French 17 FRENCH 17

2000 Number 48

PART IV: LITERARY HISTORY AND CRITICISM

ALCOVER, MADELEINE. "Un gay trio: Cyrano, Chapelle, Dassoucy" in L'autre au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Ralph Heyndels and Barbara Woshinsky. Tübingen: Biblio 17, 117 (1999) 265–275.

How the three authors managed their "otherness" for the public. The author analyzes a "quasi-inédit" text in which Chapelle is accused; Dassoucy's defense in his Aventures; and "le détour romanesque emprunté par Cyrano pour parler ouvertement de l'homosexualité."

ARNOULD, JEAN-CLAUDE, ed. Marie de Gournay et l'Edition de 1595 des Essais de Montaigne. Actes du Colloque organisé par La Société Internationale des Amis de Montaigne les 9 et 10 juin 1995, en Sorbonne. Paris: Champion, 1996.

Review: O. Pot in BHR 61. 3 (1999), 848–51: Ces Actes "font plus que présenter un aspect de la réception des Essais au début du XVIIe siècle, ils montrent comment cette réception débouche sur unECréation originale en même temps que-ce qui est le plus significatif à nos yeux-problématique dans la mesure où Mlle de Gournay désire à la fois rester fidèle à son modèle et devenir elle-même en se distanciant de ce modèle."

ASSAF, FRANCIS. La Mort du roi: une thanatographie de Louis XIV. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 1999.

Review: N. Grande in RHL 100 (2000), 320: Book examines how the occasion of Louis XIV's death relates to the concept of the "king's body," as it existed from the Middle Ages until the neo-Classical era. Study also looks at the various funeral orations, both serious and comical, delivered at the time of the king's death.
Review: J. Pallister in SCN 58 (2000), 112–113: "Departing from an analysis of attitudes toward the body of the king coming down from the Middle Ages" this book "is devoted to a close examination of the various genres that deal with this theme: epidictic discourses, funeral orations, the writing of history, per se." Assaf focuses on funeral pieces in French but also looks beyond France, and the final chapter "deals with 'vituperations' both serious and comic." The reviewer concludes that this is a "subtle analysis . . . worthy of attention."

ASSAF, FRANCIS and ANDREW H. WALLIS, eds. 'Car demeure l'amitié': mélanges offerts à Claude Abraham. Paris-Seattle-Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 1997.

Review: V. Worth-Stylianou in FS 54.3 (2000), 362: The sixteen papers are, as the genre dictates, diverse. Several essays explore subjects which have been central to Abraham's own research, especially the re-evaluation of Molière's comédie-ballets. Other pieces of interest include work on Corneille, Dancourt, La Fontaine, Pascal, Racine, Théophile de Viau and Tristan L'Hermite.

BAGLEY, A., E. GRIFFIN, and A. MCLEAN, eds. The Telling Image: Explorations in the Emblem. New York: AMS Press, 1996.

Review: D. P. McKay and S. Covington in RenQ 51 (1998), 326: Emblems are the context of this interdisciplinary volume (under the aegis of the Emblem Studies Group at the U of Minnesota). Aims to "discover the linkages between linguistic signs and graphic signs and the signified"(B n.p.). Includes illustrations, indices and several essays of interest to 17th c. scholars, for example "French Emblem Books: Facilitating Interpretive Scholarship via Bibliography," by Stephen Rawles.

BAUDOIN, JEAN. L'Histoire nègrepontique. Laurence Plazenet, ed. Paris: Champion, 1998.

Review: N. Grande in RHL 100 (2000), 315–16: Book deals with the development of the novel during the first half of the seventeenth century. Among the subgenres studies are the devotional and historical novel, as well as the "heroic" novel, to which the text in the title belongs.

BEAULIEU, JEAN-PHILIPPE et DIANE DESROSIERS-BONIN, eds. Dans les Miroirs de l'écriture. La réflexivité chez les femmes écrivains d'Ancien Régime. Revue Paragraphes, Département d'Etudes françaises. Montréal: Université de Montréal, 1998.

Review: Y. Bellenger in BHR 61. 3 (1999), 866–69: Quinze articles; ceux de C. Cartmill sur Mme de Sévigné et d'E. Michoulan sur Mlle de Scudéry n'apportent rien de nouveau selon Bellenger.
Review: S. Dencausse in RSH 257.1 (2000), 230–233: A book of fourteen articles and an introduction. A number of late medieval and sixteenth-century writers are treated, such as Christine de Pisan, Pernette du Gillet, Nicole Estienne, Catherine des Roches, and Marguerite de Valois. M.-Th. Noiset examines the evolution of Marie de Gournay's authorial voice; C. Cartmill studies the mutual portraiture of Mme de Sévigné and Bussy Rabutin; E. Méchoulan traces the constitution of the subject and the risks of the loss of self in the face of alterity in his analysis of Madeleine de Scudéry's Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus.

BEEBEE, THOMAS O. Epistolary Fiction in Europe: 1500–1850. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Review: R. C. Rosbottom in p&L 24 (2000), 230–233: "Beebee analyzes the letter within a context of social, intellectual, psychological, historical, political, and affective dynamics and he comes as close to anyone has to defining this textual will-o'-the-wisp." Rosbottom also notes that Beebee rejects the view of the epistolary as an evolutionary step on the way to the realist novel, calling it instead an "attitude which enabled generic experimentation." With the advent of e-mail and new methods of communication, Beebee suggest the epistolary may be making a comeback.
Review: L. Kauffman in CL 52.3 (2000), 259–61: Beebee's catalog of real, model, and fictional correspondences cogently presents epistolarity as a pan-European phenomenon. Rather than proceeding chronologically, Beebee devotes separate chapters to themes, such as "Epistolary defamiliarization," which transcend national borders. "I especially admired his ability to synthesize and contextualize literary history, feminist theory, and critical theory in a compelling, erudite, and indispensable study."

BERTAUD, MADELEINE. Le Dix-septième Siècle. Littérature française. Nouvelle édition augmentée. Collection Phares. Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 1998.

Review: M.-O. Sweetser in FR 73.2 (2000), 350–51: A "guide utile et sûr" that provides "une vue lucide et objective du siècle dans son ensemble," the textbook introduces students to the works, authors, movements, and intellectual currents of the century. Bertaud articulates an intelligently wide historical definition of classicism as ranging from the Valois to the Empire.

BEUGNOT, BERNARD. "Dans l'atelier épistolière." OeC 25.1 (2000), 31–48.

Etude de l'art épistolaire de la perspectivECritique génétique. Selon B., l'épithète 'épistolaire' "désigne au moins deux ensembles textuels très différents du point de vue génétique: d'abord l'épistolarité fictive . . . ensuite des corpus de lettres réelles . . . ." L'auteur conclut: " L'apport d'une génétique épistolaire est donc double: application de l'interrogation génétique à un genre nouveau pour elle dont elle enrichit en même temps la théorie et l'histoire; manière détournéee de cerner avec plus de précisions un point aveugle de la génétique, celui du surgissement de l'écriture." Parmis les auteurs traités: Guez de Balzac, Sévigné.

BEUGNOT, BERNARD et ROBERT MELANCON, eds. Les Voies de l'invention aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Etudes génétiques. Université de Montréal. Paragraphes 9 (1993).

Review: F. Rouget in BHR 61.3 (1999), 869–71: Une quinzaine de contributions présentées à un colloque de l'Université de Montréal en février 1992 et organisées autour d'une question de méthodologie: "quelle place la critique génétique occupe-t-elle dans les études littéraires des XVIe et XVIIe siècles? Autrement dit, comment exploiter les instruments de la génétique textuelle et appliquer ses méthodes sur des textes pour lesquels nous ne possédons que peu ou pas de manuscrits?" Le deuxième volet d'études "regroupe des contributions autour de deux figures décisives du XVIIe siècle: Guez de Balzac et Chapelain." Voir aussi les contributions de G. Forestier sur Tyr et Sidon de J. de Schélandre, A. Viala sur le Discours de la méthode, E. Bury sur le Quinte-Curce de Vaugelas.
Review: B. Bonhomme et al. in RenQ 52 (1999), 590–91: Deriving from a collaborative colloque in 1992 between the French department of the U de Montréal and the Institut des Textes et Manuscrits Modernes (Paris, CNRS), volume includes several studies of interest to 17th c. scholars — on rhetoric, Descartes, la mode, Chapelain, Balzac, et Vaugelas—all by eminent specialists.

BIET, CHRISTIAN. "L'autre, le droit, et la fiction" in L'autre au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Ralph Heyndels and Barbara Woshinsky. Tübingen: Biblio 17, 117 (1999) 69–94.

Analysis of the concepts of "self" and "other" in the late 17th Century, specifically in the comedy of Louis XIV's "fin de règne". The author uses Regnard's Le Légataire universel as example.

BIONDI, C. and C. IMBROSCIO et al., éds. La quête du bonheur et l'expression de la douleur dans la littérature et la pensée françaises. Mélanges offerts àCorrado Rosso. Genève: Droz, 1995.

Review: W. Theile in Archiv 236 (1999), 459–61: Explores a theme important for the literature, spirit and culture of France. Includes studies of Guez de Balzac and Tristan l'Hermite for the 17th c. Happiness is considered in relation to beauty, money, moral and philosophical applications. Appropriate tribute to Rosso whose eminent criticism is widely appreciated.

BIRKETT, JENNIFER and JAMES KEARNS. A Guide to French Literature from Early Modern to Postmodern. London: Macmillan, 1997.

Review: n.a. in FMLS 35 (1999), 447: Praised as an informative and wide-ranging guide for undergraduates. Index.

BLOCH, OLIVIER et ANTONY MCKENNA, ed. L'identification du texte clandestin aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Paris: Presses de l'université de Paris-Sorbonne, 1998.

Review: BCLF 616 (2000), 141–42: "Ce numéro 7 de La Lettre clandestine se présente en première partie comme le 'Bulletin d'information sur la littérature philosophique clandestine' de l'année 1998. . . . La seconde partie de ce numéro est constituée des actes d'un colloque sur 'L'identification du texte clandestin aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles tenu à Créteil en mai 1998." Roger Chartier introduit l'ensemble des contributions et propose une synthèse qui permet "de mieux situer 'la production, la circulation et la lecture des manuscrits clandestines aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles', manuscrits qui sont à la fois témoignages d'une résistance de l'écrit et 'héritiers de formes et de pratiques qui ont caractérisé, après comme avant Gutenberg, la culture graphique de l'Occident'."
Review: J.-P. Cavaillé in RPFE 1136 (2000), 123–125: Described as "instrument indispensable pour les chercheurs et amateurs de littérature clandestine. Chaque numéro contient des textes inédits, des articles et notes, une bibliographie pour l'année, des comptes rendus et des informations sur les recherches en cours." In addition to the "rubriques habituelles. . . ce volume contient également les Actes de la Journée dECréteil du 15 mai 1998 consacrée à l'identification des textes clandestins aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles." Examines especially the links between private and public, manuscript and printed text.

BLUM, PASCALE et ANNE MONTERO, ed., Poésie et Bible de la Renaissance à l'âge classique: 1550–1680. Paris: Champion, 1999.

Review: BCLF 671 (2000), 388–89: Les contributions sur la poésie biblique ("de qualité inégale") abordent des aspects de la création, des aspects conceptuels et des aspects plus proprement subjectifs. "Les plus intéressants abordent le dilemme épineux d'une poésie dont les qualités sont déterminées par la volonté d'éloigner les artifices. . ."

BOILLET, DANIELLE et DOMINIQUE MONCOND'HUY, eds. La Constitution du texte: le tout et ses parties. Renaissance-Age classique. Actes du colloque tenu à Poitiers (France), 20–22 mars 1997. Poitiers: La Licorne, 1998.

Review: BCLF 611–612 (1999), 1864–65: Vingt-six articles par les membres du groupe de recherche "Littérature et société en France, en Italie, en Espagne et au Portugal aux XVe–XVIIe siècles" regroupés selon quatre perspectives: "Enjeux esthétiques," "Diversité/Unité," "Constitution de sens," et "Textes en contexte: effets de lecture."

BOSCO, GABRIELLA. "La poésie épique au XVIIe siècle et l'élaboration d'un mythe chrétien." Littératures Classiques 39, 123–135.

The epic of the 17th century, characterized by a move from inventio to dispositio (according to Tasso, new dispositio from known elements) is studied in what it owes to Tasso as well as in the ways it distinguishes itself from the Italian author.

