Creative Tensions: Introduction to Seventeenth-century French LiteratureThe primary aim of this book is to provide an introduction, principally for students but also for the general reader, to 17th-century French writing. Nicholas Hammond shows in eight vignettes what made this period a golden age of French drama, philosophy, and creativity. He argues that, rather than acting as a stranglehold, the rules of the time propelled artistic creativity to exceptional heights, releasing a sensitivity to language and wit which has not been rivalled since. The book deals in particular with the "Querelles des anciens et modernes", Pascal and the Jesuits, literary forms, gender, transvestism and homosexuality, showing how these contributed to the creative tension of the age. |
Contents
Acknowledgements | 7 |
Tensions in Drama II | 33 |
Tensions in Religion | 55 |
Copyright | |
7 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
Académie française ancient Antoine Antoine Arnauld Arnauld assez autre Bérénice bien Bruyère c'est Caractères Chappuzeau chapter character choses Church Clitandre comedy comtesse conversation Corneille Corneille's critics D'Aubignac debate Dieu Discours discussed disguise Dom Juan dramatist example fable fait faut Fouquet fragment François French genres homosexual honnête homme honnêteté Jansenists Jean Jesuit known L'Ecole des femmes L'Honnête l'honnêteté Lafuma Le Cid letters Lettres provinciales libertin literary Louis XIV maxim memoir Méré Mme de Brissac Mme de Sévigné Molière Molière's monde Montaigne moral Moreover n'est Nicolas Paris Pascal Pensées Pierre Pierre Corneille play playwrights poem poet poétique Port-Royal portrait précieuses préciosité prose published qu'elle qu'il qu'on Racine reader reading religion religious rien Rochefoucauld role rules Saint-Pavin salons satire sceptics Scudéry seen sermons seventeenth century seventeenth-century France society Tartuffe tensions texts theatre theatrical tout tragedies truth vérité vertu veut vices vraisemblance women words writing