Book contents
- Molière in Context
- Molière in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Charts and Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Translations
- Abbreviations
- Biographical Preface
- Part I Socio-Political Context
- Part II Intellectual and Artistic Context
- Part III Theatrical Context (Paris)
- Part IV Theatrical Context (Court)
- Part V Reception and Dissemination
- Part VI Afterlives
- Chapter 29 Molière at the Hôtel Guénégaud and the Comédie-Française: The Early Years
- Chapter 30 Comedy after Molière
- Chapter 31 Molière as National Hero
- Chapter 32 Molière in Performance: Twentieth- and Twenty- First-Century Productions
- Chapter 33 Molière on the Modern Anglophone Stage
- Chapter 34 Who and What Is Molière? The Film Directors’ Perspective
- Chapter 35 Molière in the Arab World
- Chapter 36 Digital Molière
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 31 - Molière as National Hero
from Part VI - Afterlives
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2022
- Molière in Context
- Molière in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Charts and Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Translations
- Abbreviations
- Biographical Preface
- Part I Socio-Political Context
- Part II Intellectual and Artistic Context
- Part III Theatrical Context (Paris)
- Part IV Theatrical Context (Court)
- Part V Reception and Dissemination
- Part VI Afterlives
- Chapter 29 Molière at the Hôtel Guénégaud and the Comédie-Française: The Early Years
- Chapter 30 Comedy after Molière
- Chapter 31 Molière as National Hero
- Chapter 32 Molière in Performance: Twentieth- and Twenty- First-Century Productions
- Chapter 33 Molière on the Modern Anglophone Stage
- Chapter 34 Who and What Is Molière? The Film Directors’ Perspective
- Chapter 35 Molière in the Arab World
- Chapter 36 Digital Molière
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
This chapter considers Molière as an icon of French national identity and a celebrated hero. It sketches the trajectory of this national veneration as it evolved over centuries, from the first years after his death, when he was transformed from ordinary scribbler to a writer of discerning common sense and humanitarian empathy. In the century that followed, Enlightenment thinkers elevated Molière to the status of a philosopher; the secularisation of national honour paved the way for Molière’s investiture in the ‘cult of great men’. Authors of the Romantic movement solidified his reputation as a suffering genius while the efforts of historians secured Molière’s status as a French national treasure worthy of archival investigations. The Molière of the twentieth century became a distinctly more earthy presence. He comes to be viewed first and foremost as a theatre-maker, a ‘man of the theatre’, with his plays, his life and the practicalities of his livelihood now defining him as a working man. The efforts of nineteenth-century historians come to fruition in the twentieth century’s definitive art form, film, where Molière comes alive through leaps of imagination that expose contested French views of his importance.
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- Molière in Context , pp. 293 - 302Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022