BRIOT, FRÉDÉRIC. "La poésie amorale au XVIIe siècle: une poésie à tire d'aile." RSH 254.2 (1999), 33–44.

Documents several theoreticians' judgments of the moral significance of poetry; some, such as Pellisson and Sarasin find that the pleasure gained from reading poetry is a social virtue.

BROWN, GREGORY S. "After the Fall: The Chute of a Play, Droits d'Auteur, and Literary Property in the Old Regime." FHS 22.4 (1999), 465–91.

Brown addresses the early concept of literary property in the Parisian commercial theatre between 1680 and 1780, exploring the interplay between diverse forces: "developments in royal regulation, court culture, commercial demands, and the status of writers." He focuses on a practice called "la chute", by which the royal theatre determined the ownership of plays on its repertory, and examines cases of authorial dispute over ownership of plays which had "fallen" (Pierre-Laurent Buirette de Belloy and Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais). Brown argues that existing scholarship on literary property has "looked only to the Book Trade, and thus overemphasized the importance of Lockean ideas of property, Kantian ideas of genius and Smithian ideas of the market." Instead, Brown likens the Old Regime concept of literary property to that of seigneurial property, and hopes to cause a reexamination of "the relationship between Enlightenment ideas, the status of men of letters, and the commercialization of public life on the eve of the Revolution."

BURY, EMMANUEL. Le Classicisme: l'avènement du modèle littéraire français 1660–1680. Paris: Nathan, 1993.

Review: J. F. Gaines in CdDS 7.2 (2000), 251–54: Favorable evaluation which, according to reviewer, "presents a wealth of analytical detail that provides for incisive analysis of the relationships between authors during the Louis XIV era." Reviewer finds rather brief Bury's summary of the influence of French Classicism in other countries, but considers the book to be quite valuable in light of its "synthesis of complex dynamic forces."

BURY, EMMANUEL et JEAN CHARLES DARMON. Littérature et philosophie au XVIIe siècle. PFSCL 49 (1998), 365–480.

Review: C. Berrone in SFr 127(1999), 152–153: Bury enumerates diverse factors particularly favorable to 17th c literature and philosophy, including the renewed study of rhetoric and the wide diffusion of editions to a non-specialist readership (152). Analyses include Darmon's study on stylistics of the quarrel between Gassendi and Descartes, Pierre Force's study on critical fortunes of Pascal from 17th–19th c., Darmon's study on Naudé's romanesque, Olivier Bloch's study Molière's production, and Isabelle Delpa's work on Bayle's literary tastes.

CARANDINI, SILVIA, ed. Chiarezza e verosimiglianza. La fine del dramma barocco. Rome: Bulzoni, 1997. (Collection: I libri dell'associazione Sigismondo Malatesta. Studi di letteratura comparata e teatro, 10).

Review: L. Benatti in RLC 291.3 (juillet-septembre 1999), 406–408: This is the third volume of a trilogy published in the series and dedicated to the study of the theatrical dimension of the Baroque with special attention to categories of falsehood and le merveilleux. Jean Rousset contributed an essay on the persistence of Baroque theatre. Gabriella Violato and Franco Fiorentino study the presence of light and verisimilitude in Racine's work.

CARLIN, CLAIRE, ed. La Rochefoucauld, 'Mithridate', Frères et soeurs, 'Les Muses soeurs': actes du 29e congrès annuel de la North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 1998.

Review: C. Caldicott in FS 54.3 (2000), 362–3: The annual NASSCFL "has produced a sparkling set of proceedings for what must have been a richly rewarding gathering of dix-septiémistes. . . The diversity of views and themes converges to create a very readable scrutiny of the arts and literature in seventeenth-century France." The editor deserves special mention.
Review: J. Conroy in PFSCL XXVII, 52 (2000) 306–308. ". . .a volume which evokes so well the diversity of the period's artistic creativity."

CARRIER, HUBERT. Les Muses guerrières. Les Mazarinades et la vie littéraire au milieu du XVIIe siècle: genres, culture populaire et savante à l'époque de la Fronde. Paris: Klincksieck, 1996.

Review: R. Sauzet in RFHL 104–5 (1999), 391–4 : "Carrier s'attache, d'abord, à situer les Mazarinades, et leurs auteurs quand ils sont connus, dans les courants littéraires du temps. Il envisage ensuite la multitude des formes adoptées et termine cet ouvrage, aussi bien construit que bien écrit, par l'étude du paysage mental et de l'univers intellectuel que révèlent ces textes."

CASALS, MARIE-NOELLE. "Nature et fonction de la représentation du poète en poésie et dans les arts poétiques du premier XVIIe siècle français" in L'autre au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Ralph Heyndels and Barbara Woshinsky. Tübingen: Biblio 17 121, 2000, 267–277.

Theoretical foundations of the works of Malherbe, Théophile and Saint-Amant, studied in the treatises of Laudun d'Aigaliers (1597), Vauquelin de la Fresnaye (1605), and Pierre de Deimier (1605).

CHAILLOU, MICHÈLE et MICHEL. La fleur des rues. Paris: Fayard, 2000.

Review: Philippe Barrot in QL 780 (du 1er au 15 mars 2000), 7: "Alternant évocation parisienne et biographies d'écrivains, cette Fleur des rues aspire à nous 'faire entrevoir, pressentir le dehors des livres'. Voilà la charme de ce petit guide pédestre traversant la littérature du XVIIe siècle: la restitution d'une atmosphère d'un Paris disparu et de silhouettes d'écrivains dans leur intimité."

CHARLES-DAUBERT, FRANÇOISE. Les libertins érudits en France au XVIIe siècle. Paris: PUF, 1998.

Review: J.-P. Cavaillé in RPRE 124.4 (1999), 552–4: A "complete" and "well-articulated" study of the "pensée multiforme" of the 'libertins érudits' (a term coined by René Pintard). Charles-Daubert points out the problems that arise from the (apologetic) origin of this term and of the general category of the "libertin," but refutes the idea (put forth by L. Godard de Donville among others) that the libertins never had any existence except as a critical (apologetic) fiction. The study focuses not on psychological or sociological aspects of the problem of libertinage, but is an attempt to locate a coherent ensemble of themes common to the diverse authors categorized as libertins, who all defend very different philosophical points of view. Charles-Daubert groups these themes around three main poles: intellectual attitude, the independent morality of the 'sage', and antitheological criticism (which is inseparable from a criticism of the foundations of power). Cavaillé congratulates Charles-Daubert for subtly probing many of the common "idées reçues" about libertinism, and praises the work for its "utilité et son à-propos. . . indéniables."

CLARKE, JAN. "FemalECross-Dressing on the Paris Stage, 1673–1715." FMLS 35 (1999), 238–50.

Picks up where Georges Forestier's study of identity and disguise in the French theatre stops (Esthétique de l'identité dans le théâtre français (1550–1680): le déguisement et ses avatars. Genève, 1988). Clarke focuses on disguise which creates sexual innuendo. Very useful tables of plays considered, with author, title and date as well as types of disguises. Clarke reminds that "in 1688 and 1690, the French and Italian actors were instructed to remove all double entendres . . . under threat of dismissal" (248). Rich in insights into social and theatrical mores of the period, excellent notes and bibliography.

CLEMENT, MICHELE. Une Poétique de crise: Poètes baroques et mystiques (1570–1660). Paris: Champion, 1996.

Review: B. Braunrot in RenQ 51 (1998), 1360–61: Review appreciates "a number of perceptive explications de texte and a wealth of insights" in this re-examination of the concept "baroque" defined as "a literary movement devoid of any particular metaphysical or aesthetic presuppositions, and characterized only by its use of poetic language to express its rejection of the world and its yearning for God" (1361). Review itself is puzzling because, at the outset, Braunrot writes that "this proposed redefinition of the baroque emphasizes a particular world–view shared by certain poets and mystical writers" (1360). A "world-view" necessarily encompasses the aesthetic and the metaphysical, both aspects crucial to the period under consideration. Braunrot finds Clément's argument and reassessment" thought-provoking and coherent . . . though excessively reductive" (1360). The reviewer's apparent contradictions may pique the interest of potential readers.

CLOSSON, MARIANNE. L'Imaginaire démoniaque en France (1550–1650): Genèse de la littérature fantastique. Genève: Droz, 2000.

CUCHE, FRANÇOIS-XAVIER, ed. Vives Lettres, No 4. Complots et coups d'état sur la scène du théâtre (XVIe–XVIIIe siècles). Strasbourg: UFR des Lettres, 1998.

Review: B. Chédozeau in IL 51.3 (1999), 59: Text represents a collection of conference papers on the theme, "Littérature et politique sous l'Ancien Régime." Essays focus on representations of assassination, tyranny, and revolt in early modern theater.
Review: K. Triau in DSS 204 (1999), 573–574: A collection of seven essays focusing on the theme of conspiracies and coups d'état in the theatre of the 16th- and primarily 17th-centuries. Authors analyze plays by Houdar de La Motte, Tristan, Corneille, Racine and Cyrano, among others.

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

Review: D. Cowling in FS 53.3 (1999), 325–6: "The mock encomium, whose illustrious protagonists include such apparently unlikely bedfellows as Gorgias, Plato, Rabelais, and Pascal, is presented here as a kind of literary parasite, feeding off the rhetoric of praise and blame while playing on the tension between the ostensibly serious techniques of epideictic rhetoric and a repertoire of subjects that includes such obscure, burlesque, and ambiguous items as fleas, flies, asses, baldness, Folly, debtors, and the Jesuits." The study concludes with a consideration of three French writers (Montaigne, Pascal, Molière) whose work is seen to participate in the spirit of paradox that informs the genre.
Review: M.-F. Hilgar in FR 73. 5 (2000), 960–61: Though mostly forgotten or neglected today, the "éloge paradoxal" is a common rhetorical genre in the work of authors from Lucian to Erasmus, from Montaigne to Pascal. Locating the ancient origin of the tradition in Georgias and tracing it throughout the centuries to Molière, Dandrey argues that this popular genre has never seemed really to exist because "la vocation des parasites. . .est de prospérer dans l'ombre."

DARMON, JEAN-CHARLES. Philosophie épicurienne et littérature au XVIIe siècle — études sur Gassendi, Cyrano de Bergerac, La Fontaine, Saint-Evremond. Paris: PUF, coll. 《 Perspectives littéraires 》, 1998.

Review: F. Briot in RSH 255.3 (1999), 220–222. The author chooses to explore the question of signification. "Si l'épistémé de l'âge dit classique est plutôt du côté de Gassendi que de Descartes et de Port-Royal, c'est toute la perspective du siècle...qui est modifiée."

DAUPHINE, JAMES and BEATRICE PERIGOT, eds. Conteurs et romanciers de la Renaissance. Mélanges offerts àGabriel-André Pérouse. Paris: Champion, 1997.

Review: D. P. McKay et al. in RenQ 51 (1998), 727: Includes an extensive collection of essays by important scholars of the Renaissance and the Seventeenth Century, a biography of Pérouse, bibliography of his scholarly works, and indices. 17th c. scholars will appreciate contributions on Brantôme (Michèle Clément), Malherbe (Francis Goyet), and Pascal (Michel Le Guern).

DEBAILLY, PASCAL. "Plaidoyer pour la satirologie." DSS 205 (1999), 765–774.

An overview of the practice and critical history of satire in France from the 16th through the 20th centuries. Includes reference to large corpus of German scholarship and calls for new approaches to the study of satire.

DEBAISIEUX, MARTINE, ed. Le Labyrinth de Versailles: Parcours critiques de Molière à La Fontaine—A la mémoire d'Alvin Eustis. Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi, 1998.

Review: N. Grande in RHL 100 (2000): This commemorative volume is divided into two parts: the first entitled, "autour de Molière," and the second, "les égarements du Grand Siècle." Study deals not only with Molière and La Fontaine, but also includes articles on Descartes and on seventeenth-century mysticism.

DECLERCQ, GILLES. "Topique de l'ineffable dans l'esthétique classique: Rhétorique et sublime." DSS 207 (2000), 199–220.

This article analyzes how the theory of the sublime and the ineffable came to displace the rhetoric of persuasion by the senses. Crucial to this gradual process of displacement is Descartes' Traité des passions de l'âme. The ineffable takes the form of tableaux and images in Racine who creates a "sublime spéculaire."

