Shakespeare in French literary historiography
Abstracts
The reception of Shakespeare in France has been studied for a long time and with regard to many different authors, aspects, and periods. The present paper takes a look at some parts of an area that does not appear to have been explored so far : histories of French literature. The places given to Shakespeare in such books, presumably written for the most part by specialists not in English, but in French literature and addressing readers interested in that subject, is very considerable. A first focus are literary dictionaries. In this kind of book there have been quite thorough entries for Shakespeare over the last fifty years. This comparative, indeed cosmopolitan approach, which was already widespread in the eighteenth century, also marks (alongside some strong assertions of French identity and particularity) an amazing number of large-scale historical surveys of French literature. The emphasis is constantly on Shakespeare’s dramatic works, and within that genre on the tragedies. The discussions by the historians of Voltaire, Ducis and Hardy are treated in some detail as particularly interesting sample cases. Since the middle of the nineteenth century the recognition of Shakespeare as one of the greatest dramatists of all time has become commonplace in French literary historiography, and many spontaneous comparisons as well as reflections on his work show to what extent he has become part of the cultural consciousness of France.
Index terms
Mots-clés :
historiographie, littérature comparée, cosmopolitisme, nationalisme, romantisme, tragédie, Voltaire, XVIIIe siècleKeywords:
reception, comparative literature, cosmopolitanism, nationalism, tragedy, Voltaire, 18th century, RomanticismReferences
Bibliographical reference
Holger Klein, “Shakespeare in French literary historiography”, Actes des congrès de la Société française Shakespeare, 18 | 2000, 109-118.
Electronic reference
Holger Klein, “Shakespeare in French literary historiography”, Actes des congrès de la Société française Shakespeare [Online], 18 | 2000, Online since 01 November 2007, connection on 17 January 2025. URL: http://0-journals-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/shakespeare/580; DOI: https://0-doi-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/10.4000/shakespeare.580
Top of pageCopyright
The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.
Top of page
RSS feed
