Myth and its Making in the French Theatre: Studies Presented to W. D. Howarth

by Edited by E. Freeman , H. Mason , M. O'Regan , S. W. Taylor

• ISBN13: 9780521187763
• ISBN10: 0521187761
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The authors of the fifteen essays that make up this volume were invited to interpret 'Myth and its Making' in the widest possible sense. They were encouraged to re-examine not only the time-honoured ancient themes exploited in the French theatre from the Renaissance onwards, but other literary, historical or legendary subjects that have undergone a similar process of mythic enhancement and stylisation. Thus they explored the ways in which existing literary myths renewed themselves, as well as the process of creating new myths for the modern age. Originally published in 1988, the text contains essays in both French and English, written from a broad range of perspectives. It will be of value to anyone with an interest in French theatre and literary theory.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations

W. D. Howard - an appreciation

Bibliography of W. D. Howarth's writings

Preface

Du texte à la représentation

The presence of Rome in some plays of Robert

Bradamante: l'épique au burlesque

Corneille's Oedipe

Racine's Andromaque: new myth for old

Ritual murder at Versailles: Racine's Ipigénie

The myth of place in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French theatre

Marivaux mythologue

Fathers, good and bad, in Voltaire's Mahomet

From Raynal's 'new Spartacus' to Lamartine's Toussaint Louverture: a myth of the black soul in rebellion

Alfred de Musset: Don Juan on the Boulevard

Avatars of Jupiter in Sartre's Les Mouches and Giraoudoux's Amphitryon

Reality and myth in Montherlant's Don Juan

The myth in the theatre of Anouilh: a personal impression

'Entre le mythique et le quotidien': myth in the theatre of Michel Vinaver

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