Ethics And Politics In Seventeenth Century France
Distributed for University of Exeter Press
240 pages
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illustrations
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9-1/10 x 5-9/10
This collection of twenty essays, of which five are in French, written by leading English and French literary and historical scholars, deconstructs the ethical and political framework supporting and circumscribing the actions of a powerful elite in France between the early 1600s and the final years of Louis XIV's reign. Reflecting a diversity of individual concerns, the essays, which offer a radical double questioning of the absolute values in which were founded the authority of Church, King and nobility, have been divided into two interrelated parts in acknowledgement of the complex tensions between codes of behaviour and political practice in the different theatrical spaces of government in the real and imaginary world.
The dual political and moral theme of this study is not new, but it is one which has always been highly regarded by historians and literary specialists alike. It is in fact one of the 'classics' of seventeenth-century studies, the one to which critics must always return, and to which students must always address themselves, if they are to comprehend the intellectual core of seventeenth-century French studies.
Papers in Seventeenth Century French Literature
“This volume merits careful reading by all specialists in seventeenth century French studies. The thematic coherence provided by the focus on literature and politics in Watt's own work has been reflected in this volume with learned and illuminating results.” –Papers in Seventeenth Century French Literature
English Historical Review
“...this collection contains much that will interest the historian and the literary scholar.” –English Historical Review, April 1998, Vol. CXIII, No. 451
French History
“The editors are to be complimented for assembling this international team of scholars, who have explored a theme which is central to the cultural and political history of seventeenth-century France.” –French History, Vol. 12, No. 3 1998
Contents
Introduction
1. 'Alternative' Ethical Systems in France during the Grand Siècle (William D. Howarth)
2. A Note on Lay Piety in the Early Seventeenth Century (John Cruickshank)
3. Guez de Balzac: The Enduring Influence of Rome (Margaret McGowan)
4. L'Image de la Ligue dans les Mémoires du Cardinal de Retz (Simone Bertiére)
5. The Political Testaments of Richelieu and La Rochefoucauld (Elizabeth Woodrough)
6. Considérations morales et politiques autour d'Henri II de Montmorency: Une polyphonie discordante (Noémi Hepp)
7. Medicine and Statecraft in the Mémoires du Cardinal de Retz (Colin Jones)
8. The Fouquet-Colbert Rivalry and the 'Revolution' of 1661 (Richard Bonney)
9. Crescit ut ascpicitur: Condé and the Reinterpretation of Heroism, 1650-1662 (Mark Bannister)
10. Love, Marriage and a Disputed Sentence in La Princesse de Clèves (John Campell)
11. Marie de Villars: A Political Woman? (Wendy Perkins)
12. Ascendent et déclinaison de la noblesse française dans le systéme de Boulainvilliers (Yves Coirault)
PART II: THE POLITICS OF THEATRE
13. Corneille: Ethic and Polis (Henry Phillips)
14. Sur l'échec des conjurés dans La Mort de Sénèque (Madeleine Bertaud)
15. 'Le Poids d'une couronne':The Dilemma of Monarchy in La Calprenède's Tragedies (Guy Snaith)
16. African Temptresses and Roman Matrons: Female Roles on the Paris Stage, 1634-1643 (David Clarke)
17. How Quinault uses Political Commonplaces (William Brooks)
18. Politics and Tragedy: The Case of the Earl of Essex (C. J. Gossip)
19. 'Je commence á rougir': Shame, Self-Esteem and Guilt in the Presentation of Racine's Hippolyte (Edward Forman)
20. L'influence de Louis XIV sur la vie littéraire: pour un bilan critique (Jean Rohou)
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History: European History
Philosophy: Ethics
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