DE COURCELLES, DOMINIQUE, ed. Littérature et érotisme, XVIe et XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Ecole de chartes, 1997.

Review: D. Duport in RHL 100 (2000), 139: A collection of four papers which focus on the problematics of "unveiling and denunciation." Among the topics covered are the Spain of Philip II, wars against the Turks as argued by Luther and Erasmus, as well as Le Cid read in the context of the "theatricality of the Ottoman empire."

DEGAINE, ANDRÉ. Guide des Promenades théâtrales à Paris, Histoire des Théâtres parisiens sous forme de Cinq Promenades. Paris: Nizet, 1999.

Review: G. Boquet in RHT 52.2 (2000), 181: "Degaine articule son guide en cinq séquences menant d'abord de l'Hôtel de Bourgogne à l'Odéon en suivant Molière puis les Comédiens-Français avant Antoine, Barrault, Pasqual et Lavaudant. . . Le texte manuscrit des pages de droite est illustré à gauche de dessins et de photos de théâtres ou d'acteurs, voire de scènes ou d'affiches de pièces à grand succès, durable ou éphémère."

DEJEAN, JOAN. Ancients against Moderns: Culture Wars and the Making of a Fin de Siècle. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1997.

Review: B. Rubidge in MP 98.1 (Aug 2000), 69–72: Jean DeJean's Ancients against Moderns expands the view that the querelle des anciens et des modernes foreshadows the Enlightenment, noting that the Moderns argued for using one's own judgement rather than following tradition. "She argues that other developments considered characteristic of the eighteenth century—the cultivation of sensibilité, the emergence of the public sphere, and the rise of the novel—can be found in the 1680s. This interpretation of seventeenth century's fin de siècle forms part of a further claim: DeJean argues that the querelle foreshadows the 1980s and 1990s 'culture wars' and that today's Moderns should learn from the omissions of their seventeenth-century predecessors." Rubidge describes DeJean's learning and writing skills as brilliant, particularly in chapter two, but regrets her over-reliance on the ARTFL database in the third chapter which says he says leads her to omit important sources of evidence.

DELMAS, CHRISTIAN. "Les Sophonisbe et le renouveau de la tragédie en France." DSS 208 (2000), 443–464.

Delmas studies successive versions of Sophonisbe, from that of Claude Mermet (1584), to those of Nicolas de Montreux (1601), Jean Mairet (1634), and Corneille (1663), in order to show the structural and thematic transformations effected by each author. These culminate in Corneille's tragedy where the political stakes occupy center stage.

DE REYFF, SIMONE. L'église et le théâtre, l'exemple de la France au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1998.

Review: E. Minel in RHL 100 (2000), 140–41: Book concentrates on the Church's opinions of the theater, beginning with the Church Fathers, and ending with a discussion of Christian theater in the twentieth century. Author notes various "affaires" such as that which opposed Bossuet and Caffaro.

DE SMET, INGRID and PHILIP FORD, eds. Eros et Priapus. Erotisme et obscénité dans la littérature néo-latine. Genève: Droz, 1997.

Review: P. Debailly in DSS 207 (2000), 358–359: A collection of papers first given at a conference held at Clare College (Cambridge) in 1995. The authors focus on neo-Latin humanists and their treatment of eroticism and obscenity. The chapter by Günter Berger features three 17th-century texts: L'Académie des dames, L'Ecole des filles and Vénus dans le cloître. Debailly considers this book a valuable resource for those seeking to understand "les grands maîtres de la littérature en langue vernaculaire de la Renaissance et de l'Age classique."

DIDIER, BÉATRICE, ed. Précis de Littérature européenne. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1998.

Review: J. Voisine in RLC 291.3 (juillet-septembre 1999), 402–404: This collective work reflects the individual methodologies of the contributors. It is divided into four large parts: Méthodes, l'Espace, le Temps, les Formes. Especially interesting for scholars of seventeenth-century studies are les Formes, a survey of literary genres ranging from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, with the novel having a dominant place.

DOSMOND, SIMONE. "La troisième Bérénice. Un palimpseste de Corneille et de Racine." PFSCL XXVII, 52 (2000) 127–139.

Presentation and study of the third Bérénice, La Reine de Césarée, play written by Brasillach in 1940. The author studies the influence of Corneille's and Racine's tragedies on Brasillach's play ("un palimpseste des pièces de Corneille et de Racine") as well as the unique characteristics of this third Bérénice.

DOTOLI, GIOVANNI. "L'autre du moraliste" in L'autre au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Ralph Heyndels and Barbara Woshinsky. Tübingen: Biblio 17, 117 (1999) 171–184.

What is a "moraliste"? An observer using the experimental method; who uses the eye as a laboratory instrument; whose esthetics are inscribed within the theme of the Theatrum Mundi; whose discourse on the other leads to a discourse on the self, the slippery, baroque nature of which is revealed in a basically pessimistic vision; who writes a "gallery" of the Other, who writes the Other and is convinced that it is possible to reform the Other.

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

Review: K. Cameron in FS 53.4 (1999), 468: "Dubois argues eloquently and convincingly in favour of Artus Thomas being its author and, although the text may recall the days of Henri III, that it is aimed specifically at the decadence of life and principles under Henri IV. [. . .] The text offers a variety of styles and satirical insights which makes it invaluable reading from both the literary and the historical viewpoint."

EHRMANN, JACQUES. "The Tragic/Utopian Meaning of History." YFS 96 (1999), 217–31.

"Attempting to make a theoretical and concrete test of the relationships which obtain historically (that is, in a particular phase of Western history) between such areas as 'history' and 'literature' amounts to showing how certain forms of so-called 'literary' imagination may be found in certain forms of so-called 'historical' imagination." E. begins "by analyzing tragic structure, and then utopian structure" using examples including Oedipus Rex and Phèdre, Thomas More and the Romance of the Rose.

ESCOLA, MARC. "Brèves histoires de loups." RSH 254.2 (1999), 63–83.

In a study of how Perrault may have derived his "Petit Chaperon Rouge" from La Fontaine's Fables, the author demonstrates how the moral of tales and fables provides also a lesson for reading and interpretation.

FAISANT, CLAUDE. Mort et résurrection de la Pléiade. Paris: Champion, 1998.

Review: F. Rigolot in RF 111 (1999), 258–61: Josianne Rieu, James Dauphiné and other friends of the late Faisant have edited his important thèse d'état which may still be consulted at the Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne and at the Bibliothèque Municipale et Interuniversitaire de Clermont-Ferrand. The editors have updated the bibliography (Rigolot adds several more entries, as well, here), added a new conclusion, an index, and an analytical table. 17th. c. scholars will particularly benefit from Faisant's analysis of the period from 1585–1640 and from his treatment of the "décalage entre 'la pensée critique,' qui reste fidèle aux valeurs consacrées, et la 'conscience historique' qui elle, fait surgir de nouveaux cadres de référence esthétique" (reviewer). Rigolot regrets, in this shortened version of the thèse, the lack of criticism from beyond the Hexagone.

FRAGONARD, M-M., ed. Sources et fontaines du Moyen Age à l'Age baroque. Actes du colloque tenu à l'Université Paul Valéry de Montpelier (28 novembre 1996). Paris: Champion 1998.

Review: D. Duport in RHL 100 (2000), 137. Volume deals with the literary representations of water as a symbol of the divine, and of humanity's mastery of nature.

GAILLARD, AURÉLIA, ed. L'imaginaire du souterrain. Paris: L'Harmattan, 1997.

Review: R. Bozzetto in RLC 291.3 (juillet-septembre 1999), 399–400: This collection of essays is organized according to groups of commonplaces, such as the underworld of horror, the basement or cellar of fairy tales, etc. A. Gaillard treats the poetic treatment of the underworld on 17th-century pastoral; Eric Mechoulan examines Perrault's and Catherine Bernard's versions of Riquet à la Houppe; and Langues treats the universes of Mme d'Aulnoy's l'Ile de la Félicité.

GAINES, JAMES F. "Nobility and the Sexual Economy in the Historiettes." CdDS 7.2 (2000), 193–206.

On the one hand, the Historiettes come to "resemble [a] mixture of gossip and rumor," but also gain in "cultural stature" by their insistence on sexuality. Depiction of the nobility's sexual mores lends an "ideological cohesiveness" to a work author describes as "fragmented."

GARMANN, GERBURG. "Der lachende Totenkopf? Romantische Allegorie zwischen Benjamin und Bakhtin." GRM 49.2 (1999), 121–141.

The author presents Walter Benjamin's notion of Baroque allegory and Mikhail Bakhtin's idea of the carnivalesque as markers of literary modernity. While they existed in a complementary relationship within the framework of German Romanticism, they fall into competition in twentieth-century criticism.

GASPAROV, M. L. A History of European Versification. Ed. G. S. Smith and L. Holford-Stevens. Trans.G. S. Smith andMarina Tarlinskaja. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1996.

Review: n.a. in FMLA 34 (1998), 86: Praiseworthy for its clarity and cogency, the volume generously illustrates, by verse-examples, its admirable study of patterns of evolution in historical, cultural and linguistic contexts.

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

Review: O. Pot in BHR 61. 3 (1999), 851–55: Synthèse d'ensemble qui renouvelle "notre vision du sonnet français en intégrant les 'méthodes" et les techniques d'analyses de texte les plus récentes et les plus efficaces." Gendre sélectionne "un corpus d'écrivains 'phares', et qui ne sont convoqués que dans la mesure où ils illustrent ou exemplifient une direction, un changement, une variation, une inflexion dans les multiples possibles ou les multiples virtualités que réserve le genre: pour la Renaissance, Ronsard, Du Bellay, Aubigné, Sponde; pour le XVIIe siècle, La Ceppède, Malherbe, Tristan et Gombault; pour le XIXe siècle, Sainte-Beuve, Nerval, Baudelaire et Mallarmé."
Review: C. Hayez in LR 52 (1998), 142–43: Two questions undergird this study focusing on "[ce] qu'a apporté le sonnet au poète" and on "[ce] qu'a apporté le poète au sonnet" (H. 142). Praised for its erudition, close analyses and the resultant "ouverture du sonnet sur une perspective plus large," the volume includes among the 17th c. poets: La Ceppède, Malherbe and Tristan.
Review: G. Schrammen in ZRP 116.1 (2000). Author studies formal variations of the sonnet from Petrarch, Ronsard, du Bellay, d'Aubigné, Sponde, Malherbe, La Ceppède, to Baudelaire and Mallarmé. Considerations of the fate of the sonnet in the twentieth century can be found in the epilogue.

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

Review: G. Jucquois in LR 52 (1998), 394: This monumental work is important both for its contribution to mentalities as to literary history. Jucquois welcomes it, saying that the time is right for this detailed study of the "poètes galants" of the second third of the 17th c. and praising Gentiot's erudition and elegant language.

GETHNER, PERRY. Ed. Femmes dramaturges en France (1650–1750). Pièces choisies. Tübingen: Biblio 17, (1993).

Review: C. Carlin in CdDS 7.2 (2000), 235–36: Favorable evaluation in which reviewer states, "Perry Gethner has performed a wonderful service for seventeenth-and eighteenth-century French studies." Compendium contains six plays by women who "saw their theatrical work accepted, even acclaimed," despite "resistance on the part of some malECritics and theoreticians of the time."

GETHNER, PERRY. "La Métamorphose, métaphore de la mimésis théâtrale" in L'autre au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Ralph Heyndels and Barbara Woshinsky. Tübingen: Biblio 17, 117 (1999) 145–152.

The author proposes a classification of scenes of metamorphosis in the theater: as short episodes which dazzle the audience briefly and are quickly forgotten; as an apotheosis which ends the play; and finally as narrations—the spectator is not witness to the metamorphosis which either already took place or is a future prediction.

GHEERAERT, TONY. "La poésie à Port-Royal: le chant de la grâce" in L'autre au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Ralph Heyndels and Barbara Woshinsky. Tübingen: Biblio 17 121, 2000, 321–331.

The author attempts to show that the practice of poetry at Port-Royal was neither an aberration, nor the "délassement facile de théologiens absorbés par leur tâche". Rather, the poetic form is imposed by Port-Royal's Augustinism, and is an epistemological necessity in order to "appréhender ici-bas le divin" and "vaincre notre enchaînement au mal et ainsi nous attirer vers Dieu."

