Title of the article:

IMAGE OF POWER IN THE TRAGEDY ON THE SLAVIC HISTORY”S PLOT “VENCESLAS” (1647) BY J. DE ROTROU

Author(s):

Simonova, L.A.

Information about the author/authors

Larisa A. Simonova, PhD in Рhilology, Senior Researcher, Pushkin Library, Spartakovskaya St., 9, 105066 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000‑0001‑7019‑0215
E-mail: mouette37@yandex.ru

Section

Philological sciences

Year

2024

Volume

Vol. 73

Pages

pp. 222–2

Received

November 12, 2023

Approved after reviewing

July 02, 2024

Date of publication

September 25, 2024

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37816/2073-9567-2024-73-222-238

Index UDK

82‑12

Index BBK

83.3 (4Фра)

Abstract

The example of the tragedy “Venceslas” is instrumental in defining the nature of the late work of J. Rotrou. The paper analyzes he play the context of classicist poetics, taking into account the evolution of Rotrou’s dramatic writing and ideological polemics with the Corneille theater of the 40s, whose influence largely initiated the overcoming of Rotrou’s dependence on mythological models, conditioned by the connection with ancient and humanistic drama especially noticeable in early tragedies, and bringing political issues to the fore. It is the specifics of revealing the image of power that most clearly shows the originality of Rotrou’s thinking. In discussing the power’s image, the author proceeds from the peculiarity of unfolding of the discursive-rhetorical structure of the play and semantic mobility of signs and images associated with the manifestation of power. The multiplicity and active interaction of meanings that organize the statements of the main actors and define them in a political, role-playing and at the same time personal, relative, sets the contradiction, mobility, uncertainty of their characters and relationships. The need for official implementation together with the right to personal, the significance of the state interest along with the actualization of the individual — such value-semantic ambiguity is observed throughout the dramatic action, not excluding the finale. Rotrou managed to deeply connect the authority of impersonal power and vulnerability, the “imperfection” of the private, to show the inevitable presence of the human, giving dubious relativity to any absolute meaning.

Keywords

Tragedy, Political Power, History, Poland, Dramatic Conflict, State Interest.

Reference

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