| My dissertation argues that the French seventeenth century is above all an age of fear. Immediately preceded by religious wars and political turmoil and followed by a slow march towards the French Revolution, I perceive the French seventeenth century as a period when mastering fear, whether through political absolutism, reconceived literary genres, or exhaustive scientific treatises on the passions, is a paramount objective across society. In general, the seventeenth century is a watershed period as traditional understandings of the passions come into question. A proliferation of extremely popular treatises on the passions, including texts by Descartes, Cureau de la Chambre, Senault, and Coeffeteau, suggests both a strongly perceived need to comprehend the passions as well as underlying uncertainty about their place in the human experience. Within these complex changes, fear loses its perceived potential as a positive, religious force and retains only its negative characteristics, becoming a physical phenomenon to be diagnosed and mastered, a transformation which incorporates new understandings of the relationships between religion, science, and human nature. Major literary works of the period, in turn, reflect similarly divergent understandings of fear. Corneille's theater, for instance, explores the function of fear in an absolutist state. His final play, Surena, can be read in tandem with Le Cid to show that absolutism might quite possibly be undone by the very fear upon which it is built, as absolute monarchs grapple with potential threats by heroic generals. Racine, on the other hand, in Britannicus and Athalie, suggests that fearlessness is inherently tragic, while moderate fear can provide an outlet from the tragic universe. Likewise, in Madame de Lafayette's La Princesse de Cleves, fear can be understood as a beneficial force which delivers the protagonist from the potentially harmful effects of her love. Fascinatingly, the interplay between the Princess's fear and love lies at the heart of Lafayette's innovative portrayals of her protagonist's interiority, thus contributing directly to the birth of the modern novel. In short, my dissertation demonstrates how fear serves as a nexus to better understand changing perspectives on science, political theory, theology, romance, and literary genres in seventeenth-century France. |
