Moliere's Language

https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ Theses Digitisation: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/research/enlighten/theses/digitisation/ This is a digitised version of the original print thesis. Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Moliere’s Language: Perspectives and Approaches by Sally R. Clark © Submitted to the Arts Faculty of the University of Glasgow for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Research conducted in the Department of French 2005 ProQuest Number: 10836502 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10836502 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 (GLASGOW UNIVERSITY LIBRARY: ABSTRACT In spite of over three hundred years of commentary on Moliere’s plays, one area of research has been neglected by scholars, namely the role of language in the creation of comedy. Of those critics who have analysed Moliere’s use of language, the majority have limited their focus to a small number of plays and do not consider what makes his discourse comic. Even more surprising is the fact that virtually no Molieriste has attempted to view Moliere’s language from the perspective of modem literary and linguistic theory. Consequently, the aim of this thesis is to explore the extent to which contemporary theory elucidates, or perhaps even obscures, our understanding of Moliere’s language. While critics in the past have tended to apply a single theory to his plays, we will consider whether a multi-theoretical approach can best account for the range of Moliere’s linguistic humour. The analysis of the comedies will be informed by post-Saussurean theories of language, many of which have never been applied to Moliere’s work before. The first part of the thesis, entitled ‘Language and Society’ will address a long-standing debate which continues to divide Molieristes as to the nature of his comedy. Whereas W. G. Moore and Rene Bray have portrayed Moliere as an actor and director, whose primary aim was to amuse his audience, this theatricalist position has been challenged in recent years by the socio-critical theories of James Gaines, Paul Benichou, Larry Riggs and Ralph Albanese. We will consider whether it is possible to reconcile these two opposing approaches through an examination of parody. The second part of the thesis moves from the notion of language as representational to the focus on the ludic function of language games, and discusses whether these represent a retreat into a fantasy world or whether they have a subversive role. Finally, we will turn from the conscious humour of language games to the comedy of the unconscious, in which characters accidentally reveal more than they intend in their speech. The thesis concludes with a recognition of the extent to which recent critical theories may help inform our reading of the comic dramatist. Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to: the Students Awards Agency for Scotland and the Arts and Humanities Research Council for their financial support; Fiona Barclay and Julie Barr for their friendship and advice; and Dr. Jim Simpson for his insights into Lacanian pyscho-analysis. I am indebted to my supervisor, Professor Noel Peacock, for his invaluable advice and suggestions, his unfailing good humour and his immense kindness throughout the PhD process. Most of all, I would like to thank my Mother, Veronica and my brother David for their constant support and encouragement. Last, but not least, I would like to dedicate this thesis to the memory of my father, Professor John G. Clark, who, himself, had the highest admiration for Moliere. CONTENTS Moliere’s Language: Perspectives and Approaches Introduction 1 Part One: Language and Society Ch. 1 Satire and Parody 10 Ch. 2 Language and Social Class 15 Ch. 3 Moliere and the Other 53 Ch. 4 Moliere and Religion 82 Ch. 5 Language in Moliere’s Theatrical Curriculum 101 Ch. 6 Moliere and Literary Parody 130 Ch. 7 Moliere and Self-Parody 149 Part Two: Language Games Ch. 8 Lewis Carroll 156 Ch. 9 Turning the World upside down with Language games? 