (1996).

Includes 37 excerpts, notes, bibliography, and index of terms.

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

Review: J. Emelina in PFSCL 23 (1996), 355–357: A vast corpus of material on laughter from all fields from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 18th century. B. describes an evolution from the Renaissance "'sagesse' du rire, . . . sa 'dimension sacrée immémoriale' et . . . la truculence dionysiaque rabelaisienne" to the "rire domestiqué" of the 17th century: "voilà le libérateur promu au rôle de chien de garde d'une élite qui raille le rire non policé et tout ce qui s'écarte de son idéal!"

Review: Jean Emelina in RHL 96.1 (1996) 138–39: E. salutes the general trend of studying laughter in the Grand Siècle, and has particular praise for B.'s book "[qui] rassemble et exploite une infinité d'études et de documents sur la question [du rire]." Among these documents are medical, philosphical and literary texts. While Molière is mentioned as an obvious case study, B. also applies the concept of "rire" to Bossuet, La Bruyère and Madame de Sévigné. E's reception is quite warm, as he concludes, "remercions vivement Dominique Bertrand pour cette étude très riche . . . qui nous aide à mieux comprendre et apprécier une civilisation, une culture et une littérature."

BERTRAND, DOMINIQUE. "La Crise burlesque ou l'auteur réinventé." RSH 238 (1995), 97–109.

"Une corrélation a pu être établie entre les périodes d'engouement majeur pour le style burlesque et les moments de crise politique et sociale aiguë: Fronde, révolutions anglaises. Si les textes burlesques comportent des éléments de contestation de l'autorité politique et sociale, ils transgressent surtout les normes littéraires, faisant fi du bon usage et travestissant les modèles antiques." "L'écriture burlesque manifeste une crise complexe de l'auctoritas reposant sur le prestige culturel incontestable attaché, depuis l'humanisme, à l'héritage antique." "Nombre d'auteurs burlesques ont désacralisé l'écriture," says B., "inscrivant la question de l'auteur dans une problématique sociale dérisoire. Néanmoins, le nihilisme à l'égard des prestiges de la poésie est rarement absolu . . . ." "La 'crise' burlesque a contribué à l'affirmation d'une conscience littéraire, consacrant une émergence conflictuelle de l'auteur, qui tente de se démarquer du poids des autorités culturelles et des hypothèques de la dépendance économique. A ces auteurs oubliés, parfois maudits, dans notre histoire littéraire, revient le mérite d'avoir soulevé des questions majeures: Qu'est ce qu'un auteur? Qu'est ce qu'écrire? . . . L'auteur burlesque réaffirme son besoin essentiel de ce double que constitue le lecteur."

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

Review: Marc Escola in RHL 96.3 (1996), 501: The work consists of a "nombre d'articles ici recueillis [marquant] une date dans le renouvellement des études sur les poétiques et les rhétoriques classiques." E. views the work in terms of various sections, of which the "première partie examine les rapports que la littérature entretient avec ce qu'elle se donne comme son propre passé." The second part deals with "l'histoire des formes et des pratiques de lecture," while the third part, "s'attache plus précisément à ces fondements d'une poétique et d'une rhétorique de la memoria."

Review: Ronald Tobin in FR 69 (1996), 807–8: Compliments this collective volume of essays, whose new liminary piece "Mnemosyne chez les classiques" demonstrates the central importance of intertextuality as mediator of culture and history. Part I collects pieces under "Figures du temps," treating the 17th century's relationship with the past and reprints the "fort remarquable" ... "Statut des ana." Part II centers on the history of forms including examinations of the "entretien" and the problematic nature of keys, allegory, epistolarity, and a far-ranging essay on "Specularité classique. Part IV, on poetics and rhetoric, treats parody, sententia, commonplaces, the rhetoric of scientific discourse, ending with a memorable "Eloge historique de l'édition."

See French 17 (1995).

BEUGNOT, BERNARD, éd. "La Notion du monde au XVIIe siècle." Littératures classiques 22 (automne, 1994).

Review: Marc Escola in RHL 96.3 (1996), 501–02: Review discusses the work's multiple definitions of the term "monde" in the seventeenth century. E. claims that B.'s edition suggests several "pistes bibliographiques" as well as "différents lieux," where the world "se donne comme lieu de discours antagonistes, comme lieu de clivages, [et] de fractures . . . . Among the authors examined are Ronsard, Descartes, Gassendi, Cyrano, and Guez de Balzac. E. highly recommends the work, concluding, "Cette nouvelle livraison de Littératures classiques, soigneusement composée, offre ainsi une constellation de contributions pour une galaxie de significations."

BIGGS, HENRY PARKMAN. "A Statistical Analysis of the Metrics of the Classic French Decasyllable and the Classic French Alexandrine." (University of California, Los Angeles, 1996) DAI, June 1996, 4793.

Author states that his study "is based on the prose and poetry of four Renaissance poets, namely Scève, Du Bellay, Ronsard and Tyard, as well as the poetry from Racine's Iphigénie. This work differs from previous treatments of meter in that it profiles statistically the placement of stress and break placement in these metrical traditions, an approach also termed the Russian method, and seeks to understand these results in concert with the theoretical approach of generative metrics."

BLANCHARD, W. SCOTT. Scholars' Bedlam: Menippean Satire in the Renaissance. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell UP, 1995.

Review: Kendrick Prewitt in SoAR 61.1 (1996), 159–62: "B.'s close readings of this 'formless form' in . . . [works of numerous authors, including Agrippa,] go beyond the normative genre criticism that might be implied in his title to larger questions about intellectual trends, culture, and politics. In all these readings," says the reviewer, "B. finds in Menippean forms an ironic commentary against intellectual systems, particularly against decadent forms of both scholasticism and, later, humanism. Menippean satire, in other words, served as a helpful corrective against overly systematic thought and provided a vehicle for social protest." "In his conclusion, B. briefly examines some post Renaissance Menippean satires, especially the eighteenth century mock heroics of Dryden and Swift." P. finds that B.'s "historiography is conventional enough, but overall," P. adds, "the study establishes a provocative connection between a wide range of texts. B. provides a needed accounting for the flourishing of Menippean satire in the Renaissance, and his points are compelling enough to make one wonder why such a study hasn't been written before."

BLANCHARD, JEAN-VINCENT. "Le Baroque a-t-il cru à ses machines? Fétischisme de l'artifice au XVIIe siècle." CdDS 6.1 (1993) 23–36.

This article concerns itself with the idea of "la désillusion," described as "le plaisir de découvrir que l'on a été trompé" in the "théâtre à machines." B. deals with how machines created illusions and how these illusions were perceived. Citing the poetics of Le Bernin and Tesauro, B. suggests that "la plus parfaite illusion, plutôt que d'absorber complètement le spectateur, attire fatalement l'attention sur son artifice." In his examination of Italian theatre and Corneille, B. argues that "la réflexion sur l'artifice est aussi fondée sur une appréciation technique de la machinerie." B. concludes that in the "théâtre à machines" is a fetischism in which the desire for artifice ironically translates into a "culte de l'idéologie" that reflects the political economy of the period.

BLOOM, HAROLD. The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994.

Review: John J. Burke, Jr. in SoAR 61.1 (1996), 129–33: High praise for this "truly wonderful book." The reviewer sees H. B. as "above all a great teacher, and his book offers us the chance to sit in on one of his seminars." "It is the range and the depth of [B.'s] reading [in the Western Canon] that gives him his authority and credibility both as teacher and as critic," according to J. B. The author "begins his discussion of the Western Canon not with the classics but instead with Dante or with what he describes as the advent of the modern period. He then ranges through English, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Scandinavian, Russian, Portuguese, and American literatures." "B. assigns preeminence in the Western Canon to four authors Dante, Shakespeare, Cervantes, and (with a touch of hesitation) Tolstoy . . . . Shakespeare, however, is by far the largest and strongest of them all." The reviewer, questioning B.'s view of the canon as "a transhistorical or Platonic reality," points out "that canons change." Following Walter Pater, the author "maintains that canonical originality manifests itself to us as 'strangeness' . . . "; J. B. finds this formula partly true, but inadequate as descriptive of the entire canon. The reviewer likewise disputes B.'s contention that ". . . aesthetic considerations alone . . . should determine what we read."

BOLDUC, BENOIT, ed. Andromède délivrée: intermède anonyme (1623). Preface byFrancoise Siguret.

Review: Donna Kuizenga in FR 69 (1966), 479–80: Thoroughly edited text with introductory situation of the genre of "intermède," thematic treatment of the Ovidian material, relationship to other texts in the tradition. Worthy restoration of an interesting dramatic text.

BOQUET, GUY. "Shakespeare, Marivaux et les autres..." RHT 189–190 (1996), 65–122.

A survey of Jean-Louis Barrault's "mises en scènes" and career. He preferred Racine to Corneille, and his stagings of Phèdre and Bérénice offfered a new interpretation of these plays. He also gave new life to Molière's "comédies-ballets" by stressing their theatrical dimension.

BRAIDER, CHRISTOPHER. Refiguring the Real: Picture and Modernity in Word and Image 1400–1700. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993.

Review: J. M. Greenstein in RenQ 48 (1995), 661–62: Found "ambitious but unsuccessful," B.'s study disregards historical context and is less than convincing in its analyses of paintings. G. does admit that "some of B.'s positions are attractive."

BRAY, BERNARD AND CHRISTOPH STROSETZKI, eds. Art de la lettre, art de la conversation à l'époque classique en France. Paris: Klincksieck, 1995.

Review: P. Sommella in PFSCL 23 (1996), 666–669: An important collection of conference papers on the two forms of expression.

BRIOT, FREDERIC. Usage du monde, usage de soi. Enquête sur les mémorialistes d'Ancien Régime. Paris: Seuil, 1994.

Review: Jean Garapon in RHL 95.6 (1995), 1032–3: Favorable review in which G. states that "F. Briot nous offre ici une synthèse très dense et nouvelle, par son ampleur, dont on peut dire sans grand chance de se tromper qu'elle fera date dans la compréhension du genre des mémoires, à côté d'ouvrages classiques." Among the mémorialistes examined are Commynes, Retz and Saint-Simon. Despite some flaws such as the absence of 1) an index and 2)references for quotes, G. highly recommends the work, saying that the reader "y trouvera par ailleurs de nombreuses idées neuves, qui en rendent la lecture souvent stimulante, et offrent à la recherche de riches perspectives."

BRIOT, FREDERIC. "Comment croire les mémorialistes sur parole." RSH 238 (1995), 53–64.

"Comment croire les mémorialistes sur parole: la formule n'est pas ici une question, et s'apparenterait plutôt à une proposition de lecture. . . . Ce problème pourrait s'énoncer ainsi: si les mémorialistes ne font guère autorité, c'est en fonction de leur position même de témoin. Or cette position de témoin n'est pas pour eux le résultat d'une contrainte, mais l'affirmation même de la singularité de leur récit: ne raconter que ce que l'on a vu, entendu, senti ou pressenti soi même." Numerous writers are cited in this essay (e.g., Retz, Bussy Rabutin, Brienne le jeune, Furetière, Mme de Caylus, Mlle de Montpensier). "Les Mémoires livrent bien une vérité, mais comme par effraction." According to B., ". . . la vérité dans les textes ne repose pas sur ce dont [le mémorialiste] témoigne, mais sur l'acte de témoigner; non point la 'chose vue,' mais la vision même. Rien ne sert donc de le diaboliser, en lui reprochant ses erreurs, ses oublis, ses mensonges. Il convient tout au contraire de comprendre la logique de tous ces écarts, logique personnelle à chaque fois. Les yeux de l'illusion permettent une véritable élaboration de soi."

