Oxford French Graduate Seminar, All Souls College (Hovenden Room)

Tuesday 24^th May, 5-6.30pm

‘The Dramatic Quality of Verse in Translations of Molière's Comedies’

Cédric Ploix (St Hugh’s, Oxford)

Many seventeenth-century French drama critics and practitioners have defended the alexandrine for its ‘musical’ dimension and held verse superior to prose, mostly on account of a pure ‘formal pleasure’. The fact that the practice remained generally unquestioned resulted in the absence of any comprehensive theoretical reflection on the aesthetic and dramatic use of versification on stage. Surprisingly, even now, the dramatic qualities of the alexandrine have been the object of little attention in critical studies on Molière. When critics do reflect on Molière’s verse, they usually limit their remarks to reproaching the dramatist with often poor and awkward versification. Thoroughly reflecting on the dramatic quality of verse forms seems relevant inasmuch as verse is often regarded as a major constraint in modern productions. 

My paper attempts to reassess the value of prosody and rhyme and their contribution to the dramatic text. Not to dismiss prose as a valid and efficient dramatic medium, I will argue that Le Misanthrope, l’Ecole des femmes, Tartuffe and Les Femmes savantes would lose many qualities if they were not written in alexandrines. Among others things, the alexandrine plays a great role in creating a self-conscious language conducive to comic effects, parodying tragic tone, buttressing argumentation, setting a hypocritical tone, building up dramatic tension and dynamising conflicts.

‘'Ça craint, ça fait trop retour aux sources': Immigrant Writers and the (Impossible?) Quest for Origins’

Jordan Phillips (Oriel, Oxford)

This paper will give a general overview of what one might call francophone immigrant literature. The tentative approach to this categorization is deliberate: indeed, my broad aim is to examine the extent to which ‘immigrant literature’ can be considered a viable category, by looking for common issues which could bind texts and authors together.

One obvious issue is that of origins: the very term ‘immigrant’ seems to presuppose multiple (perhaps even conflicting) sites of home. More specifically, then, this paper will analyse how a reconciliation with origins is configured in three fairly recent novels written in French. L’Exil selon Julia (1996) by Gisèle Pineau, Garçon Manqué (2000) by Nina Bouraoui and Black Bazar (2009) by Alain Mabanckou approach this problematic through various prisms, be it the notion of return, coming to terms with a dual heritage, or building a new life in a multi-cultural city. Engaging with theories of nomadism and exile, as well as sociological data, I argue that while these prisms represent powerful concepts and literary devices, an emphasis on origins is missing the point. Once we recontextualize the texts into the particular socio-politcal landscape of contemporary France, they read as a challenge to the constant judgement as to the ‘Frenchness’ (or otherwise) of immigrants. Faced with an overwhelming discourse of mistrust, telling one’s story, in all its incoherency and confusion, becomes an act of resistance.