Teaching French Neoclassical Tragedy (Options for Teaching #55)

By: Hélène E. Bilis and Ellen McClure

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Synopsis: Tragedy has been reborn many times since antiquity. Seventeenth-century French playwrights composed tragedies marked by neoclassical aesthetics and the divine-right absolutism of the Grand Siècle. But their works also speak to the modern imagination, inspiring reactions from Barthes, Derrida, and Foucault; adaptations and reworkings by Césaire and Kushner; and new productions by francophone and anglophone directors.This volume addresses both the history of French neoclassical tragedy--its audiences, performance practice, and development as a genre--and the ideas these works raise, such as necessity, free will, desire, power, and moral behavior in the face of limited choices. Essays demonstrate ways to teach the plays through a variety of lenses, such as performance, spectatorship, aesthetics, rhetoric, and affect. The book also explores postcolonial engagement, by writers and directors both in and outside France, with these works.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
Book Size:: 374 Pages
ISBN-13:: 9781603295321
Related ISBNs:: 9781603295314
Publisher:: Modern Language Association of America
Date of Addition:: 07/22/23
Copyrighted By:: The Modern Language Association of America
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: Nonfiction, Literature and Fiction, Education, Drama, Plays and Theater, Language Arts
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.
Edited by:: Hélène E. Bilis
Edited by:: Ellen McClure