Orientalism in French Classical Drama

Longino examines ways in which Mediterranean exoticism inflects the themes represented in French classical drama.

Autorentext
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).

Klappentext

Michè le Longino examines the ways in which Mediterranean exoticism alters the themes in French classical drama through the exploration of such plays by Corneille, Moliè re and Racine as Le Cid, Mé dé e, 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.

Zusammenfassung
Michèle Longino examines the ways in which Mediterranean exoticism inflects the themes represented in French classical drama. Longino explores plays by Corneille, Molière and Racine, and offers a consideration of the role the staging of the near Orient played in shaping a sense of French colonial identity.

Inhalt
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.