French Renaissance Tragedy: The Dramatic Word (Cambridge Studies in French, Series Number 32)

Jondorf, Gillian

ISBN 10: 0521360145 / ISBN 13: 9780521360142

Published by Cambridge University Press, 1990

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: French Renaissance Tragedy: The Dramatic Word (Cambridge Studies in French, Series Number 32)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521360145
• ISBN 13: 9780521360142
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Gillian Jondorf challenges the traditional critical approaches to French Renaissance theater, reevaluating its literary merit and originality. She shows how playwrights of the sixteenth century actually achieved an originality by introducing classical themes, breaking with the medieval tradition of religious and morality plays. Whereas many critics have considered writers of French Renaissance drama as mere forerunners of the more famous seventeenth-century writers such as Molière or Racine, Jondorf argues that these plays should be seen as competent and skillfully-composed in their own right. This book will appeal to students of Renaissance literature and European drama, as well as those interested in questions of originality and literary influence.

Book Description

The tragedies produced in France in the sixteenth century by writers such as Garnier, La Taille, and Jodelle are increasingly accessible in good modern editions. Their subject matter included Bible stories and recent history, as well as Greek legend and Roman history. Until now, scholars have tended to regard them as a staging post on the road to Corneille and Racine.