Molière and the Sociology of Exchange

After situating Jean Baptiste Poquelin Moliere within the intellectual climate & value system of seventeenth-century France, ways that the characters in his plays -- through threatening the security of the nuclear family -- captivated audiences by playing on social contradictions & the confl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Critical inquiry 1988-04, Vol.14 (3), p.477-492
Main Authors: Apostolidès, Jean-Marie, McLean, Alice Musick
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bourgeois
Children
Christianity
Fathers
France
Imaging
Literary history
Medieval literature
Merchandise
Seventeenth Century
Sociology of Literature
Statues
Theater
Theater Arts
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Summary:After situating Jean Baptiste Poquelin Moliere within the intellectual climate & value system of seventeenth-century France, ways that the characters in his plays -- through threatening the security of the nuclear family -- captivated audiences by playing on social contradictions & the conflict between the feudal & modern worlds are examined. Sociological & anthropological concepts are used to show how Moliere's "l'honnete homme" (the universal man) united divergent social values. Focus is on the main characters in two plays: The Miser & Don Juan (The Miser and Other Plays, Wood, John [Tr], New York, 1985 [1953]). Such an analysis reveals how the theater formed a link between religious & literary expression &, through the mechanism of simulation, served as a "testing ground for modernity.". K. Hyatt
ISSN:0093-1896
1539-7858
DOI:10.1086/448452