GIACCHI, PIERGIORGIO. "At the Margins of Theater. On the Connection between Theatre and Anthropology." Diogenes 47 (1999), 83–93.

Investigates the usefulness of anthropology in regarding theatre and the dramatic as a "culture of its own," insofar as the dramatic relation, in its essential duality, expresses Marc Augé's "deep alterity."

GIRARD, RENE. "Violence in Biblical Narrative." p&L 23 (1999), 387–392.

Addressing himself to the "resentment" or hatred that both C.S. Lewis and Nietzsche saw as distinguishing Christianity from paganism, Girard argues persuasively that the Bible is revolutionary in that for the first time, the victims of lynching, rather than their oppressors, are the ones doing the talking, "representing victimization from the standpoint of the victim."

GOLHANY, AMY, ed. The Eye of the Poet: Studies in the Reciprocity of the Visual and Literary Arts from the Renaissance to the Present. Lewisburg: Bucknell UP, 1996.

Review: L. C. Agoston in RenQ 51 (1998), 647–649: Expanded from a 1991 College Art Association Conference, the volume focuses on the "ut pictura poesis" topos and is organized chronologically. Collection of uneven essays yet, as a whole, the volume succeeds in illustrating the "many-layered relationship between the verbal and the visual"(649).

GOLOPENTIA, SANDA, éd. Les Propos spectacle: Etudes de pragmatique théâtrale. New York: Peter Lang, 1996.

Review: R.W. Herzel in ECr 39 (1999), 89: Nine articles: range from 11th c. farce to our day. Review does not indicate particular 17th c. treated, and finds it disappointing that although G. insists "la pièce de théatre n'est pas un livre"(4), there is almost no discussion in any of the articles of a play being performed by actors on a stage"(89).

GOSSIP, CHRIS. "Emulation et insuffisance: la quête de l'autre dans la tragédie classique" in L'autre au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Ralph Heyndels and Barbara Woshinsky. Tübingen: Biblio 17, 117 (1999) 163–170.

Study of the role of the past in French classical tragedy, from the standpoint of the emulation by tragic characters of their predecessors or ancestors, known or unknown. The main relation is that of the son struggling with the image of the father, as in Andromaque, Bérénice, Mithridate, Le Cid, Horace and Cinna.

GUILLERM, JEAN-PIERRE. Vieille Rome. Stendhal, Goncourt, Taine, Zola et la Rome baroque. Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 1998.

Review: A. Le Feuvre in RLC 291.3 (juillet-septembre 1999), 415–417: In Le Feuvre's words, "C'est l'art de la Contre-Réforme, sur lequel nos auteurs, délaissant les Primitifs et l'art antique, portent toute leur attention, qui fait l'objet de leurs accusations: tout de mollesse, de féminité, de pathos, d'hystérie et de folie, de sournoise et de perverse séduction, [sur] l'art baroque, incarnation du jésuite, [qui] entraîne, dans ces fictions les personnages à leur perte. . ."

HAHN, DEBORAH, JULIE. The School for Widows: Gender, (Re)marriage , and Comedy on the Absolutist Stage. DAI (1999).

Diss. takes a cultural approach to plays of the latter half of the seventeenth century. Shows how widows "incarnate quintessentially comic figures" by "subvert[ing] dominant paradigms," and relies on Bakhtin, Bergson, and Freud in its critical methodology.

HANNON, PATRICIA. Fabulous Identities. Women's Fairy Tales in Seventeenth-Century France. Amsterdam-Atlanta: Rodopi, 1998.

Review: N. Grande in RHL 100 (2000), 154: Favorable review that centers on issues of gender and political transformation in authors such as Perrault and Mme d'Aulnoy. Of special note is the portrait of the feminine hero.

HARRIS, GEOFFREY T., ed. On Translating French Literature and Film. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996.

Review: n.a. in FMLS 35 (1999), 111: Proceedings of the 1995 Salford conference includes debates on moral issues, the status of translation, practicalities, cultural transposition, and Hollywood remakes of French classics. International cast of scholars offer in this volume "feisty and stimulating essays."

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

Review: R. Runte in FR 73. 4 (2000), 739–40: Treats the representation of money and language in comedies by the two Corneilles, Scarron, and Molière. In analyses examining the influence of patrons on the substance of the plays, the political backdrop surrounding the nobles who bought tickets to the theater, and the relation of words to images of money, Harrison "recreates the fiscal context for the plays studied and elegantly shows the interaction between text and audience, those with and without financial and political power."
Review: J. Mallinson in FS 54.3 (2000), 360–1: This wide-ranging study examines selected comedies of Corneille (Pierre and Thomas), Scarron and Molière. "It explores in them the literal and metaphorical interplay of money and language, the extent to which they represent and comment on evolving social conditions, and how they reflect the authors' own attempts to win the patronage of the powerful and the rich." Harrison's "analysis would have benefited, though, from a more detailed literary contextualization." Nevertheless, this thought-provoking book suggests new and fruitful angles of approach to important comedies.

HART, CLIVE and KAY GILLILAND STEVENSON. Heaven and the Flesh: Imagery of Desire from the Renaissance to the Rococo. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge UP, 1995.

Review: A. R. Turner in RenQ 51 (1998), 649–650: T. gives the volume "two thumbs up" as he praises it for its "fresh look at both important works and little known works of art and literature," its insistence on "interpretations rooted in the intellectual protocols of the time" of the works themselves, and its "careful and clear" analyses (650). Seventeenth century French specialists will appreciate the contributions on French painting.

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

Review: T. L. Berger in RenQ 51 (1998), 650–653: Diverse and lacking cohesion, perhaps just as "our current conception of the Renaissance"; the collection has four sections: "The Text, the Reader and the Self; Gender and Genre; Continuities and Discontinuities; and Anticipations"(651). Seventeenth century scholars will appreciate Paul Morrison's comparative essay, "Noble Deeds and Secret Singularity: Hamlet and Phèdre" in the final section.

HAUSMANN, FRANK-RUTGER, CHRISTOPH MIETHING and MARGARETE ZIMMERMANN, eds. 'Diversité, c'est ma devise'. Studien zur Französischen Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts. Festschrift für Jürgen Grimm zum 60. Paris-Seattle-Tübingen, PFSCL, 1994.

Review: J. Mallinson in FS 54.3 (2000), 361: "This collection of thirty-four essays from many leading dix-septiémistes is a fitting tribute to the reputation and achievements of Jürgen Grimm." There are many valuable items within these essays which vary widely in subject matter. Canonical texts and authors are well represented. Of these, Molière is the most popular. New readings of less familiar texts, such as Saint-Paul, La Fameuse Comédienne and Mathilde, are also included.

HEPP, NOEMI. "L'Architecture dans quelques grands romans du premier XVIIe siècle". TraLit 12 (1999), 289–300.

Explores and analyzes architecture (fonctions, descriptions, evocations of souvenirs, etc. . .) in d'Urfé, Gomberville and Madeleine de Scudéry. Finds, for example, that d'Urfé is attentive to the real, appreciating and evoking it subtly while Gomberville focuses on the imaginary. Scudery's technique approaches psychology. Hepp concludes: "avec Honoré d'Urfé on voyait; avec Gomberville, on était saisi; avec Mlle de Scudéry, on sent" (298).

HILLMAN, DAVID and CARLA MAZZIO, eds. The Body in Parts: Fantasies of Corporeality in Early Modern Europe. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Review: D. P. McKay et al. in RenQ 51 (1998), 728–729: Essays on parts of the body answer the question, "Why did sixteenth and seventeenth century medical, religious and literary texts so often imagine the body in parts?" (728). Reflections and analyses on the "symbolics of physiological parts challenge assumptions about the whole body as a fundamental image of self, society, and nation"(728). Index.

HORST, S. and INGRID G. DAEMMRICH. Themen und Motive in der Literatur. Tübingen: Francke, 1995.

Review: G. Moffit in Col G 31 (1998), 70–72: Praised as a "treasure-trove of information" regarding "themes and motifs, their relationships, and their historical place in literature" (70). Format follws that of the first 1987 edition and includes primary and secondary sources. This "valuable resource" could be more readable and more attuned to "feminist issues, gender studies, or migrant literature" (71).

HOWARTH, WILLIAM D., ed. French Theatre in the Neo-Classical Era, 1550–1789. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997.

Review: D. P. McKay in RenQ 51 (1998), 1404: Organized into four periods, 1550–1630, 1630–1660, 1680–1715 and 1715–1789, H.'s volume furnishes over 1,000 documents, many in their first publication. Includes short essays, editorial commentary, bibliographies and an index.

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

Review: C. Hayez-Melckenbeeck in LR 52 (1998) 341–43: Both synchronic and diachronic, Jarrety's volume is not a typical work of literary history. The 17th c. section is written by Alain Génetiot and along with the 16th c. section by Jean Vignès, is found particularly stimulating, inviting the reader "à établir mille et une passerelles entre ses souvenirs isolés d'histoire littéraire" (342–43).
Review: A. Heyvaert in RSH 255.3 (1999), 215. "...l'ouvrage est clair et d'une érudition maîtrisée. La présence d'une chronologie précise, d'un index des oeuvres, d'un index bio-bibliographique et d'un glossaire fait de ce livre un outil précieux dont le public ne devrait pas se limiter aux étudiants de premier cycle." Classical period (1600–1715) treated by A. Génetiot.

JENSEN, CLAUDIA R. AND JOHN S. POWELL. "'A Mess of Russians left us but of late': Diplomatic Blunder, Literary Satire, and the Muscovite Ambassador's 1668 Visit to Paris Theatres." ThR 24 (1999), 131–44.

Article discusses Muscovite embassy to Paris and its consequences for the French and Russian stages. Particular attention is given to Raymond Poisson's Les Faux Muscovites.

JONARD, NORBERT. L'ennui dans la littérature européenne. Des origines à l'aube du XXe siècle. Paris: H. Champion, 1998. (Collection: Bibliothèque de littérature générale et comparée, no.18).

Review: F. Godeau in RLC 291.3 (juillet-septembre 1999), 413–414: This is a synthetic examination of examples of ennui from English, French, and Italian traditions (and to a lesser extent German and Russian texts). The author charts the changes in ethical and esthetic values associated with a state most often confused with melancholy. Chapter 3 focuses on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in the course of which, with the moralists and Pascal, ennui has sociological and metaphysical significance.

KELLER, EDWIGE. Poétique de la mort dans la nouvelle classique (1660–1680). Paris: Champion, 1999.

Review: J. Filée in ECl 68 (2000): 85: Filée highlights some of the conclusions of this study (an increased presence of female characters, an interest in violent death associated with an exceptional destiny, the presence of foreshadowing indicating the desire of readers to anticipate the hero's death) and notes with interest a parallel between the death of the hero in the plot and some of the stylistic characteristics of the nouvelle's narration (e.g. syntactical fragmentation, a loosening in the linking between scenes). Filée concludes, "De l'Astrée à La princesse de Clèves, l'artistocratie a cédé aux vues pessimistes de l'augustinisme."
Review: N. Grande in RHL 100 (2000), 318–19: Keller's study follows the trend of looking at death from a sociological, artistic, and literary perspective. Her work focuses on the death of the hero as it is shaped by the "idéal classique."
Review: B. Vanhouck in RSH 256.4 (1999), 164–165. "Si les conclusions d'ensemble de cette étude se révèlent quelque peu décevantes et se contentent de confirmer une évolution du traitement narratif de la mort entre le roman baroque et la nouvelle classique, nul doute en revanche que la démarche qui lui donne corps en soit aussi le point fort."
Review: R. Baustert in PFSCL XXVII, 52 (2000) 320–322: ". . .un travail dont la haute teneur scientifique manifeste l'émergence, à travers la matière fictionnelle, des grandes valeurs classiques."

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

Review: B. Norman, "Rationalizing the Irrational," EMF: Studies in Early Modern France 4 (1998), 215–220: Kintzler articulates an esthetic of opera, or "tragédie lyrique" as it was performed between 1659 and 1765. She finds that its esthetic criteria are very similar to those of classical theater: a logic of verisimilitude, an ethic guiding the relationship between fiction and emotion, a physics relating fiction, language, and music, and a certain ontology of mediation or "mimesis." She examines opera in light of the Aristotelian heritage of the seventeenth century. She then treats the problematic relation between truth and fiction as articulated by Bossuet, Nicole, and Corneille. In her study of the early stage works of Pierre Perrin, she examines the inspiration of primitive passions and admiration among spectators. She then considers the debate over the comparison between spoken tragedy and "tragédie lyrique" and Rousseau's consideration of the effects of operatic music, its "pouvoir émotif."

