Corneille

Summary

Dominique Pagani sees Corneille's work as a theatre of honour. The hero, a warrior from an age when the man of the sword counts most, sacrifices his passion to an honour that is always external, whether familial or collective, and that only makes sense in relation to others12. He reads Le Cid closely and considers it still baroque because of its two plots. He also looks closely at the dialogue between Horace and Curiace, where Roman honour stands against the humanity of the Alban. He consistently contrasts Corneille with Racine: Corneille's confidants are "Racinian" because they urge feeling, and his caesura at the hemistich, symmetrical and more "military," differs from Racine's verbal magic34. Still, he credits Corneille with unmatched heights, such as "Soyons amis, Cinna"5. He also draws on him for examples of antithesis ("having reached the summit, he longs to descend"), for the play within the play and the motif of the cave in L'Illusion comique, and for the classical character conceived as a fixed type.

1. 1#1.5 Between crisis and war: philosophising?10 Dec 2015 · 15:30
2. 2Preface to Simon Verdun's master's dissertation, “The critique of neo-Kantianism in Michel Clouscard”5 Jul 2018 · 58:26
3. 3#9 Benefits and harms of amnesia…17 Dec 2020 · 48:50
4. 4#18 What is musical in music25 Mar 2021 · 1:04:12
5. 5#9.12 How can sciences of history be real?14 Jan 2021 · 34:49

Summary produced automatically from 32 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.