The Histoire comique de Francion (1623--1633) of Charles Sorel marks a passage in the history of laughter, from the Renaissance to the classical period. Sorel defines the Histoire comique as a realistic genre by opposing it to the heroic, pastoral and burlesque genres. Whereas Rabelaisian works showed an ambivalent and carnivalesque laughter, the tone of Sorel's Francion is both satirical and univocal. The carnivalesque and popular traditions are mocked for the benefit of an elitist rationalism. The Francion shows a hero who distances himself from the popular culture to become a honnete homme. In order to respect the bienseances, laughter becomes spiritual, abstract and moderated. It attacks humans' ridiculous shortcomings instead of mocking the dominating classes as did the carnivalesque laughter in a debunking process. The polite laughter of the Francion distinguishes itself from the corporeal, excessive and regenerating laughter that one finds in Rabelais. The satire of Francion prepares for more serious endeavors.

No description available.

L'objectif de nos recherches consiste à définir la notion d'extravagance en l'inscrivant dans le contexte qui en voit l'essor littéraire, de l'année 1623 (avec L'Histoire comique de Francion de Sorel) à 1666 (avec Le Misanthrope de Molière et Le Roman bourgeois de Furetière) ; il s'agit de montrer comment cette notion rend compte des enjeux socioculturels, littéraires et esthétiques du premier XVIIe siècle. Nos travaux s'inscrivent dans une perspective pluridisciplinaire : l'extravagance convoque à la fois le domaine de la médecine, l'histoire des traitements et de l'enfermement du fou, la question philosophique des rapports réversibles entre folie et sagesse, domaines que nous étudions en miroir des représentations littéraires de la déraison. Le trouble qui atteint l'extravagant perturbe son imagination en n'altérant que faiblement son entendement. Un savoir mal maîtrisé et des lectures nocives, qui sont souvent des romans, sont la cause de son délire : contrairement à l'idiot, son esprit n'est pas vide, mais interprète de manière erronée ce qu'il perçoit du monde. Ce trouble de l'esprit l'amène également à s'écarter du comportement prescrit dans l'espace social. Face au modèle de l'honnête homme, défini par les traités de civilité, l'extravagant est incapable de respecter les codes de la bienséance et de la politesse. Cette lecture nous permet de proposer une interprétation renouvelée des types comiques que l'on trouve dans les comédies et les histoires comiques des années 1620-1660, tels le capitan-matamore, le pédant, le provincial, etc... / The purpose of our research is to define extravagance by looking at this notion in context when it experienced its first literary successes, that is from 1623 (with L'Histoire comique de Francion by Sorel) to 1666 (Le Misanthrope by Molière and Le Roman bourgeois by Furetière). We therefore aim at showing how it illustrated sociocultural, literary and esthetical issues in the early seventeenth century. Our research is carried along pluridisciplinary lines: extravagance deals at the same time with medicine, the history of cures and the imprisonment of the insane and the philosophical question of reversible links between madness and wisdom, and this is why I am studying these fields while analysing literary representations of madness. The extravagant's disorder disturbs his imagination without really impairing his understanding. Uncontrolled knowledge and noxious readings, which are often novels, are responsible for his madness. Unlike the fool, his mind is not empty, but it blurs the way in which he perceives the world. Such mental confusion also makes him move away from accepted social behaviours. As opposed to the model of the honest man as defined by treatises of courtesy, the extravagant man cannot abide by proprieties and polite codes. This perspective leads me to formulate a new interpretation of the comic characters we can find in comedies and comic novels from the 1620-1660 era, such as the braggart, the pedant, the countryman, and so on...

This thesis considers the burlesque literary forms in the work of the seventeenth-century writer, Cyrano de Bergerac. It challenges current scholarship by looking beyond libertinism to consider the importance of Cyrano's comic writing practices. While it does not deny the philosophical and scientific focus of Cyrano's oeuvre, it suggests that the burlesque is a defining characteristic. By taking into account the literary context in which Cyrano was writing – notably the querelle des Lettres and the rise of the histoire comique – as well as looking at other comic writers that could have influenced Cyrano, and through close textual readings, this thesis reveals that burlesque forms are often used in excess in Cyrano's work – forms compete against forms – producing destructive effects; burlesque forms can, in effect, be self-defeating. This project then asks whether it is possible to consider Cyrano a comic writer at all. It does demonstrate, however, that, in ridiculing everyone and everything, Cyrano too makes a mockery of the very idea of a dissimulative text. In questioning the literary gesture that Cyrano makes through his battling burlesque forms, this thesis suggests that libertinism can appear to be one of many playful masks the author assumes in his work. Is Cyrano a burlesque libertine? If so, this thesis raises the wider question of whether there are other imposters within the ranks.