BRIOT, FREDERIC. "Synthèse of round table discussion held at Univ. de Lille III in Oct. 1994 on subject of 'Auteur, autorité sous l'Ancien Régime'." RSH 238 (1995), 211–13.

Participants included Pierre Malandain, the 15 scholars whose essays he collected for this issue of RSH, and several other writers. F. B. concludes: "Les réflexions et les interventions tentèrent . . . de circonscrire cette question de l'auteur dans un double foyer, poétique et historique. . . . Dans la constitution de l'auteur, la critique joue un rôle important, tout comme l'institution scolaire et universitaire. De plus la tentation est forte de parler de son auteur, et d'en parler avec autorité, façon . . . de faire revenir toutes les questions évoquées ci dessus, non plus au niveau de ceux dont on parle, mais de ceux qui en parlent."

BRODY, JULES. Lectures Classiques. Charlottesville, VA: Rookwood Press, 1996.

EMF Monographs. Collected historical, thematic, psychoanalytical and philological essays on aspects of French Classicism treating, among other authors, Molière, Racine, Madame de La Fayette, La Rochefoucauld, Perrault, and Pascal.

BROOKS, WILLIAM, éd. Le Théâtre et l'opéra vus par les gazetiers Robinet et Laurent (1670–1678). PFSCL/Biblio 17 17 (1993).

Review: D. Shaw in MLR 90 (1995), 1000–1001: "This Robinet volume contains virtually all the material relating to plays, operas, authors, and performers in the verse newsletters of Robinet and Laurent published between 1670 and 1678." Reviewer finds this volume "a rich store of contemporary comment relating to the closing years of French classicism" but regrets that the letters were not published in their entirety.

BRUNEL, PIERRE. "La fable est-elle une 'forme simple'?" RLC 70 No. Spécial (1996), 9–10.

B. présente l'idée que la fable n'est pas une "forme simple," mais plutôt une forme complexe qui n'exclut pas la poésie, la fantaisie, et fluidité musicale.

BUSHNELL, REBECCA W. A Culture of Teaching: Early Modern Humanism in Theory and Practice. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1996.

CASTAGNO, PAUL C. The Early Commedia Dell'Arte 1550–1621. Bern: Peter Lang, 1995.

Review: L. R. N. Ashley in BHR 57 (1995), 672: C. "takes up in great detail, with useful illustrations, the mannerist context of the early commedia dell'arte 1550–1621, principally in Italy but with some attention to the influence of these traveling comedians in other countries."

CAVILLAC, CECILE. "Vraisemblance pragmatique et autorité fictionnelle." Poétique 101 (1995), 23–43.

Sets against an analysis of Don Quixote the 17th-century French debate on verisimilitude around the "épopée en prose: le roman regulier français" seen in the moment of the Valincour-Charnes exchange (1678–79).

CERTEAU, Michel de. The Mystic Fable. Vol. I: The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Trans.Michael B. Smith. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1992.

Review: Robert Boenig in SCN 52.3–4 (Fall-Winter 94), 44–45: Michel de Certeau is known for his pioneering work in "critical theory", in other words, "the application of abstractions through the medium of interdisciplinary methodology to texts that may or may not be traditional members of an accepted canon." In this collection of essays, he gives "voice to alterity- the voice of the other," and a "theoretical definition of mystic speech." However, "The Mystic Fable is not a history of mysticism in the 16th and 17th centuries". There are studies of lesser known French mystics like Jean-Joseph Surin and Labadie.

CHANG, HELENE. "La vérité comique: Les Provinciales, Le Neveu de Rameau et à La Recherche du temps perdu." (University of California, Los Angeles, 1995) DAI (March 1996) 3602.

The purpose of this dissertation is to "mettre au point une théorie du comique à partir des exemples concrets et, ce faisant, de dégager la spécificité comique de chaque écrit." With respect to Pascal, "Le comique pascalien ou 'significatif' est d'ordre moralisateur. S'il tourne en ridicule les jésuites, c'est afin de les faire revenir de leur folie. L'antiphrase, langage par excellence des Petites Lettres, ne désarçonne pas le lecteur, son message étant clair."

CHARTIER, ROGER. "Pouvoirs et limites de la représentation." Annales 49 (1994), 407–18.

Important meditation that includes Marin's last seminar in 1991–92 in which three lines of concern are examined: the proper distinction of historical modes, the interrelationships between these modes and particular aesthetic codes, the irreducibility of different styles of representation (e.g., text and image).

CHAUVEAU, JEAN-PIERRE, ed. L'épître en vers au XVIIe siècle. Littératures classiques 18 (1993).

Review: Pascal Debailly in IL 48.1 (1996) 36–37: Favorable review of a volume, which, according to D., "vient combler un vide dans l'histoire littéraire du XVIIe siècle. Si toutes les formes de la lettre en prose ont été beaucoup étudiées, l'épître en vers n'a pas jusqu'à présent fait l'objet de grands travaux d'ensemble." Among the contributions mentioned are Roger Duchêne's and Jean-Pierre Chauveau's articles on the definition of the épître, Eric Méchoulan's piece on how the public and private spheres shape the notion of milieu in the épître, and Frédéric Briot's study on the development of the épître during the Fronde. The study concludes with Allen Wood's essay on the épître in Boileau, as well as Jean Marmier's analysis of the épître au livre, i.e., paratextual épîtres such as prefaces and notices.

CHAUVEAU, JEAN-PIERRE. "Du Bellay dans les recueils collectifs et anthologies des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. OeC 21.1 (1995), 97–102.

"Cette étude n'a d'autre prétention que d'apporter une pierre à l'histoire de la 'réception', ou, plus simplement, de la fortune de Du Bellay au cours des siècles dits classiques."

CLARK, KATHLEEN, éd. Réception critique des libertinages au XVIIe siècle. OeC 20.3 (OeC), 177–294.

Numéro consacré à un groupe de libertins représentatifs "dont l'oeuvre et la fortune critique méritent d'être examinés avec un regard neuf." Sept articles: Godard de Donville, "L'oeuvre de Théophile de Viau aux feux croisés du 'libertinage'"; François Lagarde, "La réhabilitation de Saint-Amant"; Madeleine Alcover, "Sisyphe au Parnasse: La réception des oeuvres de Cyrano aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles"; Martha M. Houle, "'L'Heure du berger sonne': La casuistique au service du plaisir dans les Contes de La Fontaine"; Allen G. Wood, "Boileau, the Croix Blanche, and Satire I"; Henriette Goldwyn, "Les Mémoires d'une 'affranchie'": Mme du Noyer"; James Grantham Turner, " 'Aloisia Sigea' in France and England: Female Authorship and the reception of Chorier's Erotica."

CLARK, KATHLEEN COLLINS. "Laughing at Love: Epicurean Themes and Epigrammatic Verse. Théophile to La Fontaine." PFSCL 23 (1996), 463–472.

Demonstrates convincingly that the change in poetry's social function, the triumph of theater, the importance of Paris salons, and the superiority of reason and logic over inspiration contributed to the rise of epigrammatic verse during the century: "What distinguishes those epigrams written by such poets as Théophile, Saint-Pavin, La Fontaine is not only their urbane wit, but their ludic flair and intellectual brio."

CLAVILIER, MICHELE et DANIELLE DUCHEFDELAVILLE. Commedia dell'arte. Le Jeu masqué. Grenoble: Presses universitaires de Grenoble, 1994.

Review: BCLF 565 (1995), 14–15: "Les auteurs examinent successivement l'aspect historique de cette pratique théâtrale qu'est la commedia dell'arte, depuis ses origines latines jusqu'à Giorgio Strehler, puis ses différentes composantes . . . ."

COHEN, MITCHELL. The Wager of Lucien Goldmann: Tragedy, Dialectics and a Hidden God. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994.

Review: David Wetsel in P&L 19 (1995), 409–10: "Still controversial after thirty five years, G.'s theories concerning the Pensées . . . have never been accepted by mainstream Pascal scholarship." "Most pascalisants have erroneously assumed that G.'s reading of P. represented nothing more than the imposition of Marxist theory upon the text of the Pensées. Among the revelations of M. C.'s new study," says W., "is that, to the contrary, P. represents one of the essential formative influences on G. himself . . . ." "Students of P. will be particularly fascinated by C.'s revealing analysis of G.'s The Hidden God in the first section of chapter six of his study." W. calls this book "[t]he product of a painstaking excavation of G.'s philosophical development . . . ." "A critic both of existentialism and of structuralism, G. is portrayed by C. as the leading representative of Western Marxism's need to reinvent itself." The reviewer "recommend[s] [C.'s book] to all students of modern France as well as to [his] fellow pascalisants . . . ."

COLIN, A., ed. Annales Histoire, Sciences Sociales. Paris: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, (1994).

Review: Marc Escola in RHL 96.1 (1996), 137–38: E. opens his review with the central question the volume poses: "De quoi fait-on l'histoire quand on prend la littérature comme objet d'analyse historique?" The key becomes that of "contextualisation," defined in terms of public, author, and the "politics of language." Even with the emphasis on contextualization, E. points out that attempts to define a "champ littéraire" are limited. In general, while E. commends the volume for presenting a "véritable discours de la méthode," he disagrees with a critical approach in which the concept of "histoire littéraire" is distinguished from "une interrogation proprement théorique sur les conditions de possibilités de cette historicité des oeuvres et de leurs contextualisations successives."

CONESA, GABRIEL. La comédie de l'âge classique (1630–1715). Paris: Seuil, 1995.

Review: C. Mazouer in PFSCL 23 (1996), 367–369: Reviewer finds this to be a "panorama à la fois informé et personnel de la comédie du siècle classique."

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

Review: Michael Randall in SubStance 25.2 (1996), 132–36: This book "serves a much needed function in contemporary Renaissance scholarship, by showing how the familiar space of French sixteenth century literature is inhabited by a 'foreignness.' The author . . . creates this 'heterology,' as the term is used by Michel de Certeau, by emphasizing the spatial character of French Renaissance literature. C. shows how texts by writers such as Marot, Rabelais, Ronsard, and Montaigne can be seen as possessing not only a hidden allegorical meaning, but also a hidden sense of patterns and designs made up of letters that compose the words themselves. . . . [This book] demonstrates how the graphics of the early modern printed page, when the very concept of printing was itself a new and troubling phenomenon, allow the literature of the period to be read, or more properly seen, in an equally new and provocative way."

CONNERY, BRIAN A., and KIRK COMBE, eds. Theorizing Satire: Essays and Literary Criticism. New York: St. Martin's, 1995.

Review: F. C. Kaplan in Choice 33 (1996), 1126: In this collection, "which purports to 'theorize' satire, the sympathies of the editors and contributors clearly lie with the goals of the satirists they study," says K., "rather than with the schools of theory they ostensibly represent. Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism (1957) is the theoretical parent of this collection," according to K., whereas "Gilbert Highet's Anatomy of Satire (1962) and John Bullitt's Jonathan Swift and the Anatomy of Satire (1953) are conspicuously absent." A number of "definitive satirists" are not discussed in the volume. "Generally, the focus is on British writers of the 17th and 18th centuries." K. notes that "[t]heoretical variety brings 'diversity' to this collection."

COOK, ALBERT. The Reach of Poetry. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue UP, 1995.

Review: J. D. McGowan in Choice 33 (1996), 945: "The 'reach' of poetry C. . . . explores in this . . . [study] extends from the epigrammatic to the oracular, and from the contemporary in America and Europe backward to the classic (Pindar, Alcman) by way of the Elizabethans, Dante, and the troubadours. C. also explores and demonstrates the immense reach of his own interests and learning. This can be daunting to the less learned reader. . . . This is a book to be taken slowly," says M. "But persevere," the reviewer advises, because "C. has a lot to say about poetry, both to those adept in comparative literature and theory and to those whose learning only begins to match his own."

