Though much beloved and widely produced, Moliere's satirical comedies pose a problem for those reading or staging his works today: how can a genre associated with biting caricature and castigation deliver engaging theater? Instead of simply dismissing social satire as a foundation for Moliere's theater, as many have done, Larry F. Norman takes seriously Moliere's claim that his satires are first and foremost effective theater. Pairing close readings of Moliere's comedies with insightful accounts of French social history and aesthetics, Norman shows how Moliere conceived of satire as a...
Though much beloved and widely produced, Moliere's satirical comedies pose a problem for those reading or staging his works today: how can a genre ass...
The cultural battle known as the Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns served as a sly cover for more deeply opposed views about the value of literature and the arts. One of the most public controversies of early modern Europe, the Quarrel has most often been depicted as pitting antiquarian conservatives against the insurgent critics of established authority. The Shock of the Ancient turns the canonical vision of those events on its head by demonstrating how the defenders of Greek literature--rather than clinging to an outmoded tradition--celebrated the radically different practices...
The cultural battle known as the Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns served as a sly cover for more deeply opposed views about the value of literat...
