French literature of the 17th century: Encyclopedia II - French literature of the 17th century - Society and literature in 17th century France

French literature of the 17th century - Society and literature in 17th century France

French literature of the 17th century - Les ruelles and Les précieuses

Henri IV's court was considered by contemporaries as a rude one, lacking in the Italianate sophistication of the court of the Valois kings; it also lacked a queen, which had traditionally been the meeting point for authors and poets. Henri's literary tastes seemed largely limited to the chivalric novel Amadis of Gaul. Literary culture was thus decentralized in the first half of the century and salons formed around many noble and upper class women, such as Marie de Medici and Marguerite de Valois. By the 1620s, the most famous gatherings were at the Hôtel de Rambouillet by Madame de Rambouillet and the rival salon that gathered around Madeleine de Scudéry.

Although frequently called "salons" today, the word salon first appears in French in 1664 (from the Italian word sala, used to designate the large reception hall of Italian mansions). Literary gatherings before this were often referred to by using the name of the room in which they occurred, like cabinet, réduit, ruelle and alcôve. Before the end of the 17th century, these gatherings were frequently held in the bedroom (treated as a form of drawing room): nobels, lying on their bed, would receive close friends who would sit on chairs or stools around them (this practice is even found with Louis XIV). The expression ruelle, literally meaning "little street", designates the space between a bed and the wall in a bedroom, and more generally the entire bedroom; it was used commonly to designate the gatherings of the "précieuses", the much maligned (often unfairly) intellectual and literary circles that formed around women in the first half of the 17th century.

For more information on literary gatherings, see Salon (gathering).

French literature of the 17th century - Aristocratic codes

The idea of what it meant to be noble went through a radical transformation from the sixteenth to the seventeenth century. Through contact with the Italian Renaissance and their concept of the perfect courtier, the rude warrior class was remodeled into what the 17th century would come to call "l'honnête homme" or "the honest or upright man", among whose chief virtues were eloquent speech, skill at dance, refinement of manners, appreciation of the arts, intellectual curiousity, wit, a spiritual or platonic attitude in love, and the ability to write poetry.

Certain values of the 16th and 17th century noble classes are no longer comprehensible to modern readers who may see them in a negative light. Most notable of these values are the aristocratic obsession with "glory" ("la gloire") and majesty ("la grandeur") and the spectacle of power, prestige and luxury. Corneille's heroes in particular have been criticised by modern readers who have seen their actions as vainglorious, criminal or hubristic; aristocratic spectators of the period would have seen many of these same actions as representative of their noble station.

The château of Versailles, court ballets, noble portraits, triumphal arches... all of these were representations of glory and prestige. The notion of glory (military, artistic, etc.) was seen in the context of the Roman Imperial model; it was not seen as vain or boastful, but as a moral imperative to the aristocratic classes. Nobles were required to be "generous" and "magnanamous", to perform great deeds disinterestedly (i.e. because their status demanded it, and without expecting financial or political gain), and to master their own emotions (especially fear, jealousy and the desire for vengeance).

One's status in the world demanded appropriate externalisation ( or "conspicuous consumption"). Nobles indebted themselves to build prestigious urban mansions ("hôtels particuliers") and to buy clothes, paintings, silverware, dishes and other furnishings befitting their rank. They were also required to show liberality by hosting sumptuous parties and by funding the arts. Conversely, social parvenues who took on the external trappings of the noble classes (such as the wearing of a sword) were severely criticised, sometimes by legal action (laws on sumptuous clothing worn by bourgeois existed since the Middle Ages).

This kind of expenditure mandated by social status has been studied by sociologists such as Norbert Elias; there are also many links to the theories of sociologist Marcel Mauss on the "gift". Another key analysis of these values can be found in the work of Paul Bénichou.

These aristocratic values began to be criticised in the mid 17th century: Blaise Pascal for example offered a ferocious analysis of the spectacle of power and François de la Rochefoucauld posited that no human act -- however generous is pretended to be -- could be considered disinterested.