COURSE, DIDIER JEAN. "Le Sceptre et le diamant: Metamorphoses du pouvoir et genèse d'un imaginaire moderne (1560–1685)." (University of Pittsburgh, 1995) DAI 56109, March 1996.

Author contends that jewelry is "a vast metaphor that help[s] define the mentality of an epoch." Study focuses on "love and erotic poetry" specifically the "school of Fontainebleau and the Neo-Petrarchan movement." Jewelry was also used as a metaphor for women, the Crown, and the "celestial court."

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

Review: Bénédicte Louvat in RHL 96.1 (1996), 141: The volume consists of articles published between 1968 and 1986 dealing with the link between the "pastorale" and music. L. states that V.'s goal is to "analyse[r] la constitution du genre de la pastorale . . . à la lumière de l'influence italienne." Among other things, V.'s text looks at the fortunes of Tasso's, Guarini's and Bonarelli's works in France, as well as the structure of the "Echo," and the theoretical and poetic tenets of the genre.

DAVID, GAIL. Female Heroism in the Pastoral. New York/London: Garland Press, 1991.

Review: Twyla Meding in EMF 2 (1996), 187–91: M. summarizes G.'s project as the effort to "conjoin contrastive study of the pastoral hero/heroine with current feminist theory." The book deals with "both continental and British prose fiction," ranging from Sannazaro to George Eliot. With respect to seventeenth-century France, M. discusses the potential applicability of D.'s "inverted female pattern" of heroism to L'Astrée and the Princesse de Clèves. The results of such an application, M. contends, would be mixed. In general, while D.'s thesis would stimulate debate, M. maintains that the volume "proves dissapointing in its recourse to inaccuracies to bolster its conclusions. Such imprecision effectively sabotages the work's critical worth, inviting reexamination of its premises and conclusions."

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

Review: Mitchell Greenberg in EMF 2 (1996), 196–200: G. reacts quite favorably to D.'s attempt "to concentrate, in a series of sequential chapters, on the most prominent of . . . women writers whose lives and writings trace a parabola of resistance to the hegemonic drive of absolutism." According to G., "the major social parabola that overrides the individual chapters of De Jean's book describes the central role of "marriage," a complex social and economic network, as it changes the position of the woman-writing subject and thus the thematic concerns of the novels themselves." Of special note is De Jean's last chapter, which describes "the imposition of the 'Classical' (i.e., masculinist, Absolutist) model of subjectivity, over the 'other'" defined as the writing by women in the salons.

See French 17 (1995, 1994).

DELMAS, CHRISTIAN. La Tragédie de l'âge classique (1553–1770). Paris: Seuil, 1994.

Review: Pierre Pasquier in IL 48.1 (1996), 34: Favorable review of a work that deals with "la production tragique de la Cléopâtre de Jodelle (1553) à l'ultime pièce de Voltaire (Irène, 1778)." While P. faults D. for not analyzing in detail the "renaissance" of tragedy, as well as the failed attempt to establish a devotional tragedy in the 1630s, he finds the volume quite valuable. Citing the utility of the index, bibliography and illustrations, P. states that "le livre de Christian Delmas constitue donc un excellent ouvrage de vulgarisation au meilleur sens du terme." P. concludes, "il [l'ouvrage] met à la disposition d'un très large lectorat une synthèse originale et nuancée, tirant profit des derniers acquis de la critique et illustrée avec un remarquable discernement."

Review: D. Shaw in MLR 91 (1996), 473–74: ". . . this work falls between two stools. It seems uncertain whether it is trying to be a work of scholarship or a student handbook. But as an impressionistic account of classical tragedy containing an unusual amount of iconographic material, the volume is remarkable."

Review: M.-O. Sweetser in PFSCL 23 (1996), 370–371: Reviewer says this study "s'adresse à un public lassé d'une approche trop rigide qui insistait sur la stricte codification du genre, liée à celle d'un ordre monarchique absolutiste." A highly recommended study.

DIDIER, BEATRICE, éd. Les grandes dates de la littérature française. Paris: P.U.F., 1994.

Review: BCLF 565 (1995), 41–42: "Cette chronologie, où chaque siècle, depuis le XVIe, a été traité par une personnalité différente, se substitue à une autre, signée Chassang et Senninger, dans la même collection et sous le même titre, laquelle avait fait l'objet de mises à jour." Renouvellement des perspectives du XVIIe siècle dans une moindre mesure que des XVIe et XVIIIe siècles; trop de subjectivité à l'égard des titres exclus/retenus du XXe siècle. On suggère un titre plus modeste: Annales de la littérature française.

DI PIERO, THOMAS. Dangerous Truths, Criminal Passions. The Evolution of the French Novel, 1569–1791. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 1992.

Review: Eglal Henein in EMF 2 (1996), 175–181: H. summarizes D.'s work as an attempt to "examine[r] un problème ontologique, la vérité, et un problème politique, le développement de la bourgeoisie." Another goal of the work is the effort to "rapproche[r] [les] romans du XVIIe et du XVIIIe." Despite reservations about D.'s assertion that L'Astrée "oppose fortune et mérite," and the lack of a definition of "tromperie," H. welcomes the volume. "Ce livre érudit, généreux et ambitieux, sans être toujours convaincant, reste intéressant et suggestif."

Review: J. W. Lew in ECr 35 (1995), 103–04: Reviewer sees application beyond France, since quite a few of the texts D. examines were well known and influential outside of France. L. appreciates the convincing contextualization but has a number of questions in response to this assessment of the 17th c. novel "engaged in a continual polemic with the discursive configuration of power."

DOODY, MARGARET ANNE. The True Story of the Novel. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1996.

Review: Lorna Sage in TLS 4871 (9 Aug. 1996), 5–6: This revisionist history (intended as an "anti-Ian Watt" as well as an anti-Bakhtine) seeks (Part I) the origin in antiquity of a mythic form (Novel) that performs a liberation rite; traces its afterlife, adaptation, translation, and dissemination (Part II), including its occultation by modern narratives of the development of the novel in the 17th and 18th centuries; and recurring "Tropes of the Novel" that keep its multiplicity alive (Part III). Reviewer is extremely negative on all parts. Description of texts, "gullible and at times careless" becomes something of a cross between Gnosticism and "New Age Mysteries." The exclusions enacted by the "new domestic novel over the dark powers of the Novel's voyage inward is supposed as systematic and mischevious ("as though turning Harold Bloom's rival canon on its head"). The matrix of tropes finally set in place looks much like being back in the Women's Room with Marilyn French. This overall "marshy, semi-fictional, semi-scholarly land that has been reclaimed for credulity by our habits of revisionism."

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

Review: D. Shaw in MLR 91 (1996), 721–22: "This volume from the prolific pen of Giovanni Dotoli contains twelve short essays on potential lines of research in the area of French seventeenth-century literature and art. Each essay focuses on the most recent (1975–94) work in the relevant area and suggests further avenue of exploration."

See French 17 (1995).

DUCHENE, ROGER et PIERRE RONZEAUD, éds. Ordre et contestation au temps des classiques. Actes du 21e colloque du Centre Méridional de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle jumelé avec le 23e colloque de la North American Society for Seventeenth Century French Literature (Marseille, 19–23 juin 1991). PFSCL/Biblio 17 73 (1992).

Review: C. J. Gossip in MLR 90 (1995), 997–98: Two-volume collection of fifty papers contains "new insights and juxtapositions in its re-examination of a wide range of aspects of classicism and the latter's links with authority, conformity, and dissent." Among the authors treated: Molière, Boileau, Poullain de la Barre, Perrault, Mme de LaFayette, Pascal, Racine, Nicole.

See French 17 (1994).

EDMUNDSON, MARK. Literature against Philosophy, Plato to Derrida: A Defense of Poetry. New York: Cambridge UP, 1995.

Review: Anon. in VQR 72 (1996), 46, 48: This "book examines the age old struggle between poets and philosophers, revisiting its familiar Platonic origins and demonstrating how this privileging of the knowing, anti poetic stance has been taken up and intensified by philosopher critics within the university structure during the past 25 years. Turning his interrogative gaze on both his profession and himself, E. seeks to show the real limitations of recent critical trends which seek to either shore up academic authority or merely describe literary works, without fully responding to the renovating power of poetry (what he calls 'revitalizing cultural activity'). Sketching out a potentially new role for literary critics, he invites us," according to the reviewer, "to put aside rigid preconceived formulations and the simple response to a literary work of 'What is it?' in favor of the more interesting question 'What can one do with it?'"

EGGINTON, WILLIAM. "An Epistemology of the Stage: Theatricality and Subjectivity in Early Modern Spain." NLH 27 (1996), 391–413.

Analyzes the early 17th-century structural shift to "multilateral representational function." The viewing subject, split as well as unified with the "scene" of the stage is only potentially controllable at this moment when the new functionality is in place. Passing references to contemporary French differences.

ELLRODT, ROBERT. "Literary History and the Search for Certainty." NLH (1996), 529–43.

Useful, up-to-date and suggestive review across methodologies' claims, including Gassendi's empirical view of historical truth, "a still sensible middle way between extremes," others of which are here identified, with an interesting concluding analysis of the author's own Poètes métaphysiques anglais. 3 vols. (1960).

FENOALTEA, DORANNE and DAVID L. RUBIN, eds. The Ladder of Hidden Designs: Structure and Integration of the French Lyric Sequence. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1991.

Review: Warren Motte in FR 69 (1995), 323–24: Essays exploring "how aspects of arrangement in a book of poems give rise to significance at the level of the work." Catherine Ingold focuses on the role of metaphor in the four seasons by Saint-Amant. Rubin examines Book 7 of the Fables and finds in it poetic rhetoric used to elaborate, test, and ground a stable norm for the sequence.

See French 17 (1995, 1994).

FORSYTH, ELLIOTT CHRISTOPHER. La tragédie française de Jodelle à Corneille, 1553–1640. Le theme de la vengeance. Ed. revue et augm. Paris: Champion-Slatkine, 1994.

Review: BCLF 565 (1995), 16–17: "L'important ouvrage de E. Ch. Forsyth, publié une première fois en 1962, et réédité avec une préface, laquelle fait excellemement le point sur la recherche en ce domaine depuis plus de trente ans, replace la tragédie française préclassique dans l'évolution du genre, en étudiant tout particulièrement le thème de la vengeance . . . ."

Review: Edmund Campion in FR 69 (1996), 477–78: Important 1962 study reissued with an extensive bibliographical up-date and introductory discussion of research on revenge plays (from Cléôpatre to Horace) since its first publication. Welcomely republished, this study "will maintain scholarly interest in many important but relatively neglected French tragedies."

Review: K. Schoell in PFSCL 23 (1996), 682–683: An updated Slatkine reprint of the 1962 study. Reviewer says that, despite what is now a somewhat narrow definition of the baroque, "cette étude reste valable sur le plan de la méthodologie: démontrant l'intérêt d'un thème central, et sur le plan de l'histoire littéraire pour laquelle l'évolution de la Renaissance au classicisme reste toujours une phase cruciale."

Review: D. Shaw in MLR 90 (1995), 1000–1001: "The Forsyth volume is essentially a reprint of the author's masterly 1962 study of the theme of revenge in the tragedy of the period.. To the original text is added a preface in which the author brings his original work up to date through an analysis of the main works in the field published over the past three decades." Two valuable bibliographical supplements: an updated list of the tragedies of the period and an excellent general bibliography.

See French 17 (1995, 94).

FREEMAN, HENRY G., éd. Twenty Years of French Criticism, FLS, Vingt Ans Après. A Memorial Volume for Philip A. Wadsworth (1913–1992). Birmingham, Alabama: Summa, 1994.