KRONEGGER, MARLIES, ed. Esthétique baroque et imagination créatrice. Actes d'un colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 1998.

Review: J. Conroy in FS 54.3 (2000), 355–6: "This rich collection provides valuable insights into what P. Charpentrat described as 'un empire Baroque relativement homogène' stretching from Sicily to Lithuania and possessing outposts overseas. . . The contributions, from both sides of the Atlantic, range widely over genres, periods and national literatures." Theatrical aesthetics as well as thECross influences between literature, the arts, architecture and the sciences are particularly well covered.

LAGARDE, FRANCOIS. La Persuasion et ses effets. Essai sur la réception en France au XVIIe siècle. Tübingen: Biblio 17, 1995.

Review: E. Négrel CdDS 7.2 (2000), 269–71: Favorable review of a work which studies rhetoric in terms of what is called "la notion de mimésis intérieure, c'est-à-dire la capacité qu'a l'homme de recevoir, reconnaître puis s'approprier le discours des autres, de 'faire en sorte qu'un verbe se fasse chair'." States that Lagarde's examination is especially interesting when it relates to spectacle, be it dramatic, political, or religious.

LEINER, WOLFGANG. Etudes sur la littérature française du XVIIe siècle. Préface deRoger Duchêne.Ouvrage préparé parVolker Schröder etRainer Zaiser. Tübingen: PFSCL, 1996.

Review: M. J. Muratore in RF 111 (1999), 714–15: Welcomes this volume (of some previously published studies and some unpublished presentations) which demonstrates the wide range of Leiner's criticism. Textual readings or analyses (where Leiner is at his best according to Muratore), thematic analyses or textual problematics and literary/historical essays make up this insightful, cohesive and convincing volume. Muratore lauds Leiner's "genuine passion for our discipline"; his volume is "an enviable legacy for a literary scholar and a model of inspiration for all of us."

LESTRINGANT, FRANK, éd. La France-Amérique (XVe–XVIIIe). Actes du XXXVe Colloque international d'études humanistes. Paris: Champion, 1998.

Review: D. P. McKay et al. in RenQ 51 (1998), 1077–78: Important and diverse volume of essays treating France's response (literary, philosophical, scientific, religious, and artistic) to the "knowledge and conquest of the New World" (1077). Complete list of authors and essays. Wide variety of topics includes cartography, economy and Christianization of slaves, among others.

LYONS, JOHN D. Kingdom of Disorder: The Theory of Tragedy in Classical France. Purdue UP, 1999.

Review: C.E. Campbell in Choice 37.7 (2000), 1305: A study of seventeenth-century theories of tragedy. Examines treatises by d'Aubignac, La Mesnardière, Chapelain, Pierre Corneille, Racine, and each writer's thinking on passion, la vraisemblance, and the unities. Lyons "deals with each concept in a separate chapter — citing, discussing, comparing, and contrasting the writings of the theoreticians in a dense but well-reasoned manner."

MALL, LAURENCE. "De Homère à Fénelon à Rousseau: les problèmes du modèle dans le livre V d'Emile". S Fr 127(1999), 30–43.

Careful and well-documented analysis of the ambiguity and the importance of Télémaque for Emile. Rousseau's "homme du futur" is at once "homme naturel" and "le porteur unique de l'universel"(30). Fénelon's book and its authority is substituted to the authority of experience, that of Emile's gouverneur and that of author and text (36). Mall finally indicates clearly the multi-faceted ambivalence of Rousseau "face au modèle" (42).

MANSELL, DARREL. "Language in an Image." Criticism 42 (1999), 187–205.

Argues that language and image are irreconcilable sign-systems in a nice study of language as it appears in a series of art works.

MANTERO, ANNE. "Louange et ineffable: la poésie mystique du XVIIe siècle français." Littératures Classiques 39, 297–315.

Study of French seventeenth-sentury mystical poetry, in the works of Jean-Joseph Surin, Jean de Labadie, Madame Guyon, François Malaval and above all, Claude Hopil, ". . .qui a sans doute conduit le plus loin la tentative de dire la rencontre de l'âme avec le Dieu qui se cache."

MARCHAL, ROGER, ed. Grandeur et servitude au siècle de Louis XIV: études réunies par Roger Marchal. Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Nancy, 1999.

Review: B. Vanhouck in RSH 257.1 (2000), 229–230: A collection of essays assembled in memory of Marie-Thérèse Hipp and organized into four sections: 《 Témoignages 》, 《 Dieu et le Roi 》, 《 Les Voies de Dieu 》, 《 Morales du grand Siècle 》. While Madeleine Bertaud treats the memoirs of Mlle de Montpensier, Maryse Marchal and Michel Pernot examine those of the cardinal de Retz. Authors take on subjects such as conceptions of glory, autobiographical accounts of imprisonment, theatrical adaptations of saints' lives, deism, and death in the work of La Fontaine.

MARCHAL-WEYL, CATHERINE. "De la comedia espagnole au théâtre français: la notion de personnage" in Recherches des jeunes dix-septiémistes. Ed. Ch. Mazouer. Tübingen: Biblio 17 121, 2000, 15–25.

Diachronic approach to the infatuation of French 17th century audience and authors for the Spanish "comedia" of the Siglo de Oro, focusing on the productions of 3 representative authors: Rotrou, Scarron and Boisrobert.

MARCHITELLO, HOWARD. "Recent Studies in Tudor and Early Stuart Travel Writing." ELR 29 (1999), 326–47.

Focuses on travel texts produced in England, the majority dealing with New World travel. This bibliographic article has sections on editions, general studies (historical studies, theories, guides to travel writing), studies of individual travel writers, state of criticism, canon and texts. Although focus is England, 17th c. French scholars will find several useful entries such as John Alden and Dennis C. Landis's multi-volume guide to European books on the Americas: European Americana. . ., 1493–1776 (1980–88) and some twenty others in the section "European Travel Writing" (346–47).

MARTEL, JACINTHE, and ROBERT MELANÇON, eds. Inventaire, lecture, invention — Mélanges dECritique et d'histoire littéraires offerts à Bernard Beugnot. Montréal: Département d'études françaises, Université de Montréal, coll. 《 Paragraphes 》, 1999.

Review: J. Voisine in RLC 293.1 (janvier-mars 2000), 100: This collection of 31 contributions begins with a fifteen-page bibliography of Beugnot's work from 1962 to 1999. The next section contains four studies of Guez de Balzac, and the third section, "Muses classiques," is entirely devoted to seventeenth-century French literary studies.
Review: F. Briot in RSH 258.2 (2000), 350–352. A portrait of Beugnot and a bibliography of his works. There are four analyses of Guez de Balzac by R. Arbour, J. Jehasse, P. Dandrey, and E. Méchoulan. The third section contains essays by F. Siguret on le père Richeome, J. Brody on Descartes, G. Forestier on l'Abbé d'Aubignac, J.-P. Collinet and A. Soare on La Fontaine, J. Mesnard on le Sieur Du Plaisir, and J. Le Brun on Sillery critique of Fénelon's Télémaque.

MASSOLO, ARTURO. Della propedeutica e altre pagine sparse. Urbino: Montefeltro, 1996.

Review: M. Adam in RPFE 124.3 (1999), 394–5: A collection of philosophical texts by Massolo, a philosopher and poet who considered himself to be "marxian" but not "marxist." The collection is notable for a "curious" 1958 essay on Don Juan: "il s'agit d'un 'récital' donné au théâtre d'Urbino, associant un bon nombre d'auteurs [including Molière, Lovelace, Laclos and Mozart] ayant présenté le personnage de Don Juan et son conflit avec le 'convive de pierre.'" This is followed by an appendix in which Giuseppe Paioni presents part of a 1958 conversation with Massolo concerning this recital.

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

Review: H. Phillips in FS 53.4 (1999), 470–1. The study derives its central idea, and its title, from Pierrot's description of Dom Juan's wig in Molière's comedy as "un bonnet de filace." "This allows for the development of an analysis of the enigma as either a society game or a serious satirical weapon on the basis of familiar objects being described in an unusual or unfamiliar way, where the definition is substituted for the object defined." The book is a "delightful read" and "certainly offers food for further thought."
Review: A. Génetiot in RHL 100 (2000), 153–54: Book studies the use of the enigma in rhetorical, religious, and satirical texts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. May focuses on how the enigma's seemingly frivolous tone masks elegant and substantive discourse.

MAYER, THOMAS F. and D. R. WOOLF, eds. The Rhetoric of Life—Writing in Early Modern Europe. Forms of Biography from Cassandra Fedele to Louis XIV. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1995.

Review: J. M. Weiss in RenQ 51 (1998), 653–655: The volume's introduction and "a good third of the essays" are praised for their "substantive and scholarly introductions to major issues and problematics of Renaissance life-writing" (653). Review singles out for praise contributions, among others, by D. R. Woolf and Catherine Randall on Protestant martyrologies and by Elizabeth Goldsmith and Abby Zanger on rhetorical strategy in "correspondence, diplomatic dispatches, and personal memoirs"(655).

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

Review: W. Cloonan in SoAR 65.3 (2000), 99–102: Author's "deployment of "Incorporated" in her title has several justifications: it refers to the academic discipline of literature, to the body of the text as inscribed in the discipline, and finally to the human body viewed as a social construct." Strengths of study to be found in chapters dealing with specific texts. Cloonan finds chapter comparing La Fontaine's Fables to cookbooks particularly compelling. Theses are "daring yet plausible, but what they lack in every instance is more extensive development." A "good book" which "could have been an excellent one."

MECHOULAN, ÉRIC. "La dette et la loi: considérations sur la vengeance." Littératures Classiques 40, 2000, 275–294.

Study of the notion of "vengeance" from Classical Greece to the 17th century, and its key importance in the Ancien Régime, both in its legal aspects and in its manifestation in "ces étranges oeuvres que nous nommons aujourd'hui 'littéraires' où la vengeance paraît omniprésente."

MEUR, DIANE,trad. Le Culte des passions: essais sur le XVIIe siècle français. De Erich Auerbach. Paris: Macule, 1998.

Review: BCLF (611–612), 1829–30: Quatre études écrites entre 1926 et 1951 et inédites en français sur "les passions dans la sphère littéraire en général et chez Racine en particulier, sur la théorie politique de Pascal, et sur la réalité sociale et culturelle de l'entité appelée 'la cour et la ville'."

MEYER-PLANTUREUX, CHANTAL. Bernard Dort, un intellectuel singulier. Paris: Seuil, 2000.

Review: M. Schneider in Le Point 1458 (2000), 90: "L'intelligente biographie entreprise dès son vivant par Chantal Meyer-Plantureux fait revivre une figure marquante de la vie intellectuelle française, avec ses grandeurs et ses errements."

MIGUET-OLLAGNIER, MARIE. Métamorphoses du mythe. Besançon: Annales Littéraires de l'Université de Franche-Comté, 1997.

Review: J. Decottignies in RSH 256.4 (1999), 183–184: ". . . le projet du livre, tel que l'indique le titre, donne acte très exactement à la spécificité — disons: 'poétique' — de la création mythique. Le mythe est par nature voué à la métamorphose . . . on ne manquera pas de signaler l'originalité des études consacrées à la 'féminisation' du mythe, cette 'inversion', sous des plumes féminines, des fables, par tradition masculines, d'Oedipe et d'Orphée."

MOLINIE, GEORGES and CAHNE, PIERRE, éds. Actes du Colloque international 《 Qu'est-ce que le style? 》 (9–11 octobre 1991, Sorbonne). Paris: PUF, 1994.

Review: U. Thelen in ZRP 115 (1999), 653: Rich and wide-ranging volume treats style from literary, linguistic, stylistic, rhetorical and semiotic perspectives. Review lists titles and contributors; subjects range from antiquity to the modern era.

NATIVEL, COLETTE, ed. Femmes savantes, savoirs des femmes: du crépuscule de la Renaissance à l'aube des Lumières. Genève: Droz, c.

