Description

Molière wrote, directed, and starred in comedies for public and court audiences in seventeenth-century France. He is perennially successful, but perennially subject to critical controversy: do his plays aim to do more than make audiences laugh? This book focuses on a group of characters in the plays, the interpretation of whose role lies at the heart of any answer to this question. For over a century critics have baptised them 'raisonneurs'. They are characters who engage with some of Molière's most foolish protagonists, but they have been variously interpreted as exponents of wisdom or as ridiculous bores. This book argues that new light can be shed on the words and actions of these characters, and so on the tenor of the plays as a whole, by detailed contextual analysis of the dramaturgical and comic structures in which they operate. They have never before been treated so exhaustively. They emerge neither as the mouthpieces of common sense nor as pompous fools, but as thoughtful, witty, and resourceful friends of the foolish protagonists whom Molière himself played. The book takes into account what is known of the performance styles of Molière's troupe of actors as well as engaging closely with the text of the plays and the critical debate to date. Some of Molière's most teasingly problematic plays are held up to fresh scrutiny, including L'Ecole des femmes, Le Tartuffe, Le Misanthrope, and Le Malade imaginaire. The book is written with scholars, students, and interested theatre-goers in mind. This is the first book-length treatment of the topic.

Features

• The only book-length study of a key aspect of Moliere's dramatic technique
• Provides a new contribution to an old problem in the interpretation of Moliere as well as a clear account of the critical debate so far
• Close reading of Moliere's major works bringing to bear information about the performance styles of Moliere's troupe and the discussions of modern critics

Reviews

"Intelligent and well-ordered."-Comparative Drama

"A first substantial study on the character of the raisonneur and a significant dramaturgical analysis of five important plays by Moliere...A tremendous contribution to the research on seventeenth-century French theater." --Renaissance Quarterly

Product Details

256 pages; ISBN13: 978-0-19-922883-6ISBN10: 0-19-922883-3

About the Author(s)