Review: F. Lagarde in OeC 21.1 (1996), 172–75: Ce recueil d'une trentaine d'articles "porte non pas sur la critique telle qu'elle se pratique en France, mais sur la critique universitaire américaine des vingt dernières années ayant portée sur la littérature et la culture françaises." Voir: "l'étude valéryenne de Philip Wadsworth sur La Fontaine et l'idéal classique [qui] met en lumière l'originalité du poète"; et l'article de Hugh Davidson qui "dresse un remarquable, et bien connu, tableau de la critique au XVIIe siècle."

FREEMAN, HENRY C. and SUZANNE HOUYHOUX, eds. Discontinuity and Fragmentation in French Literature. Atlanta: Eds. Rodopi, 1994.

Review: Ernest Strum in FR 69 (1996), 473–74: Collected papers of the FLS 1993 conference. Especially cited as of interest is Susan Baker's paper on La Rochefoucauld and Ross Chambers's introductory essay, "The Et cetera Principle" developing Barthes's exhortation to seek out "le désordre de l'oeuvre." 17th-century contributions are listed separately.

GETHNER, PERRY, éd. Femmes dramaturges en France (1650–1750): Pièces choisies. PFSCL/Biblio 17 79 (1993).

Review: Claire Carlin in CdDS 6.1 (1992) 243–44: Carlin states, "Perry Gethner has performed a wonderful service for seventeenth and eighteenth-century French studies. We are at last able to show our students texts by female dramatists who were successful in all dramatic genres." Among the playwrights included in the volume are Françoise Pascal, Marie-Catherine Desjardins, Anne de La Roche-Guilhen, and Françoise de Graffigny. Reviewer concludes that "Gethner's book adds an essential element to the body of rediscovered texts by women."

Review: Jean-Marc Civardi in IL 48.1 (1996) 30–33: A lengthy review that primarily summarizes plays by the "Femmes dramaturges" in question. In general, however, C. commends G.'s work, stating "Ce volume vient heureusement compléter les diverses anthologies existantes avec un choix de pièces rarement rééditées mais intéressant dans sa diversité. Les notices qui précèdent chaque oeuvre sont également fort utiles car elles donnent l'essentiel de la bibliographie la plus récente." C. especially praises G.'s choice of seventeenth-century plays, and discusses works such as Françoise Pascal's L'Amoureux extravagant, Madame de Villedieu's Le Favori and Catherine Bernard's Laodamie reine d'Epire.

Review: J. Clarke in MLR 91 (1996), 216–17: Invaluable survey of six plays by women dramatists: L'Amoureux extravagant, 1657 (Françoise Pascal); Le Favori, 1665 (Marie-Catherine Desjardins); Rare-en-tout, 1677 (Anne de La Roche-Guilhen); Laodamie reine d'Epire, 1688 (Catherine Bernard); Arrie et Pétus, 1702 (Marie-Anne Barbier); Cénie, 1750 (Françoise de Graffigny). Excellent general introduction examines "such issues as the social class and marital status of the subjects and the education of women and their role in literary society."

Review: K. Schoell in RF 106 (1994), 358: Praised for extending knowledge of French classical literature, this edition makes available six of the best French plays by women in the 17th and 18th c. G. includes a general introduction, a bibliography of French women dramatists of the period, and, for each play, biographical information about the author, historical and aesthetic indications, details on sources and representations, a glossary and other critical apparatus. The six plays demonstrate the good quality and diversity of theater by women. Volume includes a farce, a comedy ballet, a tragicomedy, two tragedies and a "drame."

See French 17 (1995, 94).

GODARD DE DONVILLE, LOUISE. "Mode et sentiment de culpabilité au XVIIe siècle." TL 8 (1995), 151–69.

Seminal treatment by long standing critic of "la mode" (Signification de la mode sous Louis XIII. Aix-en-Provence: Edisud, 1976) traces evolution of the concept from an authoritative goddess to "mode falsificatrice." Examines culpability alongside virtue and "la vie de société" and "l'importance du 'paraître'."

GODARD DE DONVILLE, LOUISE, ed. La satire en vers au XVIIe siècle. Littératures Classiques 24 (1995).

Review: Boris Donné in RHL 96.2 (1996) 325–26: Volume deals primarily with the question of why this "genre florissant au Grand Siècle ne touche guère le lecteur moderne?" One possible answer suggested is that the satirical poet "exige de son lecteur une écoute attentive" much like that of a "prédicateur." In general, the compendium raises the issues of humanism, Latin antecedents, and the "critique de l'éloquence." D, recommends the work, praising its bibliography and calling it a "stimulant aperçu d'un pan parfois méconnu de la production littéraire du XVIIe siècle."

GOLDGAR, ANNE. Impolite Learning: Conduct and Community in the Republic of Letters, 1680–1750. New Haven: Yale UP, 1996.

Review: Roger Chartier in TLS 4872 (16 Aug. 1996), 12: Reconstruction of the values of scholars in an institutionalization of scholarly sociability following the Revocation and in response to royal and societal pressures, with "great attention to detail and close reading of a wide range of sources." "Undoubtedly the best researched and most perceptive study ever written on the Republic of Letters." Special attention to Bayle and Basnage.

Review: David Sturdy in Isis 87 (1996), 362–63: "Elegantly conceived, erudite in exposition, and based upon an impressive range of sources," the community traced here in its ideals is at its height and already in decline as seen through the Huguenot exiles in the Netherlands. Interesting compromises of ideals and business are presented by following many cases of contracts with printers and editing of journals. The defining qualities undergo challenges also from patronage with "national" interests and in the mockery of Voltaire.

GOODKIN, RICHARD. The Tragic Middle: Racine, Aristotle, Euripedes. Madison: U. of Wisconsin P., 1991.

Review: David Maskell in EMF 2 (1996). 211–13. After outlining G.'s basic line of inquiry based on the Aristotelian concepts of "virtuous middle" and "excluded middle," M. states that G. "offers a detailed discussion of these logical and ethical concepts in relation to the characters and passages from the tragedies." Yet, M. suggests that G.'s "preoccupation with virtuous middle and excluded middle leads to some neglect of the plays as a whole." M. cites what he feels is an incomplete analysis of Jocaste's attempt in La Thébaïde to bring about a compromise between her brothers. He also finds incomplete G.'s contention that Andromaque's plot to marry Pyrrhus then kill herself represents "the first tragic middle in Racine's theatre." Of note, however, are G.'s analysis of word-play, as well as his comments on Euripedes.

GRAFTON, ANTHONY. Defenders of the Text: The Traditions of Scholarship in an Age of Science, 1450–1800. Cambridge and London: Harvard UP, 1991.

Review: C. Kallendorf in RenQ 48 (1995), 177–79: Demonstrates coexistence and collaboration of humanism and science. K. finds these essays elegant if less than tightly unified.

See French 17 (1991)

GREENBERG, MITCHELL. Subjectivity and Subjugation in Seventeenth-Century Drama and Prose. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.

Review: R. Albanese in ECr 35 (1995), 86–87: Judged "a major contribution to seventeenth-century French studies," G.'s study focuses "on the self as it becomes subjugated by patriarchal imperatives" as it applies contemporary theory (feminist psychoanalysis takes precedence) to mostly canonical 17th c. texts. A. appreciates G.'s "subtle interconnections between sexual and political order" in Tartuffe, for example. Reviewer fills in references to literary criticism omitted by G.

See French 17 (1995).

GRIMM, JÜRGEN, et al., eds. Französische Literaturgeschichte. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1991.

Review: G. Holtus in ZRP 111 (1995), 84–87: Praiseworthy and of eminent usefulness to students and specialists alike, this history of literature demonstrates effectively social and political dimensions. G. is responsible for the classical section. Includes bibliography and indices of author, person and work.

GUICHEMERRE, ROGER, ed. Dom Carlos et autres nouvelles françaises du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.

Review: Bénédicte Louvat in RHL 96.1 (1996), 144: According to L., the purpose of the volume is to "rassemble[r] . . . quelques spécimens caractéristiques de la nouvelle au XVIIe siècle." Among the "nouvelles" mentioned are works by Sorel, Camus, Boursault and Madame de Villedieu. L. describes the "nouvelles" as portraying a "réalisme cru et violent," recalling the baroque and an "écriture imagée" that evokes the Princesse de Clèves. Concluding the review, L. praises the choice of texts, and mentions the "appareil critique" which, while modest, gives readers insights into the genre, the authors, and historical references.

GUTWIRTH, MARCEL. Laughing Matter: An Essay on the Comic. Ithica: Cornell University Press, 1993.

Review: M. Smith in JAAC 54 (1996), 86–88: An exploration of why we laugh with examples drawn from 17th-century France. Reviewer finds many of Gutwirth's analyses important but calls them "blinkered" because they do not take the violent antirationalism of laughter far enough.

See French 17 (1995, 1994).

HARDISON, O. B., and LEON GOLDEN, eds. Horace for Students of Literature: The "Ars poetica" and Its Tradition. Gainesville: UP of Florida, 1995.

Review: E. R. Mix in Choice 33 (1996), 1123: This volume, published after the death of O. B. H., "again reveals [the late scholar's] mastery of literary criticism in historical and philosophical contexts. In addition to G.'s excellent English prose version of the Ars one finds here the texts of five later works, each suggesting . . . the influence of Horace as critic. These post Horatian writers, ranging from Geoffrey de Vinsauf (Fl. c. 1202) to Wallace Stevens, have not been selected for their servility to Horace. Rather, [O. B.] H.'s rich and spirited commentaries search out important differences as well as echoes and similarities. These commentaries, along with the notes to the texts, are both illuminating and enjoyable," says M. "The advanced student will find the host of references to other sources and comments useful. Committed postmodernists may well beware."

HARRIS, WENDELL V. Literary Meaning: Reclaiming the Study of Literature. New York: New York U P, 1996.

Review: C. S. Cox in Choice 33 (1996), 1788: "In this clearly written and accessible book, H. . . . sets out to expose the inadequacies of current methods and trends in literary criticism, which he describes as 'intellectual debris.' The book's greatest strength," says the reviewer, "is its lucid presentation of critical works, which are then shown to be compromised by fallacies and flaws. Nine chapters of discussion consider four main schools Hermeticism, hermeneutics, new pragmatism, and new historicism and their impact on scholarship, professional discourse, and publication longevity." This book "may prove useful in provoking further debate, as interested scholars, teachers, and students set out to critique the book's own fallacies and trendiness while defending their own interests. Not an essential book," in the opinion of C., "but one that is likely to find an interested audience among upper division undergraduates, graduates, and researchers."

HARRISON, HELEN L. Pistoles/paroles: Money and Language in Seventeenth-Century French Comedy. Charlottesville, VA: Rookwood Press, 1996.

EMF Monographs. Study focuses on the interplay of money and language as a system of exchange and on laughter as it relates to theatre and the spectators' economic status.

HARNEIT, RODOLF. "Absurde Verse—paradoxe Prosa: Ungereimpt Alternativan zum Alexandrinertheater im frühen 17. Jahrhundert: Zu Theorie und Geschichte zweier vergessener Innovationsversuche." RJ 44 (1993), 139–63.

Establishes bibliography of tragedies in prose and investigates the nature of the experimental nature of their claims. Periodizes by reference to the patronage of Marie de Medici and of Richelieu. Interesting commentary on Puget de La Serre.

HART, CLIVE and KAY G. STEVENSON. Heaven and the Flesh: Imagery of Desire from the Renaissance to the Rococo. Cambridge: CUP, 1996.

HART, JONATHAN, ed. Reading the Renaissance: Culture, Poetics, and Drama. New York: Garland, 1996.

