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Racine’s Roman Tragedies
Essays on Britannicus and Bérénice
Series: - Faux Titre Online, Volume: 456
- Faux Titre, Volume: 456
In two of his most famous plays, Britannicus and Bérénice, Racine depicts the tragedies of characters trapped by the ideals, desires, and cruelties of ancient Rome. This international collection of essays deploys cutting-edge research to illuminate the plays and their contexts.
For Racine, Rome is more than a location, it is a set of values and traditions, a space of opportunity and oppression. The contributors to this volume examine Racine’s stagecraft, his exploration of time and space, sound and silence, and the ways in which he develops his own distinctive understanding of tragedy. The reception of his plays by contemporaries and subsequent generations also features. In Racine’s hands, Rome becomes a state of mind, haunted by both past and future.
This book's dedicatee, Richard Parish, passed away on January 1st 2022, just before publication. We would like to dedicate this collection of essays to his memory.
For Racine, Rome is more than a location, it is a set of values and traditions, a space of opportunity and oppression. The contributors to this volume examine Racine’s stagecraft, his exploration of time and space, sound and silence, and the ways in which he develops his own distinctive understanding of tragedy. The reception of his plays by contemporaries and subsequent generations also features. In Racine’s hands, Rome becomes a state of mind, haunted by both past and future.
This book's dedicatee, Richard Parish, passed away on January 1st 2022, just before publication. We would like to dedicate this collection of essays to his memory.
Nicholas Hammond (DPhil Oxford 1992) is Professor of early modern French Literature and Culture at the University of Cambridge. He has published widely, including on Pascal, Port-Royal, and gossip, and has edited several books. His most recent book is The Powers of Sound and Song in early modern Paris (2019).
Paul Hammond (LittD Cambridge 1996) is Professor of Seventeenth-Century English Literature at the University of Leeds, and a Fellow of the British Academy. His books include The Strangeness of Tragedy (2009) and Tragic Agency in Classical Drama from Aeschylus to Voltaire (2021).
Paul Hammond (LittD Cambridge 1996) is Professor of Seventeenth-Century English Literature at the University of Leeds, and a Fellow of the British Academy. His books include The Strangeness of Tragedy (2009) and Tragic Agency in Classical Drama from Aeschylus to Voltaire (2021).
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Racine’s Imagined Rome
Nicholas Hammond and Paul Hammond
1 Britannicus et Bérénice : tragédies aristotéliciennes ?
Tristan Alonge
2 Britannicus, the Tragic Family, and the Problem of the Hero
John D. Lyons
3 Stones Wrapped in String: The Paths Not Taken in Racine’s Bérénice
Paul Hammond
4 ‘Mille bruits’: Listening to Britannicus
Nicholas Hammond
5 Noises Off? Bérénice’s Echo Chamber
Joseph Harris
6 Le public fragmenté de Titus : la métaphore théâtrale dans Bérénice
Delphine Calle
7 Bérénice: Disoriented in Rome
John D. Lyons
8 Staging Britannicus and Bérénice: Problems in Spatial Dynamics
Michael Hawcroft
9 Naissance des monstres : Le mal et ses doubles dans Britannicus
Tony Gheeraert
10 Mendacity in Racine’s Britannicus
Emilia Wilton-Godberfforde
11 ‘D’un voile d’amitié j’ai couvert mon amour’: Homoerotic Subtexts in Bérénice
Paul Scott
12 Bérénice: Racine between Corneille and Barthes
Michael Moriarty
13 La Bataille des Bérénice : une concurrence repensée
Hélène Bilis
14 Pradon and the ‘Parodie de Bérénice’
Jan Clarke
15 Painting and Silence: Racine and His Classical Sources for Britannicus and Bérénice
Susan Reynolds
16 ‘If Neither Faith nor Tears nor Means Can Move’: Translating Emotion from Racine’s Bérénice (1670) to Otway’s Titus and Berenice (1676)
Suzanne Jones
17 The Place of Breath in Alan Hollinghurst’s Berenice
Denis Flannery
Bibliography
Index
Introduction: Racine’s Imagined Rome
Nicholas Hammond and Paul Hammond
Part 1: Defining Tragedy
1 Britannicus et Bérénice : tragédies aristotéliciennes ?
Tristan Alonge
2 Britannicus, the Tragic Family, and the Problem of the Hero
John D. Lyons
3 Stones Wrapped in String: The Paths Not Taken in Racine’s Bérénice
Paul Hammond
Part 2: Sound, Metatheatre, and Theatrical Space
4 ‘Mille bruits’: Listening to Britannicus
Nicholas Hammond
5 Noises Off? Bérénice’s Echo Chamber
Joseph Harris
6 Le public fragmenté de Titus : la métaphore théâtrale dans Bérénice
Delphine Calle
7 Bérénice: Disoriented in Rome
John D. Lyons
8 Staging Britannicus and Bérénice: Problems in Spatial Dynamics
Michael Hawcroft
Part 3: Ambiguity, Concealment, and Duplicity
9 Naissance des monstres : Le mal et ses doubles dans Britannicus
Tony Gheeraert
10 Mendacity in Racine’s Britannicus
Emilia Wilton-Godberfforde
11 ‘D’un voile d’amitié j’ai couvert mon amour’: Homoerotic Subtexts in Bérénice
Paul Scott
Part 4: Racine and His Rivals
12 Bérénice: Racine between Corneille and Barthes
Michael Moriarty
13 La Bataille des Bérénice : une concurrence repensée
Hélène Bilis
14 Pradon and the ‘Parodie de Bérénice’
Jan Clarke
Part 5: Sources and Translations
15 Painting and Silence: Racine and His Classical Sources for Britannicus and Bérénice
Susan Reynolds
16 ‘If Neither Faith nor Tears nor Means Can Move’: Translating Emotion from Racine’s Bérénice (1670) to Otway’s Titus and Berenice (1676)
Suzanne Jones
17 The Place of Breath in Alan Hollinghurst’s Berenice
Denis Flannery
Bibliography
Index
University libraries; academics in classics and French literature; undergraduate and postgraduate students of French literature; specialists in drama, especially tragedy.