Le théâtre classique / French Classical Theatre

The goal of this course is to provide an overall approach to classical dramaturgy, and to equip students to read other texts successfully on their own. We will concentrate on the three major dramatists of the seventeenth century: Corneille, Racine, and Molière. We will use both textual and film versions of the plays, and will develop students' abilities to use such critical approaches as the explication de texte, dissertation, and exposé.

We will consider Molière in historical context, but also with respect to the logic of his creations, and emphasize how his comic and satirical inspiration melded with a certain dramaturgy and theatricality. Today, tragedy often refers to problems of liberty and destiny, where in the seventeenth century it designated a representation of humanity conceived as a spectacle of blood and horror, whose representation purged the audience through the emotions of terror and pity. We will look at the formal characters of the genre, its relation to the prinicples of Aristotle, and its evolution from baroque tragicomedy and the cornelian dilemma to the protrayal of human passion as fatality in Racine.

Texts Corneille, L'illusion comique, Le Cid ; Racine, Phèdre, Britannicus ; Molière, Tartuffe, le Misanthrope.