Review: E. D. Hill in Choice 34 (1996), 118–19: Mixed assessment. The editor of this collection "made several poor choices," according to E. D. H., "one being to leave quotations from foreign languages untranslated. Another bad idea was to include a paper of his own that is both the longest and the weakest in the volume. Several eminent scholars contribute pieces that recycle notions they have handled elsewhere. But this volume does feature some attractive and original critical performances," declares the reviewer. One of the "valuable comparative papers" in the volume deals with Hamlet and Racine's Phèdre. The reviewer states that "[g]raduate students and faculty need to have this volume on hand."

HAUSMANN, FRANK-RUTGER, CHRISTOPH MIETHING, AND MARGARETE ZIMMERMANN, eds. "Diversité, c'est ma devise." Studien sur franzosischen Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts. PFSCL/Biblio 17 86 (1994).

Review: J.-P. Collinet in RF 107 (1995), 215–17: Judged varied, dense and worthy of Jürgen Grimm in whose honor it was assembled, the volume includes some thematic and general studies as well as others on genres of poetry, theatre, narrative and epistolary literature. It borrows its motto from La Fontaine and studies of the latter occupy a prominent place. Volume impresses by its high quality of scholarship and authoritativeness.

Review: Boris Donné in RHL 96.2 (1996), 324: D. summarizes the volume as follows, "J. Grimm se voit honoré d'un riche volume de Mélanges: la bibliographie détaillée des ouvrages et des articles qui ont jalonné sa carrière de chercheur y fait suite à trente-quatre études offertes par ses collègues, disciples et amis. Volume contains articles on La Fontaine, Racine, La Bruyère, Cyrano, and Scarron, among others.

Review: J. Marmier in PFSCL 23 (1996), 392–394: A Festschrift containing 34 studies.

HENRY, FREEMAN G., ed. French Literature Series, Vol. XXII: Perceptions of Values. Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi, 1995.

HUNT, LYNN, ed. The Invention of Pornography. Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity. New York: Zone Books, 1993.

Review: Stephan K. Schindler in ECS 29 (1995), 112–113: Highly praised collection of essays that includes Paula Finden on Italian Renaissance pornography at the "intersections of sexuality, politics, and learning" and Joan Dejean on the heritage of the origins of the politics of pornography in L'Ecole des filles.

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

Review: H. Harrison in PFSCL 23 (1996), 688–689: A study of "Epistolary Woman" as a widespread model of femininity: "In their writings and even in their lives, women recreated the drama of the loving, misused, and dependent figures whose love letters won critical approbation." Reviewer states that the study is "of great value not only for gender studies but for all scholars of 17th- or 18th-century literature and culture.

JOUCLA, VERONIQUE. "Vers une métamorphose au quotidien: l'évolution du portrait de la femme hypocrite dans la satire au début du XVIIe siècle." PFSCL 23 (1996), 263–277.

"Les satiriques font évoluer sous nos yeux des bourgeoises ou des femmes du monde pour qui la dévotion est un fard supplémentaire et une forme d'élégance."

KAPP, VOLKER, ed. Les lieux de mémoire et la fabrique de l'oeuvre. Actes du 1er Colloque du Centre International de Rencontres sur le XVIIe siècle. PFSCL/Biblio 17 80 (1993).

Review: Jean-Marc Civardi in IL 48.1 (1996) 33–35: Favorable review of the papers presented in Kiel by the new CIR during the summer of 1993. The conference discussed topics ranging from poetry to religion to mathematics. Over thirty summaries are given, with all papers dealing with the concept of ars memoriae. C. concludes by saying "ce recueil d'actes est donc très cohérent dans sa diversité, et peut être consulté par ceux qui s'intéressent à la littérature aussi bien qu'à l'histoire puisque le concept de "lieu de mémoire" ressortit à l'un et l'autre domaine."

See French 17 (1995).

KINTZLER, CATHERINE. Poétique de l'Opéra français, de Corneille à Rousseau. Paris: Minerve, 1991.

Review: François Moureau in RHT 45 (1993), 90–92: Based on a thesis presented at La Sorbonne, this book offers a "contribution majeure" on the comparative aesthetics of Opera and Drama. Instead of analyzing the libretto and the musical score separately, she studies "l'articulation du langage dramatique et de la musique", and that approach results in "une des parties les plus originales et les plus profondes de cet ouvrage." Rich with historical and aesthetic insights, the final reflection on the Opera's epithémè —the philosophical conditions underlying an artistic production— "rassemble la matière foisonnante d'une étude combinant savamment le goût littéraire, la science des textes et la sûreté du jugement philosophique exactement informé".

LAGARDE, FRANÇOIS. La persuasion et ses effets. Essai sur la réception en France au dix-septième siècle. PFSCL/Biblio 17 91 (1996).

Rhetoric and persuasion during the Classical period, including political and religious considerations.

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

Review: Marie-Françoise Christout in RHT 45 (1993), 85–86: Except for Nuitter's and Thoinon's works in the late 19th century, there is no complete and methodical study of "l'histoire administrative de l'Opéra sous le règne de Louis XIV." The results of de La Gorce's endeavor are remarkable: "solidement documentée et contée d'une plume alerte, cette histoire (...) éclaire de façon nouvelle une époque (...) complexe et apporte de précieux renseignements tant sur le répertoire que les artistes, le public et les conditions mêmes du spectacle". All in all, it is an "ouvrage de consultation facile" and a "précieuse source de références."

See French 17 (1995).

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

Review: T. Peach in MLR 91 (1996), 214–15: Thought-provoking study "focuses on friendship narratives to be found in Rabelais's Pantagruel, in Marguerite's Heptaméron, in Montaigne of course, in La Princesse de Clèves, and in Corneille's Cinna and Rodogune . . . ." Other French and Italian authors of the period treated more briefly.

Review: S. Rendall in FrF 20 (1995), 245–46: Considered a "generous, humane book . . . clear, graceful . . . accessible to a wide audience." L. examines classical and medieval concepts and their reformulation and challenges. 17th c. texts include Cinna and La Princesse de Clèves.

See French 17 (1995).

LEWIS, JAYNE ELIZABETH. The English Fable: Aesop and Literary Culture, 1651–1740. Cambridge: CUP, 1996.

LLOYD, ROSEMARY. Closer & Closer Apart: Jealousy in Literature. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1995.

Review: S. A. Parker in Choice 33 (1996), 1470: "Sexual jealousy as a literary device provides a vehicle for the exploration of self, Other, roles, society, and gender in this mature and elegantly written study. L. . . . explores sexual jealousy as a vehicle of control and explains the postsentimental reality of the 19th century, which replaced loyalty to family name or feudal possession by a husband with new obsessions about individual importance. Not a thematic or psychological study, this inquiry into the early modern presentation of sexual jealousy builds on recent critical precepts, rejecting current phallocentric theories, which refuse to account for female desire . . . . Using an eclectic choice of texts but grounded in French fiction, this study presents a series of jealous protagonists who provide readers with techniques of decoding, interpreting, and assessing information in texts. . . . Contains a useful bibliography and index," notes P., who "[h]ighly recommend[s]" L.'s book "for all upper division collections in fiction and gender studies."

LYONS, JOHN D. "The Barbarous Ancients: French Classical Poetics and the Attack on Ancient Tragedy." MLN 110 (1995), 1135–47.

"This rapid survey of classical modernist poetics suggests that we need to ponder the extent to which the formal and aesthetic constraints on seventeenth-century tragedy are in large part an attempt to limit the political impact of ancient tragedy with its extreme and negative representation of the prince. Although d'Aubignac or La Mesnardière probably had little direct impact on the writing of Corneille or Racine, their poetic doctrines help us understand the importance of keeping the barbarous ancients at a distance."

MANTERO, ANNE. "Colletet et la Vie de Joachim du Bellay." OeC 20.1 (1995), 87–95.

"La Vie de Joachim du Bellay, n'apporte pas seulement le témoignage du goût, au milieu du XVIIe siècle, d'un lecteur averti s'il en fût, d'un érudit sans doute, mais aussi d'un académicien qui n'était pas à l'écart des modes littéraires de son temps. Dans ces pages, Guillaume Colletet prend directement pour un des thèmes de sa réflexion la destinée critique du poète."

MANTERO, ANNE. La muse théologienne. Poésie et théologie en France de 1629 à 1680. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1995.

Review: G. Hope in PFSCL 23 (1996), 694–697: Examines the neglected French devotional poetry: "This book does succeed . . . in bringing this complex and distant poetry into close and intriguing context; in a word, M. makes this poetry readable."

MARGOLIN, JEAN-CLAUDE. "La fonction de la fabula dans la pensée d'Erasme de Rotterdam." RLC 70 No. Spécial (1996), 21–44.

Erasme apprécie la valeur pédagogigue des fables et "il étend le concept de fabula à toutes histoires, aux contes, aux légendes et aux mythes.

MARIN, CATHERINE. "Une lecture des contes de fées de la fin du XVIIe siècle: A la lumière de la libre pensée." PFSCL 23 (1996), 477–490.

Despite their appearance of traditionalism, tales written by women reveal the influence of free thought: "les conteuses ont fait de leurs héroïnes des 'esprits forts' luttant pour leur propre réalisation, des individus à part entière qui prennent leur destin en main."

MARKS, ELAINE. Merrano as Metaphor: The Jewish Presence in French Writing. New York: Columbia UP, 1996.

Review: G. Moskos in Choice 33 (1996), 1317: "In this provocative and timely book, M. . . . uses history, literary theory, and psychoanalysis to 'take note of a Jewish presence without establishing a rigid Jewish difference.' She examines a wide range of authors from Garnier and Racine to Cohen and Derrida to demonstrate the inevitability of intertextuality and assimilation in literary texts. M. views this 'contamination' as a positive condition, for it opens up the space of the 'Maranno,' the metaphor she has chosen to express the value of multiple identities. (Marrano is the name Christians gave to Jews in Medieval Spain who converted to Christianity in order to escape persecution, but who remained faithful to Judaism.)" According to G. M., the author "provides intelligent and meticulous readings that deftly illustrate the links between antisemitism, misogyny, homophobia, and the 'death of God.' At the same time, the book is a passionate and persuasive attempt to complicate simplistic notions of identity politics. . . . The book is beautifully written and compelling," says the reviewer. "M.'s arguments will likely be controversial, but no one can deny their power to captivate and challenge the reader."

MATHIS, GENEVIEVE. "Séduction et pulsion de mort au théâtre, de Molière à Bernstein." RHT 187 (1995), 199–212.

A comparative study of the male protagonists in Molière's Misanthrope and Dom Juan, Marivaux's L'Épreuve, and Bernstein's Mélo. The author analyzes the "éléments névrotiques" of the male "complexe de séduction", and concludes that, in Molière, Dom Juan and Alceste, though they appear dissimilar at first glance, are overwhelmed by the spiral of neurosis, and "poursuivent le but inconscient de se retirer de la vie."

MAY, GEORGES. La Perruque de Dom Juan, ou du bon usage des énigmes dans la littérature de l'âge classique. Paris: Klincksieck, 1995.

Review: D. Shaw in MLR 91 (1996), 726–27: May "follows the riddle theme across the seventeenth and eighteenth centures and argues that its function developes from Cotin's innocuous verse puzzles into the bogus naivety of the Lettres persanes and the Supplément au Voyage de Bougainville." Reviewer feels that "the author could have been more specific about the place of each text in the development from parlour game to political weapon" but regards this work as an interesting contribution "to a neglected aspect of the classical age."

MAZOUER, CHARLES. "'La Rosaure, impératrice de Constantinople' (1658)." PFSCL 23 (1996), 561–573.