Review: BCLF 671 (2000), 382: "On est sensible à la qualité scientifique de la plupart des contributions et surtout à la cohérence générale de l'ouvrage, qui, tout en inscrivant la place de la femme dans la tradition familiale, montre comment se prépare, en quelques décennies, une reconnaissance sociale. On déplorera, en revanche, l'absence d'une bibliographie récapulative et quelques négligences formelles . . . ." Contributions organisées en trois parties: "Réalités et savoirs"; "Regards d'hommes"; "Discours de femmes/Portraits."

NEGRONI, NATHALIE. "Poésie et imagination dans le premier XVIIe siècle: relations et interactions" in Recherches des jeunes dix-septiémistes. Ed. Ch. Mazouer. Tübingen: Biblio 17 121, 2000, 279–291.

Study of "poetic imagination" in the 17th century, in order to ascertain how its various functions (imitative, transformative, or creative) are differentiated, and to explicit its relation to memory and understanding. The author reads the theoretical texts of the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as 18th century texts which provide a retrospective panorama and ". . .se livrent à une réflexion étiologique concernant les rapports de la création poétique et de la création divine. . ."

NEVEUX, JEAN. "J. von Sonnenfels, défenseur du théâtre français au temps de Maria-Theresia et de Joseph II." PFSCL XXVII, 52 (2000) 201–214.

Study of an 18th Century Austrian partisan of French theater, who attempted to provide Austria with the concept of "Théâtre au sein de la cité" for esthetic, political and psychological reasons.

NIES, FRITZ. Imagerie de la lecture. Exploration d'un patrimoine millénaire de l'Occident. Traduit de l'allemand parJacques Grange. Paris: PUF, 1995.

Review: Claude Abraham in CdDS 7.2 (2000), 231–33: Positive review of the Grange translation of Bahn und Bettund Bletenduft (1991). In general, book deals with reader-response. With respect to seventeenth-century France, work discusses how, among aristocrats, "the book is an accessory reserved almost exclusively for women," and that for men, "reading seems reserved for...[those] of humbler extraction."

PARMENTIER, BERENGERE. Le Siècle des moralistes: de Montaigne à La Bruyère. Paris: Seuil, 2000.

Review: BCLF 622 (2000), 1566: "Le livre commence par l'analyse des principales oeuvres (les Essais, les Pensées, les Caractères). Quelques rappels d'histoire sociale visent ensuite à préciser les fins et les fonctions de l'écriture morale au XVIIe siècle. Ils sont suivis d'un parcours d'histoire littéraire, qui part des catégories de style dont les 'moralistes' ont hérité pour conduire jusqu'aux notions nouvelles qu'ils ont imposées ou léguées par leurs propres pratiques d'écriture. Enfin, l'auteur entreprend de montrer comment ces 'moralistes' maintiennent et relancent une interrogation sur le status de la connaissance et sur la possibilite de l''énonciation morale."

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

Review: P. Force in Fr F 23 (1998), 121–22: Praised for its original perspective and convincing arguments, this subtle, non-polemic in tone, and ambitious (460 pages) work, clearly and persuasively presents the view that "la perfection imaginaire du modèle romain" which the classic writers claim "est en désaccord profond avec le milieu social" and that this "désaccord" is the basis of classical esthetic and moral principles (cited in F. 121).

PECH, THIERRY. " "Enfants de la mort". L'altérité criminelle dans les Histoires tragiques du premier XVIIe siècle" in L'autre au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Ralph Heyndels and Barbara Woshinsky. Tübingen: Biblio 17, 117 (1999) 95–106.

Study of criminal otherness in some short stories widely read in the first half of the 17th Century, short stories belonging to the genre of "histoires tragiques".

PECH, THIERRY. "Le théâtre des supplices." Littératures Classiques 40, 2000, 309–325.

Study of the nocturnal side of "l'Etat de raison" of the Classical age, "l'Etat de puissance" which flaunts its sacrifices, from Ravaillac's execution to Damiens: a moment of weakness for the state is transformed into an assertion of power. However, this theologico-political model can be refined, from Montaigne's ambiguities regarding the "spectacle des supplices" to De Rosset's "Histoires tragiques de notre temps" and Jean-Pierre Camus' "Amphitheatre sanglant."

PECKACZ, JOLANTA T. "The Salonnières and the Philosophes in Old Regime France: The Authority of Aesthetic Judgment." JHI 60 (1999), 277–297.

Extends the analysis of the decline of salons by Erica Harth and Joan DeJean through eighteenth-century France, concentrating on the Querelle des Bouffons in the 1750s and the controversy between Gluckistes and Piccinistes in the 1770s.

PHILLIPS, HENRY. "Les acteurs et la loi au XVIIe siècle en France." Littératures Classiques 40, 2000, 86–101.

Study of the Déclaration issued in 1641 on the status of actors, which states that the exercise of their function cannot ". . .leur être imputé à blâme, ni préjudicier à leur réputation dans le commerce public."

POLI, SERGIO. "Pour arriver à l'autre: Les voyages dans les dictionnaires du XVIIe siècle" in L'autre au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Ralph Heyndels and Barbara Woshinsky. Tübingen: Biblio 17, 117, (1999), 17–30.

Dictionary entries in Richelet, Furetière, and the "Dictionnaire de l'Académie de 1694" on "voyage", "voyager", and "voyageur" serve as a point of departure for an enquiry into the ideas of travel and the "other".

PORDZIK, RALPH. "'No Other Mystery but Reckoning or Counting': Margaret Cavendishs Blazing-World und die Konstruktion des wissenschaftlichen Weltbildes im 17. Jahrhundert." GRM 49.3 (1999), 275–290.

Margaret Cavendish's (1623–1673) fictitious utopia The Blazing World (1666) challenges Renaissance hermetism with the new science of Francis Bacon and with arguments favorable to positivism, relativism, and the radical atomism of Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655).

PORTEMAN, KAREL. Emblematic Exhibitions (affixiones) at the Brussels Jesuit College (1630–1685): A Study of the Commemorative Manuscripts (Royal Library, Brussels). Trans.Anna Simoni: Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1996.

Review: S. Sider in RenQ 51 (1998), 1369–70: Accompanied by a CD-ROM and 24 pages of color plates, Porteman's study focuses on 45 manuscripts with a wide variety of iconographic references. Sider suggests a number of possible scholarly treatments of this material including the "study of the multivalent nature of symbolism throughout the seventeenth century" (1369). Reviewer awaits an iconographic index for the CD-ROM and details computer requirements for the interested user. Important for "the many connections between the Jesuit College and public festivities in the city of Brussels" (1369).

PORTER, ROY, ed. Rewriting the Self: Histories from the Renaissance to the Present. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Review: D. P. McKay and S. Covington in RenQ 51 (1998), 335: With an introduction by P. and an index, this volume of 16 essays uses "religious, philosophical, psychological, political, psychoanalytical and literary models" to examines personal identity. Of particular interest to 17th c. scholars is Peter Burke's essay on self from Petrarch to Descartes and Jonathan Sawday's on self in the 17th c.

PREVOT, JACQUES avec la collaboration de THIERRY BEDOUELLE et ETIENNE WOLFF. Libertins du XVIIe siècle. Tome I. Paris: Gallimard, 1998.

Review: R. Godenne in LR 53 (1999), 199: Praised for furnishing "un chaînon manquant dans l'histoire de la pensée du XVIIe siècle," the volume's authors see "le libertinage" as the immediate consequence of a "faillite des modèles"— scientific, religious, political, social and literary. Includes and annotates key texts.

RAYNARD, SOPHIE GABRIELLE. Preciosity and Representations of the Feminine in Fairy Tales from Charles Perrault to Mme Leprince de Beaumont. DAI (1999).

Diss. looks at the fairy tale at the end of the seventeenth century and during the first half of the eighteenth century. Focus is on women authors, and how their work stylistically corresponds to that of the "précieuses." Also examines how female authors differed from Perrault.

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

The author studies how Hobbes responds to the utopic and dystopic visions of Etienne de la Boétie: the latter's notions of a free state, the free citizen tied to others by friendship, of the natural human being outside the confines of the present State. La Boétie's imaginary politics based on friendship becomes Hobbes' contract based on logical and legal exigency.

RESCIA, LAURA. "Le mythe de Narcisse dans la littérature française baroque (1580–1630)" in Recherches des jeunes dix-septiémistes. Ed. Ch. Mazouer. Tübingen: Biblio 17 121, 2000, 309–320.

The myth of Narcissus studied in different genres ("emblématique, romans, lettres héroïques et poésie") in order to show that, next to the "Narcisse manièriste" can be found a "Narcisse baroque."

REVAZ, GILLES. "La tragédie classique et la monarchie." Poétique 122 (2000), 233–42.

Through a genre analysis of plays by Corneille and Racine, Revaz argues that "[n]ous devons. . .éviter soigneusement de considérer que la tragédie est le miroir du pouvoir politique et qu'elle serait en quelque sorte commanditée par le prince pour le célébrer." The role of the king in tragedy corresponds to the idealized version of what he should be held by the public "de sorte que l'auteur bâtit un modèle plutôt qu'un miroir et que la signification des oeuvres est plus programmatique qu'encomiastique."

RIZZA, CECILIA. ]Libertinage et littérature. Fasano-Paris: Schena-Nizet, 1996.

Review: J. Serroy in RF 111 (1999), 746–48: Praised for its coherence and continuity of reflection, the volume collects seven previously published studies and one unpublished essay. The first five essays treat Théophile. Other studies focus on St. Amant, Cyrano, and Jacques Gaffarel. Exceedingly rich and wide-ranging erudition informs these essays which demonstrate that "le libertinage fut peut-être moins, en matière littéraire, une pensée structurée, une philosophie cohérente et systématique, qu'un état d'esprit, ce que Cecilia Rizza appelle 'une attitude mentale'" (reviewer).

RIZZA, CECILIA. "La notion d'autre chez quelques écrivains libertins" in L'autre au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Ralph Heyndels and Barbara Woshinsky. Tübingen: Biblio 17, 117 (1999) 205–211.

The idea of the other for Théophile de Viau ("le vulgaire qui n'est qu'erreur, qu'illusion"), Sorel (des "âmes basses"); in Molière's Dom Juan and in Cyrano's Les Estats et empires de la lune."

ROHOU, JEAN. Le classicisme. Paris: Hachette, 1996.

Review: N. Grande in RHL 100 (2000), 317: Originally designed for university students in the "premier cycle," the work constitutes a thoughtful analysis of the issues concerning classicism. Among these are the imitation of the Ancient, grandeur in the age of Louis XIV, and the influence of absolutism.

ROHOU, JEAN, ed. La Périodisation de l'âge classique. Paris: Champion, 1998.

Review: BCLF 611–612, 1874–75: Dix-neuf chercheurs ("en histoire littéraire, des idées, des formes, des institutions, de la langue") repensent "les continuités et les ruptures du XVIe au XVIIe siècle, les appropriations parfois tendencieuses du XVIIIe siècle, et il faudrait sûrement poursuivre l'étude ici amorcée de la place de la culture française dans la culture européenne."
Review: N. Grande in RHL 100 (2000), 140: Volume contains 17 papers which explore, among other topics, cultural and literary periodization, as well as questions of religion, genre, and style. Also under examination is the "rupture" between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as well as the "boundaires" of classicism.

ROSELLINI, MICHÈLE. "Le miel et le venin, ou l'utilité de la littérature démontrée par la praelectio." Littératures Classiques 37 (1999), 69–95.

Study of the "praelectio", which precedes the "lectio" of the 17th Century students in the "collèges." The goal of the teacher's "praelectio" is "convertir le plaisir littéraire en utilité." The model is provided by Erasmus. The author studies the transformations undergone by the humanist model under the influence of the "deux grandes pédagogies rivales de l'âge classique, celle des Jésuites et celle de Port-Royal."

ROSENTHAL, OLIVIA,sous la dir. de. À haute voix: diction et prononciation aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Paris: Librairie Klincksieck, 1998.

Review: F. Barbier in RFHL 104–5 (1999), 440–1 : "Le sujet est essentiel, et au cœur de nos réflexions les plus actuelles: quelles sont les places respectives de l'oral et de l'écrit au 'tournant' qui suit la révolution gutenbergienne, la rupture classique entre un Moyen Age oral et une modernité écrite ou imprimée, et surtout lue en silence, ne doit-elle pas être révaluée, et dans l'affirmative, selon quelles catégories?" C'est "un beau sujet, un beau titre, et, à l'arrivée, un beau livre."
Review: D. P. McKay in RenQ 51 (1998), 1412: The product of the 1996 Rennes conference of the Société française d'étude du seizième siècle, the volume includes a wide variety of essays organized around the central theme and treating poetry, music and theatre. Diction and pronunciation are examined from an impressive rang of perspectives: from Olivier Millet's analysis of the Bible and preaching to Larry Norman's essay on comic verse.
Review: P. Debailly in RHL 100 (2000), 138. A collection of papers given in Rennes in 1996. The focus is on the "oralisation" of the literary text, and the extent to which "orality" influences poetry and prose. Other topics include rhetoric as well as music and theater.

