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Challenges to Traditional Authority: Plays by French Women Authors, 1650-1700

Winner of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women's 2016 Award for a Teaching Edition published in 2015

The second half of the seventeenth century marked the first major breakthrough for women playwrights in France, as some of them succeeded in getting their works staged, published and taken seriously by critics and authority figures. The four works included here, translated into English for the first time, represent the diversity of genres cultivated by these writers, while reflecting both the cultural milieu of the era and a concern for the status of women. Françoise Pascal’s Endymion, a tragicomedy with special effects, daringly reexamines a classical myth. Marie-Catherine Desjardins’s Nitetis, a historical tragedy, focuses on the plight of a virtuous and astute queen married to an evil tyrant. Antoinette Deshoulières’s Genseric, also a historical tragedy, rejects prevailing models of male heroism and of conventional tragic plots. Catherine Durand’s proverb comedies contain a scathing critique of aristocratic mores and give voice to women’s desires for emancipation.

"Perry Gethner is indeed the best person to edit and translate selected plays by French women authors of the second half of the seventeenth century. He has done an excellent job of situating and contextualizing the plays historically and with reference to the conventions of the theatrical genres of the period. Gethner underscores that these female authored plays were staged and published, often with great success. Gethner’s translations are accurate, lively, and written with a view to the play’s performance."

-Anne R. Larsen, Professor of French, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Hope College

PERRY GETHNER, who holds a doctorate from Yale, is Regents Professor of French and chair of the Department of Foreign Languages at Oklahoma State University. He has published critical editions and translations of many early modern French plays, as well as numerous articles dealing with French drama and opera of that period.

REVIEWS
Early Modern Women 12.1 (2017): 239241. Reviewed by Karen Newman. 
French Studies 71.3 (2017): 414415. Reviewed by Helena Taylor.
Renaissance and Reformation 39.3 (2016): 200
202. Reviewed by Jane Couchman.
Renaissance Quarterly 70.1 (2017): 391
393. Reviewed by Brigitte Roussel.
Women in French Studies 24 (2016): 155
156. Reviewed by Maria G. Traub.

Winner of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women's 2016 Award for a Teaching Edition published in 2015

The second half of the seventeenth century marked the first major breakthrough for women playwrights in France, as some of them succeeded in getting their works staged, published and taken seriously by critics and authority figures. The four works included here, translated into English for the first time, represent the diversity of genres cultivated by these writers, while reflecting both the cultural milieu of the era and a concern for the status of women. Françoise Pascal’s E...

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book Details

  • Page Count:

    308 pages

  • Publication Year:

    2015

  • Publisher:

    Iter Press and the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
  • Series:

    • The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series 36
    • Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 477

Ebook

USD$ 34.95 ISBN 978-0-86698-531-4 Order Ebook

Print

USD$ 34.95 ISBN 978-0-86698-530-7 Order Print Book
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