French Literature Reviews - 2026

Agrégation Interne LM 2004 Subject: Racine
Theatre and Performance

The essay topic given (February 4) to candidates for the Internal Agrégation in Modern Literature 2004 focused on the 17th-century prescribed texts:

"Instead of the word tragedies, write at the head of Racine's works: Dialogues excerpted from an epic poem, and I exclaim with you: it is sublime."

Discuss this judgment by Stendhal (Racine and Shakespeare, 1823) based on your own reading of Esther & Athalie.

The prescribed texts for this examination are Jean Racine's biblical dramas Esther and Athalie, which formed the focus of the essay topic given on February 4 to candidates for the Internal Agrégation in Modern Literature 2004. The topic invited candidates to discuss Stendhal's 1823 judgment from Racine and Shakespeare concerning whether Racine's works should be designated as dialogues excerpted from an epic poem rather than tragedies. Readers interested in French classical drama and the reception of the seventeenth-century canon may find this examination subject relevant to their studies.