175 Ch 10 Le Misanthrope and Wittgenstein’s Solution 183 Part Three: Language and the Self Ch. 11 The Cartesian Self Meets the Freudian Unconscious 198 Ch. 12 Madness and Imagination 207 Ch 13 Mind Over Matter and the Return of the Repressed 221 Conclusion 230 Bibliography 233 I Moliere’s Language: Perspectives and Approaches Introduction With the wealth of studies devoted to the interpretation of Moliere’s plays, it may seem that little remains to be investigated, particularly when we contemplate the impressive production of Patrick Dandrey and Roger Duchene who have contributed over five thousand pages to our understanding of the comedies.1 Following the seminal studies of W. G. Moore and Rene Bray, which prompted a move away from the image of Moliere as a moralist and thinker and led to a reassessment of his role as a dramatist, there has been a growing appreciation of Moliere’s comic theory, most notably with Dandrey’s Moliere, ou Vesthetique du ridicule and Brice Parent’s investigation into the dramatist’s reworking of his earlier plays in Variations comiques. Meanwhile, Robert McBride’s work on The Triumph o f Ballet in Moliere’s Theatre has encouraged a reappraisal of the significance of the comedies- ballets, and Larry Norman has developed W. D. Howarth’s examination of the playwright’s complex relationship with his audience in The Public Mirror? Nevertheless, one area of Moliere research continues to be largely ignored by scholars, namely the role of language in his creation of comedy. Throughout his plays, Moliere displays an astonishing diversity of linguistic humour, from stylistic incongruity when characters adopt an inappropriate register, to language games and verbal misunderstandings.4 Not only is language instrumental in the development of comic characters, as even minor figures such as Martine, Monsieur Harpin or Pierrot and Charlotte are individualised through their speech, but it is also a central topic of 1 Patrick Dandrey, Moliere ou Vesthetique du ridicule (Paris: Klincksieck, 1992);Dom Juan ou la critique de la raison comique (Paris: H. Champion, 1993);Sganarelle et la medecine, ou, De la melancolie erotique (Paris: Klincksieck, 1998);Moliere et la maladie imaginaire: ou, De la melancolie hypocondriaque (Paris: Klincksieck, 1998); R. Duchene,Moliere (Paris: Fayard, 1998);Les Precieuses ou comment Vesprit vint aux femmes (Paris: Fayard, 2001). 2 W. G. Moore, Moliere: A New Criticism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1949, 1962); Rene Bray,Moliere: homme de theatre (Mayenne: Mercure de France, 1954); Dandrey,L ’Esthetique... op. cit.\ Brice Parent, Variations comiques ou les reecritures de Moliere par lui-meme (Paris: Klincksieck, 2000). 3 Robert McBride, The Triumph of Ballet in Moliere’s Theatre (Lewiston, N. Y., Lampeter: E. Mellen Press, 1992); Larry Norman,The Public Mirror: Moliere and the Social Commerce of Depiction (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1999); W. D. Howarth,Moliere: a Playwright and his Audience (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982). 4 Moliere’s ‘tragic’ heroes, including Alceste, George Dandin and Arnolphe, are notable examples of characters who adopt inappropriate speech. Their language is analysed in chapter Six. See Chapter Eight for a discussion of language games and verbal misunderstandings. 2 debate in many of the comedies, especially Sganarelle, ou le Cocu imaginare, Le Misanthrope and Le Manage force. Surprisingly, however, while studies by Michael Hawcroft and David Masked have focused on the poetic language of Racine, and Keir Elam has discussed language games in Shakespeare, this has not been the case for Moliere.5 Instead, the examination of his seemingly more prosaic style has been limited to a small number of works. Gaston Hall and Jean Emelina have devoted fascinating articles to comic images and word play in the comedies, but their discussions of the dramatist’s linguistic humour are limited in scope because they are restricted to a small number of plays.6 Similarly, the excellent studies of socio- linguistic variation in seventeenth-century France by Anthony Lodge and Wendy Ayres-Bennett evaluate the language of only a small proportion of the comedies.7 Of those studies which have been devoted to a sustained analysis of Moliere’s use of language, the majority have been confined to tracing the development of his style. Hubert de Phalese offers a lexical and statistical analysis of the various discourses in Les Fourberies de Scapin, La Comtesse d ’Escarbagnas, Les Femmes savantes and Le Malade imaginaire .8 While the book is very helpful in plotting the recurring use of certain themes, such as the differing attitudes to love in the four plays, its focus is limited to a fraction of Moliere’s work.9 Even more problematic is Phalese’s own admission that it is difficult to judge the quality of a play by relying on a quantitative analysis, the results of which are often self-evident.

Load more