Orientalism in French Classical Drama

by Michèle Longino

Overview

Michèle Longino examines the ways in which Mediterranean exoticism alters the themes in French classical drama through the exploration of such plays by Corneille, Molière and Racine as Le Cid, Médée, and Le bourgeois gentilhomme among others. She considers the role that the staging of the near Orient played in influencing French colonial identity. Drawing on histories, travel journals, memoirs and correspondence, Longino depicts these dramatizations in the context of French-Ottoman relations at the time of their production.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521807210
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/15/2001
Series:	Cambridge Studies in French , #69
Pages:	292
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.83(d)

About the Author

Michèle Longino is Associate Professor of French Studies in the Department of Romance Studies at Duke University. She is the author of Performing Motherhood: The Sévigné Correspondence (1991).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments; Introduction; Orientation; 1. Médée and the traveler-savant; 2. Staging politics: Le Cid; 3. Acculturating the audience: Le Bourgeois gentilhomme; 4. Orienting the world: organizing competition and gendering geography in Tite et Bérénice and Bérénice; 5. The staging of France: Bajazet, Mithridate, communication and the detour; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Longino's work makes a convincing case for the importance of new readings of old texts. Although it deals with a rich array of information from both cultures' theoretical and practical fields, this book is surprisingly accessible to a wide range of readers, from scholars to the general public." The Comparatist

"A highly readable, subtle and pioneering analysis of some of the most important plays of the French canon. [Longino] has successfully challenged some of our most basic assumptions about classical theater." Modern Language Quarterly

"Longino's work makes a convincing case for the importance of new readings of old texts. Although it deals with a rich array of information from both cultures' theoretical and practical fields, this book is surprisingly accessible to a wide range of readers, from scholars to the general public." The Comparatist

"Longino is a careful and innovative reader of texts...her focused, clever, and accessible work leads to questions which will certainly elicit further research in this area." Renaissance Quarterly

"This erudite and timely study makes an exciting contribution to our appreciation of French classical drama, broadening avenues opened earlier by such scholars as Edward Said, Harriet Stone, and Mitchell Greenberg..." Seventeenth-Century News

"By revealing the Orientalism in classical theatre, Longino "defamiliarizes" canonical texts in fascinating and troubling ways." L'Esprit Createur

"Productive, illuminating..Given the repercussions today of France's colonial legacy, the topics Longino examines continue to resonate, even as the role of the 'Other' in shaping French national identity evolves." Dalhousie French Studies

"A refreshing and thought-provoking perspective." French Studies

From the Publisher