Uses the scant documents available about the play to look at the theatrical esthetics of the period, showing that the performance represented Italian, baroque, and "total" spectacles: ". . . le succès des pièces à machines a cohabité avec les efforts des théoriciens [of Classicism] . . . ."

MAZOUER, CHARLES, éd. Evariste Gherardi: Le Théâtre italien. Vol. I. Paris: Société des Textes Français Modernes, 1994.

Review: J. Clarke in MLR 91 (1996), 722–23: "Gherardi's Recueil of French scenes from fifty-five plays performed on the stage of the Comédie Italienne in Paris was published in 1700, three years after the Italian actors had been expelled from the capital. Charles Mazouer here presents scenes from just three plays: Fatouville's Le Banqueroutier, Palaprat's La Fille au bon sens, and Boffrand's Les Bains de la Porte Saint-Bernard. Each is accompanied by an introduction and detailed notes."

Review: Donna Kuizenga in FR 69 (1996), 1010–11: Three plays selected from the collection published by G. after the Italiens' expulsion in 1697 shows three stages in the historical collaboration of French and Italian theatrical traditions. Fatouville's Le Banqueroutier, the commedia characters in loosely connected scenes; Palaprat's accomplished La Fille au bon sens, a complete synthesis of styles in a coherent three-acter; Boisfranc's Les Bains de la Porte Bernard incorporating Italian physical acting—especially in the role of Harlequin rewritten by G. "Ample and intelligent" introduction and notes. Text in revised modern French.

See French 17 (1995).

MC BRIDE, ROBERT and NOEL PEACOCK, éds. Le Nouveau Moliériste, I (1994). Glasgow: Universities of Glasgow and Ulster, 1994.

Review: D. Shaw in MLR 91 (1996), 218–19: "Le Nouveau Moliériste is a worthy attempt at re-establishing a journal devoted entirely to Molière. It consists of seventeen articles on Molière, followed by reviews of half a dozen recent performances of his plays and no fewer than forty pages of book reviews. The title pays slightly ambiguous homage to its predecessor, Le Moliériste, published from 1879 to 1889 by the Comédie Française librarian, Georges Monval." The 1995 volume will be devoted to the theme of religion; the 1996 volume will treat the theme of theatricality.

See French 17 (1995).

MC MAHON, ELISE NOEL. "Cultural Materialism and Seventeenth-Century French Literature." (Duke University, 1995) DAI (November 1995), 1811.

According to the author, "this study takes a cultural materialist approach to four works of seventeenth-century French literature: Corneille's Médée, La Fontaine's Fables, Molière's Bourgeois gentilhomme, and Racine's Phèdre, and locates each within a particular historical discourse focusing on the human body."

MCQUEEN ANDREW. "Combler non combler: Achèvement et résistance dans l'Histoire des amours de Cléante et Bélise, avec le recueil de ses lettres." PFSCL 23 (1996), 279–302.

"En mettant en question l'achèvement imposé par des modèles narratifs traditionnels,[the work] . . . ouvre un espace pour une action libre, et éventuellement pour la création d'un nouveau modèle de la vie, un modèle sans clôture monologique."

MELTZER, FRANÇOISE. Hot Property: The Stakes and Claims of Literary Originality. Chicago/London: U of Chicago P, 1994.

Review: Anon. in FMLS 31 (1995), 285: Meltzer pairs authors such as Descartes and Freud "to explore the anxiety of originality." Reviewer notes the "care not to majoritise minority status per se" and describes the agenda of the book as "a dismantling of the gynophobic, masculinist exclusivity of creativity."

MENKE, ANNE M. "Authorizing the Illicit, or How to Create Works of Lasting Insignificance." ECr 35 (1995), 84–100.

Does not argue for the inclusion of works such as Vénus dans le cloître, L'Ecole des filles . . . or Le Satyre sotadique . . . in the canon, but examines pertinent "conditions of production and distribution." Claims that "the demotion of sex to . . . the literary underground was effected simultaneously with the formation of the doctrine of Classicism." Also reflects on the effect of the academies, the salons and author's rights on "the underdevelopment of erotic fiction."

MERLIN, HELÈNE. "L'auteur et la figure absolutiste: Richelieu, Balzac et Corneille." RSH 238 (1995), 85–96.

"Je me propose de montrer ici comment, au début du XVIIe siècle, la figure de l'auteur s'élabore notamment par référence au modèle absolutiste de l'autorité."

MONTANDON, ALAIN. "Sur les fables allemandes au XVIIIe siècle." RLC 70 No. Spécial (1996), 119–132.

Studies German writers of fables (Stoppe, Hagedorn, Gellert, Lichtwer, Lessing) who, according to M. are more influenced by La Motte than by La Fontaine.

MOUREAU, FRANÇOIS. De Gherardi à Watteau. Présence d'Arlequin sous Louis XIV. Paris: Klincksieck, 1992.

Review: Charles Mazouer in RHT 47 (1995), 185–186: This collection of previously published articles has two sides: on the first hand, six chapters on "l'Ancien théâtre italien" in Paris, as presented by Evariste Gherardi in his six volume series on Italian Comedy in 1700 —Gherardi played the Arlecchino character in the Italian troupe—, and, on the other hand, six chapters investigating the manner "dont le peintre Watteau a rêvé le théâtre italien". In the first part, Moureau analyzes the moral vision of the Italian theatre as staged in Paris between 1693 and 1696, and shows how that aesthetics of "spectacle" was quite different from its French counterpart: "une très solide bibliographie (...) et un index achèvent ce (...) passionnant recueil, qui servira de base à tous ceux qui s'intéressent à la présence des acteurs italiens à Paris".

MOURIER-CASILE, PASCALINE and DOMINIQUE MONCOND'HUY, eds. Lisible/Visible: problématiques. Semaine Texte/Image. Poitiers, 27 jan. -1 fev. 1992. La Licorne 23. Poitiers: URF de langues et littératures, 1992.

Review: Monique Yaari in FR 69 (1996), 501–2: Brilliant introduction by B. Vouillous, "L'Evidence descriptive," on Lessing and his heritage in distinction from the classical Aristotelian/Horatian tradition and by René Demoris on the readibility of the visible and its subversion by Le Brun and by Poussin. "Etude érudite" by Cl. Belavoine on emblems. D. Desirat presents the main theses of Dubos; D. Moncond'huy, "Le poète commanditaire au peintre aux 16e et 17e siècles"; Ch. Biet, Jesuit pedagogy.

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

Review: Frédéric Briot in IL 48.1 (1996) 35–36: A generally critical review in which B. describes the theoretical approaches taken as inconsistent and "uneven." Specifically, the key term "mimesis" is never clearly explained. Citing other examples of the book's "unevenness," B. states that "La question des genres, et donc des codes qu'ils impliquent des polémiques qu'ils génèrent aurait sans doute mérité d'être prise en considération de façon plus centrale." Reviewer also finds fault with the author's reliance on a number of anglo-saxon commentaries, which are "bien mal connus [en France]."

Review: J.-P. Collinet in RF 107 (1995), 221–22: Mimesis and metatextuality provide the "fil conducteur" which assures the unity of M.'s volume. Even if the content of these two concepts seems at times "flottant," the volume is an "agréable promenade . . . très enrichissante."

See French 17 (1995).

NEAL, LISA, and STEVEN RENDALL. "Polyphonic Narrative in Early Modern France: A Question of Literary History." RR 87.3 (1996) 297–306.

Article focuses on Bakhtinian polyvocality and frame narrative, while mentioning writers from Marguerite de Navarre to Rousseau. With respect to the seventeenth century, article touches upon d'Urfé, Sorel, and Madame de Lafayette, among others. L'Astrée presents an ambiguous form of polyvocality, since "the frame narrative is the fundamental structural principle of L'Astrée . . . [and] allows the author to knit a series of discrete episodes into a single narrative. Yet, the various characters speak in the same registers and belong to the same linguistic class or "sociolect." In their discussion of Francion, authors discuss plurivocality and heteroglossia in terms of dream narrative and "the broad range of sociolects" represented in characters such as Agathe. The Princessse de Clèves represents a kind of counter-example to the polyphonic novel of the period as its "secondary stories constitute only about 14% of La Princesse," and "as in L'Astrée, the secondary sources do not introduce different voices of languages into the narrative." Authors also mention Guilleragues, stating that the Lettres portugaises have a polyphonic potential that goes unrealized.

NIDERST, ALAIN, éd. Hommes et animaux dans la littérature francaise. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1994.

Review: R Reynolds-Cornell in BHR 58 (1996), 254–58: "This publication of the University of Rouen's Research Center for the History of Ideas and of Sensitivity represents a wide range of specializations, but the common purpose of its authors, philosophers, historians and 'littéraires,' is to substantiate the relatioship between 'human nature' and 'animal nature' and the import of texts that resort to 'animality' to speak to us about 'humanity'."

NUSSBAUM, MARTHA C. Poetic Justice: The Literary Imagination and Public Life. Boston: Beacon P, 1996.

Review: H. L. Carrigan, Jr. in Choice 34 (1996), 118: "Contending that contemporary public discourse is too often restricted by the narrow bounds of pseudoscientific theorizing and the rhetoric of rationalism, N. . . . issues a clarion call for the introduction of the literary imagination into discourses of public life like law and economics." N. "argues that reading novels creates in readers an imaginative sympathy for the lives of others. . . . As she does in Love's Knowledge (1990), N. demonstrates the ways in which reading imaginative literature is an ethical act and reinvigorates the life of culture." C. recommends this study for "[a]ll academic collections."

OBERHELMAN, STEVEN M., VAN KELLY, and RICHARD J. GOLSAN, eds. Epic and Epoch: Essays on the Interpretation and History of a Genre. Lubbock: Texas Tech UP, 1994.

Review: David Fredrick in SoAR 61.1 (1996), 136–38: "In fourteen essays, this volume traces the vicissitudes of epic from Homer through the mid twentieth century; it illustrates well the diversity of the genre and the elusiveness of its formal definition. But it sometimes fails to engage 'epoch,' a term which suggests literary periods and their specific social hierarchies. . . . Omissions also cripple the volume's pursuit of its theme . . . ," according to F. "U. Langer finds that the epic in early modern France becomes a tedious social gesture whose repetition is a symptom of decline; d'Aubigné's Tragiques is the exception, escaping boredom because it attacks the royal court."

PAGLIARI, ROBERTA. "Lettere inedite del duca di Montausier a Madame de Sablé." SFr 113 (38.2),(Maggio-Agosto 94), 265–271.

A critical and historical presentation of five unpublished letters (1639–1641) from the Duke of Montausier to Madame de Sablé, and one note (1678) to Doctor Vallant. They are fine examples of 'lettres mondaines' and appear to be close transcriptions of 'conversations de salon".

PARUSSA, GABRIELLA. Les recueils français de fables ésopiques au XVIIe siècle. Genève: Slatkine, 1993.

Review: A. Gier in ZRP 110 (1994), 772–73: Welcome treatment of this genre whose master is La Fontaine. Includes several "fabulistes occasionnels" as well. Sections on translations of fables, the history of the genre and new editions of old collections complete the volume.

PASQUIER, PIERRE. La mimésis dans l'esthétique théâtrale du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Klincksieck, 1995.

Review: Roger Zuber in RHL 96.3 (1996), 496–97: Favorable review in which Z. praises B. for insisting on "règles" at a time when "la tendance est plutôt d'étudier le classicisme sous la forme du goût." Of note are P.'s study of classicism "dans un bon dialogue avec le baroque," as well as his analysis of "l'importance de Chapelain," and the general influence of Aristotle.