French literature of the 17th century - Classicism

In an attempt to restrict the proliferation of private centers of intellectual or literary life, so as to impose the royal court as the artistic center of France, Cardinal Richelieu took an existing literary gathering (around Valentin Conrart) and designated it as the official Académie française in 1634 (other original members included Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin, Jean Ogier de Gombauld, Jean Chapelain, François le Métel de Boisrobert, François Maynard, Marin le Roy de Gomberville and Nicolas Faret; members added at the time of its official creation included Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, Claude Favre de Vaugelas and Vincent Voiture). This process of state control of the arts and literature would be expanded even more during the reign of Louis XIV.

The expression classicism as it applies to literature implies notions of order, clarity, moral purpose and good taste. Many of these notions are directly inspired by the works of Aristotle and Horace and by classical Greek and Roman masterpieces.

In theater, a play should follow the Three Unities:

• Unity of place : the setting should not change. In practice, this lead to the frequent "Castle, interior". Battles take place off stage.
• Unity of time: ideally the entire play should take place in 24 hours.
• Unity of action: there should be one central story and all secondary plots should be linked to it.

Although based on classical examples, the unities of place and time were seen as essential for the spectator's complete absorption into the dramatic action; wildly dispersed scenes in China or Africa, or over many years would -- critics maintained -- break the theatrical illiusion. Sometimes grouped with the unity of action is the notion that no character should appear unexpectedly late in the drama. All of these rules affected the baroque "tragi-comedy" most: no longer were possible the flying horses, chiralric battles and magical trips to foreign lands.

Linked with the theatrical unities are the following concepts:

• "Les bienséances" : literature should respect moral codes and good taste; nothing should be presented that flaunts these codes, even if they are historical events.
• "La vraisemblance" : actions should be believable. When historical events contradict believability, some critics counselled the latter. The criterion of believability was sometimes also used to criticize soliloquy, and in late classical plays characters are almost invariably supplied with confidents (valets, friends, nurses) to whom they reveal their emotions.
• Finally, literature and art should consciously follow Horace's precept "to please and educate" (aut delectare aut prodesse est).

These "rules" or "codes" were seldom completely followed, and many of the centuries masterpieces broke these rules intentionally to highten emotional effect:

• Corneille's "Le Cid" was criticised for having Rodrigue appear before Chimène after having killed her father, a violation of moral codes.
• "La Princesse de Clève"'s revelation to his husband of her adulterous feelings for the Duc de Nemour was criticized for being unbelievable.

In 1674 there erupted an intellectual debate -- "la querelle des Anciens et des Modernes" -- on whether the arts and literature of the modern era had achieved more than the illustrious writers and artists of antiquity. The Académy was dominated by the "Moderns" (Charles Perrault, Jean Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin) and Perrault's poem "Le Siècle de Louis le Grand" ("The Century of Louis the Great") (1687) was the strongest expression of their conviction that Louis XIV's reign equaled Augustus'. As a great lover of the classics, Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux found himself pushed into the role of champion of the "Anciens" (his severe critics of Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin's poems did not help), and Jean Racine, Jean de La Fontaine and Jean de La Bruyère took his defense. Meanwhile, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle and the gazette "Mercure galant" joined the "Moderns". The debate would last until the beginning of the eighteenth century.

The expression "classicism" is also linked to the visual arts and architecture of the period, and most specifically to the construction of the château of Versailles, the crowning achievement of an official program of propaganda and royal glory. Although originally just a country retreat used for special festivities -- and known more for André Le Nôtre's gardens and fountains -- Versailles eventually became the permanent home of the king. By relocating to Versailles, Louis effectively avoided the dangers of Paris (in his youth, Louis XIV had suffered during the civil and parliamentary insurrection known as the Fronde) and could also keep his eye very closely on the affairs of the nobles and play them off against each other and against the newer "noblesse de robe". Versailles became a gilded cage: to leave spelled disaster for a noble, for all official charges and appointments were made there. A strict etiquette was imposed: a word or glance from the king could make or destroy a career. The king himself followed a strict daily program, and there was little privacy. Through his wars and the glory of Versailles, Louis became, to a certain degree, the arbiter of taste and power in Europe and both his château and the etiquette in Versailles were copied by the other European courts. Yet the difficult wars at the end of his long reign and the religious problems created by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes made the last years dark ones.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Society and literature in 17th century France", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki