La Bérénice anglaise de Thomas Otway, ou Racine sans Aristote

The article offers an original reassessment of the English adaptation of Racine’s Bérénice by Thomas Otway : Titus and Berenice (1677). It brings out its main novelty, so far rarely explored by critics and yet decisive in explaining the gap in relation to the Racinian text: the role attributed to th...

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Autor principal: Tristan Alonge
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Publicado: Institut du Monde Anglophone 2021
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:1496631654fd4e56a683b65d5915574a2021-12-02T10:16:39ZLa Bérénice anglaise de Thomas Otway, ou Racine sans Aristote1634-045010.4000/episteme.13229https://doaj.org/article/1496631654fd4e56a683b65d5915574a2021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttp://journals.openedition.org/episteme/13229https://doaj.org/toc/1634-0450The article offers an original reassessment of the English adaptation of Racine’s Bérénice by Thomas Otway : Titus and Berenice (1677). It brings out its main novelty, so far rarely explored by critics and yet decisive in explaining the gap in relation to the Racinian text: the role attributed to the character of Antiochus. In a fruitful dialogue between model and imitation, the British “translation” thus presents itself as the revealer that can make visible, by contrast, the latent image of the Racinian text, and that can unveil its secret and transform an “elegant fabric of Madrigals and Elegy” into an Aristotelian tragedy. In Racine’s tragedy, while the story of Titus and Berenice had no tragic characterization and was paradoxically configured as a long and gallant declaration of love constantly postponed, the king of Commagene – a genuine tragic hero – made it possible to reintroduce a tragic progression in the plot. Ignoring the importance of Antiochus, as his contemporary Villars does, Otway chooses to degrade him to the role of rival in love, useless in the course of the action, and must therefore animate his play differently in order to increase the pathos and the twists and turns. In order to meet this challenge, he chooses to radically distort – despite the apparent textual imitations – the characterization of Titus and Berenice, and to exacerbate the destructive and destabilizing effect of amorous passion, to the point of giving the illusion of having written a more Racinian play than Racine himself did. Tristan AlongeInstitut du Monde AnglophonearticleBereniceTitusAntiochusThomas OtwayJean RacineAristotleHistory (General) and history of EuropeDFrench literature - Italian literature - Spanish literature - Portuguese literaturePQ1-3999ENFREtudes Epistémè, Vol 40 (2021)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
FR
topic Berenice
Titus
Antiochus
Thomas Otway
Jean Racine
Aristotle
History (General) and history of Europe
D
French literature - Italian literature - Spanish literature - Portuguese literature
PQ1-3999
spellingShingle Berenice
Titus
Antiochus
Thomas Otway
Jean Racine
Aristotle
History (General) and history of Europe
D
French literature - Italian literature - Spanish literature - Portuguese literature
PQ1-3999
Tristan Alonge
La Bérénice anglaise de Thomas Otway, ou Racine sans Aristote
description The article offers an original reassessment of the English adaptation of Racine’s Bérénice by Thomas Otway : Titus and Berenice (1677). It brings out its main novelty, so far rarely explored by critics and yet decisive in explaining the gap in relation to the Racinian text: the role attributed to the character of Antiochus. In a fruitful dialogue between model and imitation, the British “translation” thus presents itself as the revealer that can make visible, by contrast, the latent image of the Racinian text, and that can unveil its secret and transform an “elegant fabric of Madrigals and Elegy” into an Aristotelian tragedy. In Racine’s tragedy, while the story of Titus and Berenice had no tragic characterization and was paradoxically configured as a long and gallant declaration of love constantly postponed, the king of Commagene – a genuine tragic hero – made it possible to reintroduce a tragic progression in the plot. Ignoring the importance of Antiochus, as his contemporary Villars does, Otway chooses to degrade him to the role of rival in love, useless in the course of the action, and must therefore animate his play differently in order to increase the pathos and the twists and turns. In order to meet this challenge, he chooses to radically distort – despite the apparent textual imitations – the characterization of Titus and Berenice, and to exacerbate the destructive and destabilizing effect of amorous passion, to the point of giving the illusion of having written a more Racinian play than Racine himself did. 
format article
author Tristan Alonge
author_facet Tristan Alonge
author_sort Tristan Alonge
title La Bérénice anglaise de Thomas Otway, ou Racine sans Aristote
title_short La Bérénice anglaise de Thomas Otway, ou Racine sans Aristote
title_full La Bérénice anglaise de Thomas Otway, ou Racine sans Aristote
title_fullStr La Bérénice anglaise de Thomas Otway, ou Racine sans Aristote
title_full_unstemmed La Bérénice anglaise de Thomas Otway, ou Racine sans Aristote
title_sort la bérénice anglaise de thomas otway, ou racine sans aristote
publisher Institut du Monde Anglophone
publishDate 2021
url https://doaj.org/article/1496631654fd4e56a683b65d5915574a
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