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

Review: Marc Escola in RHL 96.1 (1996) 139–40: E. welcomes the work, praising "la vigoreuse précision" and the "richesse séminale de l'enquête de Plantié." The "mode du portrait" is examined in many authors, but among the most prominent are Georges and Madeleine de Scudéry, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, Bussy-Rabutin and La Bruyère. From a thematic standpoint, one key issue becomes the relationship between "caractère" and "portrait." It is this notion of "caractère," and its moral ambiguity that helps produce a "crise du portrait" in the second half of the Grand Siècle. On the whole, E. highly recommends the book, calling it "un indispensable outil de travail."

See French 17 (1995).

RAY, WILLIAM. Story and History. Narrative Authority and Social Identity in the Eighteenth-Century French and English Novel. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990.

Review: G. Jucquois in LR 48 (1994), 384–85: Successfully underscores and analyzes a number of themes particular to La Princesse de Clèves and the individual, his/her power, seduction, dreams, etc. The relation between fiction and history is considered as integral to the hermeneutic of a work.

RIGHTER, WILLIAM. The Myth of Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge UP 1994.

Review: Anon. in FMLS 31 (1995), 380. Judged "somewhat ponderous at times," Righter's study reveals inconsistencies and blind spots as it demolishes "a gamut of critical theories from New Criticism to Deconstruction."

ROMANOWSKI, S., and M. BILEZIKIAN, eds. Homage to Paul Bénichou. Birmingham (Alabama): Summa Publications, Inc., 1994.

Review: Edmund J. Campion in FR 69 (1996), 1009–10: Informative introduction on Bénichou and 18 essays focusing, like his scholarship, on a search for ethical, philosophical, and social values. Of special mention are Timothy Reiss and Eleonore Zimmerman on Racine's first two tragedies, Barbara Woshinski on sacred space in Esther, Judd Hubert on fairy tales, Charles G.S. Williams, on Motteville's sense of history, Ralph Albanese on 19th-century reception of Molière.

Review: Marc Escola in RHL 96.3 (1996), 500–01: E. introduces the work, saying, "Ce recueil vient illustrer la vitalité des grands thèmes de l'oeuvre de P. Bénichou près de cinquante ans après la parution des Morales du Grand Siècle. The volume privileges theatre, dealing primarily with Corneille, Racine and Molière, but does touch upon La Fontaine's Fables, as well as fairy tales.

Review: M.-O. Sweetsesr in PFSCL 23 (1996), 414–415: A festschrift by American scholars.

RUBIN, DAVID LEE, ed. EMF: Studies in Early Modern France. Vol. 1. Word and Image. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 1994.

Review: Boris Donné in RHL 96.2 (1996), 326–27: D. commends the work, the successor to Continuum, saying, "Ce premier volume, de haute tenue, s'attache aux rapports entre expressions verbale et picturale. Reviewer notes G. Molinié's "rédefinition de la notion de Baroque," as well as D. Russell's and D. Judovitz's study of emblematics, and the discussion of ekphrasis by D. Cosper, D. Kuizenga and M. Vincent. Of note also are J. Gaines's and J. Morgan Zarucchi's contributions on "les figurations de l'absolutisme monarchique."

RUSSO, ELENA. Skeptical Selves: Empiricism and Modernity in the French Novel. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1996.

Review: P. Koch in Choice 34 (1996), 133–34: "Though Western thought has always oscillated between Platonic idealism and Aristotelian realism, their opposition has continued to intensify since the advent, in the late 17th century, of reality oriented empiricism with its insistence on individual experience rather than universal categories. In support of this thesis, R. . . . offers the examples of three first person novels: Prévost's Histoire d'une Grecque moderne (1740), Constant's Adolphe (1816), and des Forêts's Le Bavard (1946)." "Like so many contemporary critical works, this [study] can be considered philosophy illustrated by literature, or the reverse. However classified, the present study is well worth the reader's investment," says K.

SAFTY, ESSAM. "Les sources grecques et latines des principaux topoi des consolations contre la mort dans la poésie baroque." PFSCL 23 (1996), 303–328.

Studies the ancient sources of devout humanism and the reconciliation of paganism and Christianity.

SAINT-JACQUES, DENIS and ALAIN VIALA. "A propos du champ littéraire." Annales 49 (1994), 395–406.

Questions the application of Bourdieu's notion of literary field in pre-ninetheenth-century areas and outside France. Seeks a clearly historical methodology that might properly contribute to a general history of litteratures.

SALWA, PIOTR and EWA DOROTA ZOLKIEWSKA, eds. Narrations brèves, mélanges de littérature ancienne offerts à Krystyna Kasprzyk. Genève: Droz, 1993.

Review: H. C. Jacobs in RF 106 (1994), 329–31: Festchrift of twenty-seven essays on the European short narrative from the Middle Ages to the 18th c. Includes a contribution by R. Guichemerre on Segrais and history.

SANGSUE, DANIEL. La parodie. Paris: Hachette, 1994.

Review: Anon. in FMLS 31 (1995), 382: Judged a "helpful aid to students of French literature," this pocket book has as its ambition "the definition of parody from antiquity to the present."

SCHÖPFLIN, KARIN. Theater im Theater. Formen und Funktionen eines dramatischen Phänomens im Wandel. Frankfurt a. M.: Lang, 1993.

Review: C. Bachmann in Archiv 106 (1994), 315–18: Important and needed study offers both historical dimension and analyses of the "theatre in theatre" phenomena. Comprehensive, yet impressive treatment of individual works. 17th c. scholars will appreciate references to Rotrou, Scudéry, Corneille and Molière.

SERROY, J., ed. Romanciers du XVIIe siècle. Littératures Classiques 15 (Octobre 1995).

Review: Marc Escola in IL 47.5 (1995) 38–39: E. calls the collection "une copieuse livraison [qui] se veut . . . un bilan des travaux entrepris durant ces trente dernières années sur le genre romanesque au XVIIe siècle." According to E., "Le Grand Siècle apparaît non seulement comme 'le siècle du roman,' mais bien plutôt comme le siècle des romans." E. then lists brief summaries of the 23 essays appearing in the volume. Describing the essays as "bien informés," E. stresses the different types of novels covered, "de l'Epique à l'Héroique, en passant par le Comique, l'Historique, le Galant, le Bourgeois, l'Ironique."

SHANKMAN, STEVEN. In Search of the Classic. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1995.

Review: Edward E. Foster in P&L 20 (1996), 256–57: In this book, says the reviewer, S. "forthrightly argues that the classic is, of its nature, something that always exists in quest and tension. The classic is not to be located merely in classical antiquity or in the tastes of a privileged class. Though S. grants that these often are associated with the literary classic, he finds the nature of the classic rather in the nature of literature as a state of metaxis or 'in betweenness.' His examinations of classical, neo classical, and modern works define various aspects of this 'in betweenness,' the state of tension that exists in the truly classic at any point in the history of literature." The author "uses Habermas's notion of classic literature as enduring and independent of time and Vogelin's concept of metaxis as foundational for his sprawling, yet lucid, inquiry into the idea of the classic in Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Pindar, Virgil, Dryden, Defoe, Swift, Valery [sic], and others, and in the traditions of the epic, ode, pastoral, and lyric." "Fundamental is the view that classic literature has the greatest power to represent human experience. . . . Literature is neither an abstract kernelization of truth nor an anthology of the things of experience but an analogical conjunction of the two extremes therefore tension, therefore continual quest."

See French 17 (1995).

SIMON, ALFRED. "Parcours du coeur battant." RDM (juiillet-aout 1996), 61–80.

Chronologie du festival d'Avignon à l'occasion de son cinquantième anniversaire.

SPIER, PETER. "Seventeenth-Century Translations of Spanish 'baroque' texts." SCFS 16 (1994), 119–33.

Concentrates on the complex process of assimilation, adaptation, and acculturation brought into play by translations of Quevedo's Buscon (1633) and Aleman's Guzman de Alfarache (1619–20). Presentation derives from author's recent, unpublished thesis, The Spanish Picaresque Novel in French Translation (Oxford, 1990).

STANTON, DOMNA C. "Sexual Pleasure and Sacred Law: Transgression and Complicity in Vénus dans le cloître." ECr 35 (1995), 67–83.

Disagrees with Lynn Hunt's "predominantly 'subversive' view of 'pornographic' texts in the period 1500–1800" and contests her assertion that 'pornography' 'stagnated' in the period 1665–1740. Vénus dans le cloître dramatizes an ironic mixture of sacred and sexual meanings. S. finds that texts like this and others such as Dom Juan or La Fontaine's Contes et nouvelles are characterized by "transgressions and complicities [which] expose the limits and blindspots of 'oppositional' sexual discourse."

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

Review: John Michael Crafton in SoAR 60.4 (1995), 144–47: In this book S. treats "the representation of love and mourning in selected texts of the major canon of Western literature. S. surveys the various ways that eros and mourning are inextricably linked and the consequent development of different attempts at transcendence as a means of escaping the trap of what he calls throughout the book 'the dialectic of mourning.'" "The chapter on Hamlet and La Princesse de Clèves reveals the crippling tragic effects of the inability to deal with a full awareness of the connection between sexuality and the flesh. While this chapter is very short and offers very few surprises," in C.'s view, "that on Paradise Lost is the stunning centerpiece of this theme. Here S. argues that Milton synthesizes the tradition of courtly love and thanatoerotophobia (S.'s term) and deconstructs it; in S.'s hands it seems that Milton is of Derrida's party without knowing it."

See French 17 (1995).

STAUDER, THOMAS. Die literarische Travestie. Terminologische Systematik und paradigmatische Analyse (Deutschland, England, Frankreich, Italien). Frankfurt: Lang, 1993.

Review: Wolfgang Karrer in ZFSL 106 (1996), 103–4: Essay on definition of national styles. Treats the French tradition from Scarron through Voltaire. The Fronde is the principal context for treatment of Scarron.

STEINBRUGGE, LIESELOTTE. The Moral Sex: Women's Nature in the French Enlightenment. Trans.Pamela E. Selwyn. Oxford: OUP, 1996.

Review: Biancamaria Fontana in TLS 4857 (3 May 1996), 12: Traces the breakdown of the pioneering "Cartesian anthropology" of Poulain de la Barre (reason has no sex or gender and therefore there cannot be disparity) through the increasingly "sensualist" clarifications of physical and physiological sexuality leading to relegation of the female to a sub-species and reinforcement of beliefs in separate roles and historical experiences. Reviewer strongly stresses a partial account of historical evidence offered for this view by La Méttrie, Helvétius, Buffon, and especially Condorcet.

STENZEL, H. Die französische "Klassik." Literaturische Modernisierung und absolutischer Staat. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgeselschaft, 1995.

Review: Marc Escola in RHL 96.3 (1996), 500: For E., the originality of the study lies in its examination of "[le] classicisme louis-quatorzien." In this examination, S.'s study of Boileau "permet de mettre en évidence que la constitution du premier champ littéraire peut apparaître à la fois comme partagé d'une diversité de discours et repli d'une littérature institutionellement revalorisée sur un domaine de maîtrise qui n'est pas immédiatement idéologique ou politique." The work also discusses Chapelain, Balzac, and the "Querelle du Cid." E. concludes by calling the book "très synthétique," while praising its bibliography.

SWEETSER, MARIE-ODILE. "Visions de l'autre dans la tragédie classique: le Romain et l'Oriental." FLS 23 (1996), 51–65.

S. summarizes her goal as follows, "On se propose d'examiner la représentation de l'autre, le Romain et l'Oriental chez Corneille et chez Racine, dans les premières pièces 'romaines' des années 1640, Horace et Cinna d'une part, et l'autre dans Bajazet." In Corneille's case, the choice of Roman venues and characters comes from a pragmatic desire to appeal to Richelieu, and from an esthetic desire to evoke a sense of "la légende" and "l'histoire." Racine, by evoking the violence and cruelty of the Ottoman regime in Bajazet accomplishes the same political goals as Corneille. S. concludes, "Racine créait une horreur et une terreur du despotisme oriental . . . [et] célébrait par contraste les vertus d'un monarque légitime, gouvernant dans le cadre des lois."

