"Sujets précieux": Comedy and conversion in Françoise Pascal's Agathonphile martyr, tragi-comédie

Presenter's Name(s)

Nina Pschar

Abstract

Françoise Pascal (1632-1689) is the little-known author of various plays, poetry, and an epistolary novel. This presentation, drawn from a research article funded by UVM’s Humanities Center Summer Research Award, presents Pascal in the context of her ‘préciosité’ and her participation in a constellation of theatrical, literary, and religious developments of seventeenth century France. Focusing on her first tragicomedy, Agathonphile martyr (1655), I consider how Pascal reconceptualizes theatrical conventions in her rare example of a tragicomedy with a tragic ending. The comic elements present in this tragic conclusion invite new possibilities for reading feminine agency in seventeenth-century literature.

Primary Faculty Mentor Name

Joseph Acquisto

Status

Undergraduate

Student College

College of Arts and Sciences

Program/Major

French

Primary Research Category

Arts & Humanities

Abstract only.

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"Sujets précieux": Comedy and conversion in Françoise Pascal's Agathonphile martyr, tragi-comédie

Françoise Pascal (1632-1689) is the little-known author of various plays, poetry, and an epistolary novel. This presentation, drawn from a research article funded by UVM’s Humanities Center Summer Research Award, presents Pascal in the context of her ‘préciosité’ and her participation in a constellation of theatrical, literary, and religious developments of seventeenth century France. Focusing on her first tragicomedy, Agathonphile martyr (1655), I consider how Pascal reconceptualizes theatrical conventions in her rare example of a tragicomedy with a tragic ending. The comic elements present in this tragic conclusion invite new possibilities for reading feminine agency in seventeenth-century literature.