ROSSO, CORRADO. Moralismo critico nelle letteratura francese. Pise: Golliardica, 1997.

Review: G. Jacquois in LR 53 (1999), 209–10: Responding to a request to bring together in one volume a number of studies, some published previously, Rosso has produced a wide-ranging examination of a theme crucial to French literature. 17th c. scholars will appreciate in particular the treatments of classical esthetics, utopia and hope by this eminent specialist of French moral philosophy.

ROUSSET, JEAN. Dernier Regard sur le baroque. Paris: Corti, 1998.

Review: A. J. Singerman in FR 73. 2 (2000), 351–52: In this collection of disparate studies treating poetry, the theater, and the novel, Rousset examines the baroque in Tartuffe; the notion of the comédien in Goldoni, Rousseau, and Diderot; the paralinguistics of dialogue in Marivaux, Stendhal, Balzac, and Proust; and the notion of destruction in Claude Simon and Alice Rivaz. The essays are united "par le style gracieux et la grande sensibilité textuelle qui ont toujours caractérisé les travaux de Jean Rousset."
Review: F. Briot in RSH 255.3 (1999), 222–223: "La première partie de cette dernière parution a pour sous-titre 《 petite autobiographie d'une aventure passée 》 [à propos du baroque]....La deuxième partie (le geste et la voix dans le dialogue romanesque) s'intéresse, à travers les exemples de Marivaux, Stendhal, Balzac et Proust au désir d'entendre le roman."

RUBIN, DAVID LEE, ed. EMF: Studies in Early Modern France. Charlottesville: Rookwood Press, 1997.

Review: D. Course in DSS 204 (1999), 558: A collection of eight articles on diverse subjects, offering "directions de pensées originales et souvent subtiles. . . . [e]lles ouvrent des chemins nouveaux et toujours intéressants," according to the reviewer. Among the subjects explored are "la perception de 'l'autre' dans l'œuvre d'Agrippa d'Aubigné, de Du Bellay et de Malherbe; l'étude scientifique et métaphysique de la lumière entre 1600 et 1750," "la conception de l'être pensant chez Descartes," and "les descriptions de la Turquie comme prétexte à la légitimation des monarchies occidentales."

RUBIN, DAVID LEE. "Rewriting, A Heuristic Profile." FrF 24.1 (1999): 21–32.

Proposes a new approach to literary adaptation and translation based on the work of the Chicago pluralists (Richard P. McKeon and Walter Watson), and illustrates with a detailed textual analysis of "Le Geai paré des plumes du Paon" (La Fontaine, Fable 4.9), its Phaedrian source and the translation of Marianne Moore. Stresses the importance of shifting, perspective, sense of reality, method, and principle. Rubin finds a heteroarchic version valuable "if it makes sense in its own fashion or achieves its own coherence and autonomy" (31–32).

RUSSELL, BARRY. "The Form that Fell to Earth: Parisian Fairground Theatre. " ECr 39 (1999), 56–63.

Examines a critical piece of evidence that the Parisian fairground theatre was an Italian phenomenon: the play Les Forces de l'amour et de la magie (1678). R. has discovered an original copy of the play, two further texts by the same company and has made accessible on line at http://foires.net. Russell's research proves French rather than Italian background.

SAMOYAULT, TIPHAINE. Excès du roman. Paris: Nadeau, 1999.

Review: J.L. Greenberg in WLT 74 (2000), 394: Discusses what the author terms the "excesses" of the novel as a genre from its birth until today. "Excesses" include its various dimensions (spatial, temporal) and the extremes of its perspectives (fragmentization vs. totalization). Greenberg: "Extremely, if not excessively, dense."

SAUNDERS, ALISON. The Seventeenth-Century Emblem: A Study in Diversity. Genève: Droz, 2000.

SCHAPIRA, CHARLOTTE. La Maxime et le discours d'autorité. Paris: Sedes, 1997.

Review: Marie-France Hilgar in FR 74, 1 (2000), 133–34: In this "ouvrage très complet," the author defines the maxim in the French tradition by distinguishing it from the discursive forms it resembles — "le proverbe, l'adage, l'apophtegme, l'aphorisme, le dicton, la sentence, la pensée, etc." — , and by systematizing it in grammatical terms. Treating its various themes, the author discusses the maxim in the work of Corneille, Molière, La Fontaine, La Rochefoucauld, Proust, Giraudoux, and Montherlant, and suggests that the genre is as vital today as it was in the seventeenth century.

SCHAPIRA, NICOLAS. "Les enjeux d'une correspondance instructive: les lettres de Valentin Conrart à Lorenzo Magalotti." Littératures Classiques 37 (1999), 155–168.

The author shows how Valentin Conrart, first "secrétaire de l'Académie Française" uses "le phénomène épistolaire. . .pour construire sa légitimité d'homme de lettres." The correspondance between Conrart and Magalotti is examined as the construction of an intermediate place, between Paris and Florence; as "instruction réciproque"; and as the place where "l'homme de lettres" may prove his aptitude to sociability.

SCHUBERT, ANSELM. "Von der Gelehrsamkeit und anderen galanten Künsten." GRM 49.1 (1999), 35–54.

Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannwaldau's (1617–1679) erotic lyric is best understood in light of the traditions of learned erotica and libertinage érudit of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The poet subverts official discourses, such as high literature and theological argument, with images and notions of an all-pervasive sexuality, as can be seen in the works of Gian Francesco Loredano, Pietro Aretino, Ferrante Pallavicino, and pornographic novels, such as L'Ecole des filles.

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

Review: J. M. Zarucchi in Fr F 23 (1998), 247–48: Seifert's "insightful and well-researched study" reveals that "women authored more than two-thirds of these tales and were preeminent in developing the genre" (Zarucchi 247). Zarucchi reviews helpfully the stages of criticism as she praises Seifert's centralization of the fairy tale genre in the literary mainstream and his "ability to regard gender as a dynamic pertinent to both men and women authors" (Zarucci 248).
Review: L. Mall in Romance Quarterly 47, 2, 113–114. "This is an interesting, well-written, well-documented, and informative book, although some of its claims, in particular the "utopian" insights, do not always seem to be clearly supported by the tales cited."

SELLIER, PHILIPPE. " 'Se tirer du commun des femmes': la constellation précieuse" in L'autre au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Ralph Heyndels and Barbara Woshinsky. Tübingen: Biblio 17, 117 (1999) 313–329.

Study of the status of the "Précieuse" in current historical enquiry, which asks the question: what is a "Précieuse"? and answers: a woman who asserts her "singularité", who values "délicatesse", who could be accused of narcissism, who shares the ideal of "galanterie".

SERROY, JEAN. Poètes français de l'âge baroque, Anthologie (1571–1677). Paris: Ed. de l'Imprimerie nationale, 1999.

Review: P. Perrin in NRF 553 (2000), 318–25: 《 Ce fort volume de plus de cinq cents pages tout ensemble aérées et cousues participe d'une notion, le baroque, dont l'existence littéraire en France remonte seulement à un demi-siècle. . . Le baroque a le mérite d'ouvrir grandes les portes au classicisme. La poésie justement n'est pas qu'un éclair. Les poètes de l'âge baroque appellent la grandeur du jour. Cette anthologie la leur dispense pleinement, qui rassasie en avivant la soif. 》

SGARD, JEAN. Le Roman français à l'âge classique (1600–1800). Paris: Le Livre de poche, 2000.

Review: BCLF 622 (2000), 1564: Ouvrage dont l'aspect didactique "le destine aux étudiants." Romans classés en quatre catégories (le roman pastoral, le roman héroïque, le roman comique et la nouvelle) et selon cinq époques. "L'ouvrage est complété par une anthologie critique de quarante extraits de 1629 à 1800, où le roman est défini, défendu, parfois attaqué, et par une chronologie de la publication romanesque au cours de deux siècles." Bibliographie; index des thèmes; index des noms des personnes.

SOULIER, DIDIER, ed. Le Baroque en question(s). Paris: Champion, 1999.

Review: BCLF 611–612 (1999), 1863: " . . .baroque et périodisation peuvent raisonnablement servir de concepts opératoires à condition de les remettre périodiquement 'en questions', ce qui est fait ici pour 'le baroque', après qu'un numéro précédent de la même revue [Littératures classiques] s'est interrogé sur la périodisation au XVIIe siècle."

SPICA, ANNE-ELISABETH. Symbolique humaniste et emblématique: L'Evolution et les genres (1580–1700). Paris: Champion, 1996.

Review: A. Saunders in FS 53.3 (1999), 326–7: This wide-ranging study examines an "evolving pattern in the exploitation of symbolism as used in the combination of written word and visual image during this period." The bibliography includes a good selection of primary sources. Unfortunately there are a number of bibliographical inaccuracies both here and in the main text. "But despite these lapses Spica provides an interesting and thought-provoking study."
Review: D. Course in CdDS 7.2 (2000), 249–50: Positive review of another in the Lumière classique collection directed by Philippe Sellier. Work successfully deciphers what author calls "la grammaire des images." In general, book examines the word-image dynamic as it relates to symbolism. Course concludes review saying that book offers "une érudition solide, sans faille, écrite avec clarté et élégance."

SPIELMANN, GUY. "Acteur, personnage, persona: modes de l'individualité et de l'altérité dans la comédie classique" in L'autre au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Ralph Heyndels and Barbara Woshinsky. Tübingen: Biblio 17, 117 (1999) 117–132.

Construction of subjectivity and otherness in the theater of the late 17th century seen as progressively divided in two main tendencies: "le jeu classique" (which erases fictional markers in the actor to neutralize his/her otherness), and "le jeu masqué" (which emphasizes the marks of otherness.)

SPIELMANN, GUY. "Avant-propos." ECr 39 (1999), 5–6.

Introduces the Fall 1999 issue which originated as a colloque in Lexington, KY in 1996. Focuses on "le spectaculaire" and develops rapports between key concepts—"spectacle, théâtre et texte"—, and suggests future research.

SPIELMANN, GUY. "La 《 Comédie post-moliéresque 》 et son double: éléments pour une problématique." CdDS 7.2 (2000), 105–120.

Argues that the period from 1680–1715 constitutes a crucial era in the development of French comedy. Discusses activity at the Foire Saint-Germain et Saint-Laurent, as well as the work of Baron, Dancourt, and de Brueys.

SPIELMANN, GUY. "Le mariage classique, des apories du droit au questionnement comique." Littératures Classiques 40, 2000, 223–255.

The author sketches the ambiguous status of the institution of marriage (between Church and State) through a series of political and legal changes during 10 centuries before studying the specific issue of marriage as "conclusion obligée de la comédie au XVIIe siècle."

SPIELMANN, GUY. "Spectacle, théâtre, texte: esquisse d'une problématique." ECr 39(1999), 76–88.

Masterfully revisists these three key notions, notes crucial ambiguities such as the status of actor and spectator and concludes that "les hommes du XVIIe siècle. . . n'ont pas sur la question des vues aussi étriquées que pourraient nous le laisser croire les manuels scolaires, et pensent le spectacle avec beaucoup de souplesse"(85). Calls for rediscovery between genres and activities so often classified as distinct.

STEINBERGER, DEBORAH. "Spectacles of Intimacy: A New Look at the comédie larmoyante". ECr 39 (1999), 64–75.

Steinberger's analysis of plays by Destouches and La Chaussée focuses on dramatic space and stage settings and successfully considers the plays as "spectacle". Insists on the public's appreciation of the plays (numerous performances and Destouches and La Chaussée's election to the Académie) and calls for a long overdue reevaluation of their theatre.

STONE, HARRIET. The Classical Model: Literature and Knowledge in Seventeenth-Century France. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1996

Review: J. N. Peters in ECr 38 (1998), 119–120: Contests and extends Foucault's paradigms, demonstrating the usefulness of 17th c. literary art to the representation of knowledge. Perceptive close readings of Rotrou, Corneille, Racine, Molière, La Rochefoucauld, Descartes, La Fayette, and Pascal illustrate S.'s argument. Judged "an elegant piece of criticism, carefully formulated and tightly written [which] argues convincingly that literature clarifies science by showing how any organization of knowledge is also an ideologically marked act of representation" (P., 120).

