2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Corneille's Literary Creation and the Society of Seventeenthcentury France

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20520291
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	European literature (English literature excluded)
Research Institution	Hiroshima University
Principal Investigator	MURASE Nobuya Hiroshima University, 大学院・総合科学研究科, 名誉教授 (10089097)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2010
Keywords	仏文学 / コルネイユ / 演劇 / 17世紀
Research Abstract	In the present study, I focus my attention on the relationship between Corneille's drama and the contemporary society of France, and, in particular, to the influence which his patrons, Richelieu, Mazarin and others, had on his creation of dramas. Corneille made his stance clear in the midst of the Thirty Years' War and the Fronde ; that is, he aroused the curiosity of the audience by reflecting on his works the political reality about patrons, while at the same time he praised and supported these patrons in the artistic form which was brought to perfection in a superb way. But this does not necessarily mean that he was always loyal to them. For he did not scruple to disparage them in his dramas when in the turbulent society of the day to support them was likely to imperil his position or put him at a disadvantage. In this sense he was by no means a loyal supporter of absolutism but an opportunist, and he pursued his creative activity, contented to play that latter part of the two which he had chosen.