French Literature Reviews - 2026
C. Duyck, Poétique de l'extase France, 1601-1675
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Clément Duyck, Poétique de l'extase France, 1601-1675
Classiques Garnier, "Lire le XVIIe siècle" series, 2019.
EAN13 : 9782406081326.
What do the ecstasies of saints and poets, sorcerers and prophets, theology and melancholy, philosophers and visionaries chanting their hymns share in common? An excess that poetizes bodies, behaviors, language, and knowledge, stamping them with the hallmark of a law other than the one by which they are judged. It is a breakdown of meaning—one that a literature composed of (auto)biographical narratives, treatises on spirituality, and lyric poetry sought to address in 17th-century France, before ecstasy was permanently relegated to the fringes of decorum and religion.
Clément Duyck is a postdoctoral researcher in 17th-century French literature at the Catholic University of Louvain (GEMCA) – Marie Curie Actions of the European Commission. His research focuses on the enunciation and reception of religious discourse in 17th-century France, particularly in hagiographies and mystical poetry.
The seventeenth century in France was characterized by intense spiritual inquiry and complex debates surrounding religious experience, mysticism, and emotional expression. During this period, the boundaries between orthodox devotion, visionary enthusiasm, and melancholic states were frequently interrogated across various discursive forms, including spiritual treatises, lyric verse, and personal accounts. Writers and thinkers navigated the tensions between institutional decorum and intense spiritual phenomena, reflecting broader cultural anxieties about authority, divine inspiration, and the limits of human reason. Such inquiries formed part of a rich intellectual tradition concerned with the articulation of transcendent states, providing crucial context for the study of early modern literature and culture.
In Poétique de l'extase France, 1601-1675, Clément Duyck explores what the ecstasies of saints, poets, sorcerers, prophets, philosophers, and visionaries share in common, focusing on an excess that poetizes bodies, behaviors, language, and knowledge. The volume considers diverse materials, including autobiographical narratives, spiritual treatises, and lyric poetry, to examine how seventeenth-century French literature addressed the breakdown of meaning associated with ecstasy before it was relegated to the fringes of decorum and religion. Readers interested in early modern French literature, religious discourse, and the history of mysticism may find this study relevant.