Figures of the Text: Reading and Writing (In) la FontaineThe works of Jean de La Fontaine have invited an extraordinary variety of readings in the three centuries since their composition. By engaging selected fables and tales with contemporary notions of intertextuality, reader reception theory, and grammatology, "Figures of the Text" raises questions about what "reading La Fontaine" meant in the 17th century, and what it means today. The study integrates a theory of reading and a theory of textual production by drawing attention to those aspects of the text that figure writing and reading, for instance: scenes of reading; other modes of writing (emblems, hieroglyphics); inscriptions and epitaphs; proper names; and citation (proverbs, maxims, allusions); the relation of represented orality to textuality, of textuality to corporeality, and of textuality to the visual arts (ekphrasis); and the archaeology of textual figures, such as labyrinths, textiles, and veils. |
Contents
Representations of Writing | 11 |
The Intertextual Corpus | 41 |
Textuality and Sexuality | 55 |
Description Representation and Interpretation | 81 |
Conclusion | 109 |
Works Cited | 137 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abdéritains adage Amsterdam animal body Book c'est Catullus century cerveau chapter citation cited classical Collinet critical Cupid's palace Curé Démocrite Démocrite's Descartes Deux Pigeons discourse double fable ekphrasis emblem essay fable fable's fait figure Fontaine Fontaine's Fontaine's fable framing narrative Fumaroli genre grammatical gender hieroglyphic Hippocrate Hypnerotomachia Poliphili inscription interpretation intertextual irony Jean La Fontaine labyrinth Laitière language literary Livre Marc Fumaroli metaphor Michael Riffaterre Mme de Sévigné Mort Myrtis and Megano narrator narrator's novel oracle painting paranarrative Paris periphrasis Perrette's PFSCL pictura poesis picture poetic Poétique Poliphile Poliphile's Pot au lait prologue proverb Psyché Psyché story qu'il qu'on reader reading and writing récit Régnier Renaissance representation sage scene of reading seems sense Seuil seventeenth seventeenth-century sexual siècle signifying syllepsis Tableau tale tapestry tête textual thematic theory tion tout Trans ut pictura poesis veil vend la sagesse Versailles verse visual voice word