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Full-Text Articles in Modern Languages
Knowing Irony: The Problem Of Corneille, Nina Ekstein
Knowing Irony: The Problem Of Corneille, Nina Ekstein
Nina C Ekstein
Irony and knowledge exist in a problematic relationship to each other, one that is strikingly similar to that between knowledge and secrets. If irony becomes unambiguously obvious, that is, known to all, it is no longer perceived as irony. And a secret is not a secret if it is widely known. By the same token, someone must perceive irony in order for it to exist, just as a secret must be known by someone. Thus the question of whether a given author is ironic is unlikely to have a clear, unambiguous answer. The probable lack of final clarity does not …
The Trilogue In Corneille's Theater, Nina Ekstein
The Trilogue In Corneille's Theater, Nina Ekstein
Nina C Ekstein
The classical stage is a locus of action and interaction conveyed through speech. The number of characters interacting on stage and the extent of that interaction are a significant feature of any playwright's dramaturgical practice, and in the case of Corneille - as in the case of most of his colleagues - dialogue, with or without a silent third party present on stage, largely predominates. While study has been made of his use of monologues (Cuénin-Lieber), trilogues and polylogues, at the other end of the spectrum, have received little attention.
Pompée's Absence In Corneille's 'La Mort De Pompée', Nina Ekstein
Pompée's Absence In Corneille's 'La Mort De Pompée', Nina Ekstein
Nina C Ekstein
Corneille's La Mort de Pompée (1643) occupies a curious position in the playwright's oeuvre, coming as it does immediately after the tetralogy. Faced with the never-ending artistic challenge of what to do next, what features to keep from earlier works, how to innovate and thereby captivate his audience, how to outdo his latest success, Corneille made some daring choices in this play. Indeed, this play is commonly viewed as a significant point in Corneille's oeuvre, one at which the playwright moves off in a radically new direction. It is my contention that the basic choice to keep Pompée off the …
The Functions Of The Récit In L'Ecole Des Femmes, Nina Ekstein
The Functions Of The Récit In L'Ecole Des Femmes, Nina Ekstein
Nina C Ekstein
Since L'Ecole des femmes was first performed in 1662, much mention has been made of the numerous récits in the play. In La Critique de l'Ecole des femmes, Lysidas criticizes the play because "dans cette comédie-ci, il ne se passe point d'actions, et tout consiste en des récits que vient faire Agnès ou Horace.'' Indeed, the entire love intrigue takes place offstage and is reported in the form of récits. Far from being tiresome recitals, these narratives are integrated into the structure of the play on numerous levels.
The Portrait On Stage In Molière's Theater, Nina Ekstein
The Portrait On Stage In Molière's Theater, Nina Ekstein
Nina C Ekstein
Literary portraits, while common in a wide variety of genres, are not often thought of in connection with the stage. Discussions of dramaturgy make little mention of portraits, which is perhaps not surprising when one considers that theater is the domain of action, movement, and conflict; the portrait, on the contrary, is primarily descriptive. Verbal portraiture would not seem to be terribly effective in a theatrical context: it is unlikely to advance the action of the play, nor would it lend itself readily to gesture and movement. Theater requires the physical presence of its object, portraiture depends on a certain …
Narrative Reliability And Spatial Limitations In Bajazet, Nina Ekstein
Narrative Reliability And Spatial Limitations In Bajazet, Nina Ekstein
Nina C Ekstein
Récits are a standard feature in the classical theater, commonly used to bring information to an onstage universe which is limited by the unities of time and place. Action which occurs before the opening of the play finds its natural expression, given the convention of beginning the play in medias res, in narrative form. These are the récits of exposition. Bajazet is unusually rich in such récits: Acomat recounts Amurat's actions, Bajazet's youth, Acomat's own past, and how Roxane came to be able to see Bajazet (I, i, ll. 115-42, 145-56); and Atalide explains how she and Bajazet …
The Second Woman In The Theater Of Villedieu, Nina Ekstein
The Second Woman In The Theater Of Villedieu, Nina Ekstein
Nina C Ekstein
Best known for her prose fiction, Marie-Catherine Desjardins de Villedieu was also a successful playwright. Her three tragi-comedies (Manlius, Nitétis, and Le Favori), while significantly dissimilar in many respects, share an unusual feature. All three plays foreground the figure of the second woman, second because her role is clearly less central to the play's action than that of another woman character. In each case, the relationships between this second woman and the other characters of the play defy the traditional categories of the seventeenth-century stage. Furthermore, the second woman is not an object of desire. The differences between the first …
The Theatrical Lieu De Culture Within Molière’S Theater, Nina Ekstein
The Theatrical Lieu De Culture Within Molière’S Theater, Nina Ekstein
Nina C Ekstein
Molière’s theater is itself, by definition, a lieu de culture. The performance of one of his plays transforms the space in which it occurs into a lieu de culture by virtue of the presence of two crucial features. First, the performance belongs to a cultural domain, in this case specifically the theater. By ‘culture’ I mean simply that which is tied to the arts, letters, manners, and scholarly pursuits. Second there must be an audience present for that performance. The same basic situation obviously holds true for any playwright whose plays are performed. What makes Molière interesting is the degree …