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Full Description
The century of political, religious and cultural turmoil that shook France after the sudden death of Francis I in 1547 was also a period of intense literary nation-building. This study shows how canonical authors contributed to the creation of the French as an imaginary community and argues that early modern literary texts also provide venues for an incisive critique of the idea of nation. Informed by contemporary theories of nationhood, the original readings of Du Bellay's Défense, Ronsard's Discours and d'Aubigné's Tragiques, Montaigne's Essays, Malherbe's odes, and Corneille's Le Cid and Horace demonstrate the critical function of allegories such as Mother France or tropes like the graft and reveal the pertinence of these early modern figurations for current debates about the nation-state in a postmodern era and globalized world.
Contents
Introduction: The (Early) Modern Nation: Figuration, Creation, Critique
Chapter 1: The Language Plant in the Garden of France: Imitation and Nation in La Deffence et Illustration de la Langue Françoyse
Chapter 2: Mother France and Her Dysfunctional Family: Religious and National Imageries in Ronsard's Discours and Continuation and in d'Aubigné's Tragiques
Chapter 3: "A Violent and Treacherous Schoolmistress:" Custom and the Nationalization of the Individual in the Essais
Chapter 4: Faith in the Spirit of France: Mythology and the Myth of the Nation in Malherbe's Odes
Chapter 5: Blood Transvaluations and the Limits of Patriotism: Staging Fictive Ethnicity in Le Cid and Horace
Conclusion: The Open Boundaries of Literary Nation-Building