TER HORST, ROBERT. "Epic Descent: The Filiations of Don Juan." MLN 111 (1996), 255–74.

Study focuses on the connections between José Zorrilla's Don Juan Tenorio and Tirso de Molina's El burlador de Sevilla. The author finds that "Molière fundamentally alters the issue of Don Juan by portraying him as a rationalist ('deux et deux sont quatre') unbeliever derived from French seventeenth-century atheist philosophy, libertinage, against which he is to serve as a dire example. The French Don Juan, however, follows in the Tirsian tradition by validating his existence at the expense of others."

THOMAS, FRANCIS-NOEL. The Writer Writing. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Review: Eglal Henein in EMF 2 (1996), 175–81: H. discusses T.'s work mainly in terms of the Princesse de Clèves. T.'s thesis bases itself in part on Jack Austin's distinction between authorial "intention and purposes." In general, H. finds fault with T.'s reliance on Bussy-Rabutin as a critical point of departure. The reviewer also chides T. for ignoring "la critique de Mme de La Fayette après 1970," and points to recent works such as those by Patrick Henry and Thomas Di Piero as examples of arguments that would undercut T.'s assertion that "le but d'un roman n'est pas d'être différent."

TOBIN, RONALD W., ed. Le corps au XVIIe siècle. PFSCL/Biblio 17 89 (1995).

Review: J. Marmier in PFSCL 23 (1996), 705–708: A wide variety of conference papers showing that the body did indeed occupy a place in the literature of the period.

TRUCHET, JACQUES et ANDRE BLANC. Théâtre du XVIIe siècle, III. Paris: Gallimard, 1992.

Review: Charles Mazouer in RHT 47 (1995), 92–96: Though the reviewer has some reservations on the choice of comedies, —"nos éditeurs sont peut-être encore tributaires d'un modèle classique; on les aurait aimés plus audacieux"—, on typographical mistakes, and on the length and perspective of the 400 pages of notes "composées en petits caractères", he insists that such minor flaws are unavoidable and stresses the "travail considérable et indispensable" of "les savants et patients éditeurs" and admires "la richesse du volume" which will allow "la redécouverte et la plus juste évaluation d'un répertoire trop oublié".

See French 17 (1995).

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

Review: Anne Laure in IL 47.5 (1995), 36–38: According to L., it is the notion of "caractère" that guides Van D.'s study of anthropology in the neo-classical era. L. praises Van D. For the "ampleur" of his point of view, in which "caractère," and its analogue "morale" are studied in terms of unique subjects such as typography, cartography and anatomy. With respect to seventeenth-century France, any notion of "caractère" would forcibly include La Bruyère, whose work Van D. catagorizes as belonging to "l'encyclopédisme de la Renaissance." Les Caractères corresponds to Van D.'s theoretical model because "La Bruyère cartographie. Il anatomise. Il estampe. Il grave." In general, L.'s reaction is quite favorable, as she concludes, "C'était un audacieux pari que de trouver le point archimédien de cet univers composite, et de relire le monde—et La Bruyère—dans cette riche et complexe perspective."

Review: Marie-Odile Sweetser in FR 69 (1996), 634–35: Highest praise for a "passionant ouvrage" with "erudition, vues neuves, ouverture à bien des domaines généralement séparés, remarquable sensibilité aux valeurs esthétiques. Part I traces the traditions of the Theophrastian fixed character in contrast to the open one of Montaigne. Includes "brilliant chapter" (VI) on La Rochefoucauld; II focuses on the dissolution of character and La Bruyère's evolution; III, "Litterature et anatomie" combines medical science, painting, and "anatomie morale" issuing from Gracian in the search for macro-/micro-cosm correspondences.

VAN DER CRUYSSE, DIRK. "Connaissance ou méconnaissance de l'Orient? Images du Siam dans la littérature louis-quatorzienne." FLS 23 (1996), 67–82.

Author begins by summarizing the failed attempt by Louis XIV to colonize Siam in the latter half of the century. After describing the revolt of the Siamese against the French in 1688, the author describes the "corpus très riche de textes français consacrés au Siam, rédigés entre 1662 and 1688." Among the texts mentioned are works by missionaries such as Pierre Lambert de La Motte and Jacques de Bourges, as well as Guy Tachard's Voyage de Siam des Pères Jésuites. Discussing these works, the author concludes that "le discours français consacré au Siam illustre des distorsions optiques inévitables dues surtout à l'emprise de la religion sur les mentalités collectives et la pensée individuelle."

VENUTI, LAWRENCE. The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation. London: Routledge, 1996.

Review: Terry Hale in TLS 4875 (6 Sept. 1996), 8–9: Includes examples from the early-modern period on in an all-embracing theory of translation according to which the translation tends to conceal or redirect in an active component of local cultural values—a "domestication" inscribed in the text.

VELAY-VALLANTIN, CATHERINE. L'histoire des contes. Paris: Fayard, 1992.

Review: Laurence Harf-Lancner in Annales 49 (1994), 441–43: French discussion in rich detail concentrating on the mingling of the written and oral traditions in six stories, among which the 17th-century Barbe-Bleue (Perrault), Geneviève de Brabant (Père de Cériziers), Marmoisan (Marie L'Heritier).

WARNER, MARINA. From the Beast to the Blonde. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1995.

Review: Anon. in VQR 72 (1996), 84: "In this detailed and engaging study, W. traces the origins of the fairy tale and its tellers going as far back as the classical Sibyl and neatly bringing us up to date by including contemporary writers . . . . What follows is a study that touches on the religious, mythical, and secular influences which have shaped both the story and the storyteller. The importance of the link between women's history and storytelling is explained by W. . . . The focus of this critical study is on fairy tales with family dramas at their heart. In the process," declares the reviewer, "W. herself becomes a spellbinding teller of women's history. Through meticulous gathering of information and intelligent analysis of the tales, W. goes beyond any previous studies . . . . This book is a brilliant scholarly work which makes it essential reading for specialists and anyone interested in the genre and in history from a feminist point of view."

WARNER, MARINA, ed. Wonder Tales. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996.

Graceful translations into English by G. Adair, J. Ashberry, R. Bolt, T. Cave, and A. S. Byatt of six fairy tales by Catherine D'Aulnoy, Marie-Jeanne L'Heritier de Villandon, Henriette-Julie de Murat, and Charles Perrault. Well-informed introduction discusses authors and the genre.

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

Review: Boris Donné in RHL 96.2 (mars-avril 1996), 326. D. welcomes the volume, saying, "la recherche sur les formes et la portée des genres moraux au dix-septième siècle, très active ces derniers temps, s'enrichit de neuf études formant . . . [un] recueil riche de perspectives nouvelles sur les plus illustres des 'moralistes français'." Among the articles mentioned are J. Lafond's essay on La Rochefoucauld's apology of "la mondanité," M. Escola's study of "Rhétorique et discontinuité" in the Caractères, and B. Papasogli's discussion of "souvenirs imperceptibles" in Lamy.

See French 17 (1995).

WATT, IAN. Myths of Modern Individualism: Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Robinson Crusoe. New York: Cambridge UP, 1996.

Review: K. P. Mulcahy in Choice 33 (1996), 1788–89: The author "examines four literary characters who have attained mythic status in Western culture." "W. notes that he is writing for a general audience rather than specialists, but his erudition and breadth of mind are fully evident as he traces these four figures from their origins through their transformations in the Romantic era to their most recent literary incarnations." M. praises the book, saying it "is intellectual and literary history at its best. Recommended for all collections."

WEINBERG, M. GRAZIA SUMELI. "The Myth of Don Juan and Feminine Sensibility: A New Turning Point?" JES 26 (1996), 141–51.

Noting that ". . . the absence of a universally accepted version of D. J. has encouraged authors throughout the centuries to present this male figure in ever different and novel ways," W. discusses "a play entitled Don Juan, by . . . Dacia Maraini, published in 1976. M., perhaps the best known feminist writer in Italy," according to W., "freely adapts characters and scenes from all her predecessors [Molière's Dom Juan is one of numerous versions W. had cited] while retaining the essential parts of the story . . . ." W., referring to Shoshana Felman on "the problematic of promising in Molière's play Dom Juan," says that F. is one of the "women literary theorists whose works will help to shed some light on Maraini's play." Maraini's "characterization of D. J. owes much to Molière's . . . ," says W., but the Italian playwright "shows how, . . . by appropriating language for pure enjoyment, Juan turns the system of patriarchy on its head, revealing its basic contradictions and weaknesses."

WELLER, FRANZ-RUDOLF. "Literaturwissenschaftliche und literaturdidaktische Neuerscheinungen. Eine Sammelbesprechung mit Blick auf den Französischunterricht." NS 94 (1995), 175–206.

Review article surveys a number of collections dealing with French literature from various perspectives: themes, sources, literary history, canon or reading lists, student editions. Thoughtful essay raises pertinent questions such as: "Why is Corneille's L'Illusion preferred over Le Cid [or] . . . Moliere's Tartuffe . . . over L'Avare?."

WENTZLAFF-EGGBERT, CHRISTIAN, ed. Le langage littéraire au XVIIe siècle: De la rhétorique à la littérature. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1991.

Review: Catherine Grisé in CdDS 6.1 (1992) 257–59: Quoting W.-E., G. summarizes the work as "a collection of 22 articles dealing with the evolution of literature during the course of the seventeenth century towards a more genre-based view of literary expression as well as towards the establishment of fixed criteria for new esthetics of taste." Among the most noted essays are contributions from Bernard Bray on the "epistolary," Robert Garapon on "the rhetoric of comedy," as well as Aaron Kibedi Varga on "prose fiction," Jean Mesnard on "philosphical language" and Jürgen Grimm on "La Fontaine's indirect rhetoric." G. criticizes "the lack of any apparent order (dispositio) in the presentation of these articles," but suggests that "Most of the articles are stimulating and informative."

WOODROUGH, ELIZABETH, ed. Women in European Theatre. Oxford: Intellect Books, 1995.

Review: P. Gethner in PFSCL 23 (1996), 711–712: Includes articles on women theatre professionals in 17th-century France and Aphra Behn and Madame de Villedieu.

ZANGER, ABBY E. "Writing about Sex and . . . " ECr 35 (1995), 3–8.

Z. is guest editor of this issue which focuses on 17th c. France, a century "widely accepted as one of the turning points in the history of erotic writings." Since the body is a symbol of society, the subject is vast, extending to alchemy, political disorder, writing itself, the intertext, and so forth. Purpose of this issue was "to challenge . . . or entice the reader . . . to continue exploring this largely uncharted field."

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

Review: Elizabeth A. Warner in JES 26 (1996), 210–11: W. says that this "book [is] . . . not . . . about the traditional oral folk tale but about the literary folk tale and, in particular, about the manipulation in literate cultures of what have come to be regarded, often erroneously, as quintessential folk tale situations and propositions. [Z.'s] set of essays begins with the sanitization of the traditional magic tales (Zaubermärchen) for the French salons of the seventeenth century, where the folk tale was transformed into a paradigm for 'proper behaviour,' a means to practise the verbal wit and social skills of high society ladies. Z. reminds us that what we have often come to regard as the canonical versions of many famous tales . . . are in fact no such thing."

See French 17 (1995).

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

Review: P. Hourcade in PFSCL 23 (1996), 713: A reprint of the 1968 study of the influence of translations on Classicism.

FRENCH 17

Contents

Editor

Contributing Editors

PART IV: LITERARY HISTORY AND CRITICISM