FRENCH 333 French Classical Tragedy: Corneille vs. Racine: Rethinking the Parallel

Ever since La Bruyère’s famous comment on Corneille and Racine respectively, “The first depicts men as they should be, the second as they are,” critics have tirelessly opposed the two French tragedians. In this course, we will take a critical approach to the notion of “Auteurs Classiques” and the seventeenth century’s status as the “Grand Siècle” by questioning the archetypal Corneille and Racine parallel in light of important but marginalized playwrights such as Jean Rotrou, Tristan l’Hermite and Catherine Bernard who defy standard definitions of Classicism and tragedy. We will explore the many variations on the Corneille and Racine parallel, asking if there is a “Grand Corneille” and a “Tender Racine,” and considering why certain historical periods deemed one playwright to encapsulate “French values” and patriotism more than the other. Students will become familiar with an array of seventeenth-century tragedies and reflect on the process and politics of literary canonization.

We will analyze the progression from the dominance of tragic-comedy in the early seventeenth century, to tragedy’s heyday at mid-century, and, finally, opera’s supplanting of tragedy at the end of century. We will consider the artistic and political factors responsible for promoting these changes. We will also discuss the specific historical contexts within which the playwrights worked, and how tragedy’s status as the “monarchical genre” influenced their subject matter. We will take into account how the foundation of the Académie française and the Comédie française, as well as the influence of the doctes, the parterre, and the growing importance of female opinion shaped French tragedy.
This course will allow students to engage with critics of French literature who have shaped current thinking on seventeenth-century tragedy (e.g., Barthes, Starobinski, Genette, Forestier) while encouraging them to question the validity of aesthetic periodization and classifications such as “the baroque” or “the classical.” Finally, the course will offer an état des lieux of French classical tragedy today. We will consider, for instance, which plays are still widely taught and performed and for what audiences. We will question the exclusion of certain playwrights at the expense of others and interrogate the status of  “minor” and “major” works within the corpus of canonical authors.

Readings:
Corneille, Le Cid, Horace, Suréna, Les Trois Discours sur le poème dramatique
Racine, Andromaque, Bérénice, Phèdre, Préfaces
Rotrou, Le Véritable Saint Genest
Tristan l’Hermite, La Marianne
Catherine Bernard, Brutus
Thomas Corneille, Timocrate
D’Aubignac, La Pratique du théâtre (excerpts)
We will also watch video-recordings of contemporary stagings of these plays, and at least one cinematic adaptation of one of these works.

Assignments: short response papers, one mid-term paper, one final paper, and one oral presentation