Moliére: état présent

Peacock, N. (2010) Moliére: état présent. French Studies, 64(1), pp. 64-72. (doi: 10.1093/fs/knp223)

Abstract

[Extract] The somewhat uneven fortunes of états présents on Molière indicate the difficult task of selecting highlights from the vast bibliography of recent years. The most significant attempt to evaluate criticism published between 1900 and 1970,1 while considered ‘un guide raisonné de ce musée critique’,2 was undervalued on account of its bias towards form-orientated critics such as René Bray and Will Moore.3 Other états présents have likewise had a distinct parti pris. In 1947, Moore, in the one previous état présent on Molière in French Studies, used the opportunity to plead for a new critical emphasis which focused on aesthetic rather than on moral aspects,4 a gauntlet which Raymond Picard picked up in 1958, in his dismissal of those who portrayed Molière as an ‘amuseur sans cervelle’.5 Georges Couton's update sustained Picard's focus, in what was becoming a largely Anglo-French divide,6 with Couton highlighting renewal in principally those studies which provided a ‘connaissance meilleure du contexte politique, social, philosophique’. Gaston Hall iterated his long-standing dual concern to respect the punctuation of the early editions and to examine Molière's transformation of his cultural legacy, particularly of the work of minor poets and of comic traditions.7 Divergent approaches were brought together by Francis Lawrence in eight studies of a special number of Œuvres et critiques.8 The last substantial état présent provided a history of scholarship over 100 years from the demise of Le Moliériste in 1889.9 This article will therefore concentrate, without (as far as possible) a personal agendum, on major trends in Molière studies since 1990.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Peacock, Professor Noel
• Authors: Peacock, N.
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > PQ Romance literatures
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > French
• Journal Name: French Studies
• Journal Abbr.: Fr. stud.
• ISSN: 0016-1128
• ISSN (Online): 1468-2931

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