French Literature Reviews - 2026

B. Louvat-Molozay, D. Moncondhuy, M. Bigot Rotrou, Antigone, Le Véritable Saint-Genest, Venceslas
Theatre and Performance

[Agrégation 2008]

B. Louvat-Molozay, D. Moncondhuy, M. Bigot

Rotrou, Antigone, Venceslas, Saint-Genest

Atlande, Coll. "Clef/Concours", 2008

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
KEY LANDMARKS
THE CONTEXT: AN ERA OF MAJOR UPHEAVALS
State Interests
Theoretical Ferment and the Joy of Reflection
A Modern Language, a Modern Theatre
Audiences
ROTROU: TWENTY YEARS OF A THEATRICAL CAREER
1609-1650: Key Milestones
The Vicissitudes of a Hired Poet
The Three Plays in Rotrou's Oeuvre and Career
Rotrou's Theatre: Elements of Typology and Chronology
ROTROU IN HIS TIME: THE THEATRICAL LIFE OF THE 1630s AND 1640s
Playhouses, Troupes, and Audiences
• The Playhouses
• Audiences and the Moralization of Theatrical Life
• The Hôtel de Bourgogne Troupe
A New Theatrical Generation
• A Flagship Genre: Tragicomedy
• From the Debate on Rules to the Rebirth of Tragedy
Corneille, from Le Cid to Héraclius
• The Quarrel of Le Cid
• Corneille's Tragedy: Chronological and Aesthetic Landmarks
• Corneillean Reminiscences and Emulation in the Three Plays
ANTIGONE, LE VÉRITABLE SAINT GENEST, AND VENCESLAS:
CREATION, DRAMATURGICAL CONTEXT, AND ADAPTATION METHODS
Antigone
• The Creation of the Play: Hypotheses
• “The Most Tragic Subject in Antiquity”
• A Mythological Tragedy
• The Adaptation
Saint Genest, Venceslas, and the Comedia Española
• The Comedia and Its Influence
• Generic Subcategories and Adaptation Methods
Le Véritable Saint Genest: Models and Stakes
• Rotrou and Father Cellot
• A Play Within a Play
• A Devotional Tragedy
Venceslas: Dramaturgical and Historical Context
ISSUES AND APPROACHES
ELEMENTS OF DRAMATURGICAL ANALYSIS
Antigone: An Irregular Dramaturgy
• A Plural Action
• Broken Links and Spatial Fragmentation
• Two Days and a Night Unbefitting Nature…
• Showing Rather Than Telling
Le Véritable Saint Genest: The Ambiguities of the Theatre
• A Complex Structure
• The Prince's Choice
• A Strictly Religious Reading?
Venceslas: Composition and Production of Meaning
• A Regular Tragicomedy
• The Character System and Its Activation
• A Detour Through the Guards
• The Place of the Senses
• A Political Reading
• A Fantasized Resolution of Conflicts?
THE BOUNDARIES OF TRAGEDY OR THE QUESTION OF GENRE
Three Illustrations of the Tragic Genre
• A Known Subject and a Fatal Denouement
• The Family Unit
• The Tragic Hero
Hybrid Plays
Tragic and Tragedy
TEXTUAL WORK
VOCABULARY
PRONOMINAL VERBS
VERBAL RECTION
The Construction of the Verb Voir
The Construction of the Verb Croire
LEXICAL MORPHOLOGY
THE ISOTOPY OF RELIGION
Heroism and Religion
• The Lexeme War
• The Lexeme Combat
The Theme of Martyrdom
• The Lexeme Zeal
• The Lexeme Ardor
The Expression Professing One's Faith
• The Lexeme Faith
• The Verb Déclarer
• The Noun Grâce
THE ISOTOPY OF THE THEATRE
The Theme of Illusion
• The Lexeme Feinte
• The Noun Figure and the Verb Figurer
Theatrical Techniques
• The Lexeme Art
• The Noun Métier
• The Polysemy of the Word Theatre
• The Lexeme Pièce
• Actor and Comédien
MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX
SPELLING AND PRONUNCIATION
Spelling
MORPHOSYNTAX
Verbal Forms
Nominal Forms
Agreement of the Past Participle
Determiners
Adverbs and Conjunctions
Agreement
Prepositions
• The Preposition À
• The Preposition De
• The Preposition Pour
• Prepositional Adverbs
Pronouns
• The Relative Pronoun
• The Interrogative Pronoun
• Anaphoric Pronouns
SENTENCE SYNTAX
Word Order Within the Sentence
The Complex Sentence: Two Examples of Subordination;
The Conditional System and the Concessive System
• The Conditional System
• The Concessive System
STYLISTICS
VERSIFICATION AND PROSODY
Syllabic Prosody
• Synaeresis and Diaeresis
• The Mute E
Meters and Rhythms
• The Octosyllable
DRAMATIC WRITING
Play Structure: Acts, Scenes, and Their Linkage
• Tempo Variations in the Alexandrine
• The Link Between Scenes
Adherence to Classical Rules
• The Three Unities
Style and Syntax, Pomp and the Sublime
• Pomp and Gallantry
• Pomp in the Service of the Heroic Style
Baroque Style
• The Point, the Paradox, the Antithesis
• Genres of Eloquence
BIBLIOGRAPHY
GLOSSARY

This volume on the dramatic works of Jean de Rotrou covers historical contexts, theatrical conditions, and aesthetic debates of seventeenth-century France, alongside the boundaries of dramatic genres during the 1630s and 1640s. Furthermore, the publication provides linguistic exercises, lexical analyses, and stylistic commentary. Readers interested in seventeenth-century French drama and classical theatrical traditions may find this reference resource relevant for their coursework.

The analytical framework encompasses structural evaluations of plot construction, character systems, and versification patterns within early modern theatre. Attention is directed toward the interplay between illusion and reality, religious motifs, and political themes across the selected dramas. By combining close readings with broader historical perspectives on playwrights, troupes, and playhouses, the volume situates these specific texts within the wider evolution of French tragicomedy and tragedy.