STRAH, MARIE MICHELLE. "Seeing Things: The Dire Visibility of the French Baroque (Maurice Scève, Pierre Bayle, Ben Jonson, Michael Maier, Annibel Bartlet)." DAI (1999).

Diss analyzes the topic of vision as it relates to the body, the grotesque, and death. Critical approach based on Glucksmann, Foucault, and Lacan.

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

By studying the reception of utopian works in Charles Sorel's bibliograhies and reviews in the Journal des sçavans, the author concludes that such works were a vehicle for dissent and required their readers to look for the subversive.

STYAN, J. L. "Some Late Reflections on Tragedy and Its Theatrical Chemistry." CompD 33 (1999), 166–75.

A survey of the development of the tragic genre. Vitality of French neoclassical drama viewed as deriving from compromise between ritualistic convention and realistic evocation of emotions.

SWEETSER, MARIE-ODILE. Literature and Architecture as Metaphor of Grandeur and Decadence, Analecta Husserliana 43 (2000), 149–64.

The Valois and their architects built chateaux and palaces as a metaphor of the greatness of France during their reign. Conversely, Roman ruins represented the decadence of a once great empire. The same metaphors were used by 17th C. poets from Malherbe to La Fontaine.

TARRÊTE, ALEXANDRE. "Entre mémoire et oubli: la citation chez trois lecteurs de Montaigne." RSH 256.4 (1999), 99–113.

In a study of three readers of Montaigne — Du Vair, Camus, Guez de Balzac —, the author finds that Montaigne's lack of memory, as a studied negligence, contributes to his style.

TERRIER, PHILIPPE, LORIS PETRIS et MARIE-JEANNE LIENGME BESSIRE, eds.. Les Fruits de la Saison: Mélanges de littérature des XVIe et XVIIe siècles offerts au Professeur André Gendre. Genève: Université de Neuchâtel/Droz, 2000.

Articles include: H. Weber, "Diane-Hecate chez Scève, Jodelle et d'Aubigné"; J.-P. Chauveau, "Variations sur un thème: L'Hiver vu par quelques poètes au XVIIe siècle"; Z. Marzys, "Vaugelas, disciple de Malherbe?"; J. LaFond, "Prose, vers et poésie dans Les Amours de Psyché"; R. Francillon, "《 Les Obsèques de la Lionne 》: un concentré de la poétique de La Fontaine"; F. Eigeldinger, "De l'usage des Fables de La Fontaine par Jean-Jacques Rousseau"; Ph. Terrier, "Baudelaire et Aubigné: à propos de l'épigraphe des Fleurs du Mal".

THIROUIN, LAURENT. "Les dévots contre le théâtre, ou de quelques simplifications fâcheuses." Littératures Classiques 39, 105–121.

Reassessment of the French debate on "la moralité du théâtre" in the seventeenth century. The author analyses Godeau's sonnet "Sur la Comédie", and the pamphlet "Observations sur une comédie de Molière intitulée Le Festin de Pierre" to conclude that it is necessary to distinguish between the various ideological positions among the "dévots" in order to comprehend "le contenu pleinement théorique des traités anti-théâtraux du siècle classique."

TRIVISANI-MOREAU, ISABELLE. "Romans au jardin: aspects et évolution de quelques stéréotypes" in Recherches des jeunes dix-septiémistes. Ed. Ch. Mazouer. Tübingen: Biblio 17 121, 2000, 219–227.

Representation of space, specifically of "l'espace extérieur terrestre" in a corpus composed of more than 200 representative narrative texts of the period 1660–1680.

TRUCHET, JACQUES. La Tragédie classique en France. 3e édition corrigée. Paris: PUF, 1997.

Review: P. Dandrey in DSS 204 (1999), 558–559: A new edition of Truchet's 1975 book, "additionné d'une mise à jour bibliographique, sans que le temps ait rien retiré à l'élégante clarté de son propos, de son architecture et de son écriture." The reviewer notes that the bibiography "donne une bonne image des recherches menées et des moissons engrangées depuis vingt ans" but regrets the lack of inclusion of "des volumes plus récemment parus sous l'enseigne de petites collections crées depuis [1975] et non dépourvues de mérite, telles que 'Folio-Théâtre' (Gallimard) ou 'Le Livre de poche classique' (Hachette)."

VAN ELSLANDE, JEAN-PIERRE. "L'altérité arcadienne" in L'autre au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Ralph Heyndels and Barbara Woshinsky. Tübingen: Biblio 17, 117 (1999) 393–401.

Why does the pastoral have its golden age in the beginning of the 17th century? The author answers that it offered the imagination of its readers and audience a representation of a precise form of otherness which "inscrit, développe et problématise" an ideal of freedom become urgent within the context of rising Absolutism and the formation of the modern state.

VAN ELSLANDE, JEAN-PIERRE. L'Imaginaire pastoral du XVIIe siècle, 1600–1650. Paris: PUF, 1999.

Review: BCLF 619 (2000), 862–63: "En effet, mis à part les attraits d'un jardin des délices utopique et anachronique qu'elle offre à ses adeptes, la pastorale réussit—c'est la thèse centrale de l'ouvrage—à se faire le miroir privilégié des deux courants majeurs de sensibilité qui se partagèrent la société cultivée su début du Grand Siècle: le libertinage et la dévotion."
Review: F. Briot in RSH 258.2 (2000), 349–350: The author examines a number of means of representation, such as the theatrical, pictural, romanesque, and poetic, and some social behaviors, and then contrasts the pastoral universe with religious and libertine discourses to show its doubleness. The pastoral overcomes the simple distinction between the normative and the ludic, between imposed social values and the desire for individual liberty. Van Eslande focuses mostly on Racan and d'Urfé.

VARGA, ARON KIBEDI. Le classicisme. Paris: Seuil, 1998.

Review: N. Grande in RHL 100 (2000), 318: A book destined for high school and early-university students. Varga discusses the basic principles of classicism such as the adherence to rules, the imitation of nature, and the three unities. Also emphasized is the hierarchy of genres.

VIALA, ALAIN. "La fonctionnalité du littéraire: problèmes et perspectives." Littératures Classiques 37 (1999), 7–20.

Reading of Aristotle's Poetics, both theoretical, examining the functionnality of poetry conceived as constantly "édifiante" or partially "édifiante"; and historical, distributing two readings "au fil du temps": a "lecture édifiante" ("le plaisir et l'apprendre sont deux raisons disjointes mais égales en importance") and a "lecture jouissive" ("le plaisir est la cause première, l'apprendre une cause seconde.")

VIALA, ALAIN, ed. Le Théâtre en France des origines à nos jours. Paris: PUF, 1997.

Review: C. Schumacher in MLR 94. 4 (1999), 1114–15: Highly negative review cites numerous "careless assertions" and questions justification for the project, particularly in light of the two-volume 1988 history of French theater published by Armand Colin under the direction of Jacqueline de Jomaron (Le Théâtre en France). Reviewer praises the latter as well-written, comprehensive, authoritative, and ground-breaking in its historiographical presentation of the subject.
Review: J.-C. Vuillemin in OeC 25.1 (2000), 185–86: "S'efforçant d'appréhender le théâtre dans sa double nature de texte dramatique et de texte spectaculaire, les sept étapes majeures de ce périple chronologique au coeur de l'univers théâtral français recensent un nombre appréciable d'oeuvres et d'auteurs, évoquent les principales théories du genre, prennent en considération les impératifs de la mise en scène et les contraintes liées aux divers espaces du spectacle, s'intéressent à la réception du public et, mais à un degré moindre, aux performances non traditionnelles ainsi qu'à la conservation et à la diffusion des textes."

VUILLEMIN, JEAN-CLAUDE. "Dramaturgie et pédagogie au Collège Jésuite de Rodez: Clovis Triomphant d'Alaric." Revue du Rouergues 58 (1999), 154–183,

Short history of the establishment of the Jesuits in France, with special emphasis on the Collège Jésuite de Rodez' implementation of the Ratio studiorum and Jesuit dramaturgy. Detailed account of the collège's presentation of the 1655 tragi-comedy Clovis triomphant d'Alaric and its historical relevance to the battle of Vouillé. Includes a transcription of the livret produced by students (prologues, descriptions of the intermèdes, and the actors' names).

VUILLERMOZ, MARC, ed. Dictionnaire analytique des oeuvres théâtrales françaises du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Champion, 1998.

Review: BCLF 613 (1999), 1997: Outil de travail indispensable situé dans la lignée de Schérer (Dramaturgie classique en France, 1950) et Lancaster (History of French Dramatic Literature in the Seventeenth Century, 1966); réparti en cinq rubriques ("type de la pièce avec d'éventuels genres intérieurs; personnages. . .; structure de l'intrigue. . .; lieux; temps"). Cent soixante-six oeuvres sélectionnées.
Review: J.-M. Civardi in IL 51.4 (1999), 60: Work presents 166 notices to the plays of 35 dramatists. Organization is based on a formalistic type of grid categorized according to 1) type of play, 2) type of character, 3) plot structure, and 4) the amount of time a character spends on stage.

WENTZLAFF-EGGEBERT, CHRISTIAN. Le Langage littéraire au XVIIe siècle: de la rhétorique à la littérature. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1991.

Review: C. Grisé in CdDS 7.2 (2000), 251–61: Favorable evaluation of a collection of 22 articles "dealing with the evolution 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 a new esthetics of taste." Emphasis is on how authors developed a more natural and direct form of rhetoric.

WORTH-STYLIANOU, VALÉRIE. Confidential Strategies. The Evolving Role of the Confident in French Tragic Drama (1635–1677). Genève: Droz, 1999 (Travaux du Grand Siècle, XII).

Review: J. Emelina in PFSCL XXVII, 52 (2000) 338–340: "L'ouvrage est beau et le titre alléchant, malgré une matière au premier abord ingrate et mince, surtout si l'on songe aux serviteurs-vedettes des comédies, aux rôles prestigieux et hégémoniques."

YANDELL, CATHY. Carpe Corpus: Time and Gender in Early Modern France. U of Delaware P, 2000.

Review: C. M. Reno in Choice 38, 1 (2000), 134: In this study of "received ideas regarding Renaissance notions of time," Yandell suggests that sixteenth-century French women writers — du Guillet, Labé, de Marquets, Estienne, des Roches — challenge stereotypes of temporality embodied by figures such as Ronsard. A "major contribution to both Renaissance and gender studies."

ZOBERMAN, PIERRE. Les Cérémonies de la parole: L'éloquence d'apparat en France dans le dernier quart du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Champion, 1998.

Review: W. Ayres-Ben in MLR 95.3 (2000), 832–33: Impressive scholarly work explores "various secular manifestations of what he terms éloquence d'apparat, set-piece speeches usually given within a formal ceremonial context in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. He focuses on three principal domains (the academies, parlements and legal institutions, and municipal bodies) and contrasts, at least in the case of the two, practice in Paris with that in the provinces."
Review: D. Augier in ECr 39 (1999), 89–90: Judged "essentiel pour quiconque s'intéresse à l'éloquence et/ou au fonctionnement des institutions à la fin du XVIIe siècle"(90). Impressive for its all encompassing and detailed treatment of "toutes ces manifestations qui relèvent de l'éloquence d'apparat"(90), not only in Paris but in the provinces as well. For each institution or event, Zoberman describes the circumstances, physical/material, in addition to the discourses, orators and public.
Review: B. Beugnot in DSS 207 (2000), 354–357: Zoberman examines "l'ensemble des discours que suscitent les rituels institutionnels à l'occasion des cérémonies officielles." The reviewer lauds this erudite study, which contributes to current scholarly discussions in the fields of literature and history: "histoire des académies provinciales;... fontionnement de l'état classique;...sociologie des publics;... histoire textuelle, institutionnelle et sociale de la rhétorique;...inventaire des représentations encomniastiques de la figure royale;..." among others. This book enriches our study of the 17th century, the reviewer suggests, by extending the boundaries of what is considered classical textuality. Beugnot finds some stylistic infelicities, noting that "la redondance propre à l'éloquence officielle contamine le texte."

Back to top of page