Fordham University Press In the Wake of Medea: Neoclassical Theater and the Arts of Destruction

Through the figure of Medea, shows how important violence was for seventeenth-century French tragedy and contextualizes that violence in a longer literary and philosophical history from Ovid to Pasolini. Review This book does not limit itself to reexamining the role of violence in French neo-classical theater, but also presents a fascinating means through which to examine the patterns of Medean violence in diverse art forms. Violence, she argues, serves a plurality of functions which all resist a uniformly moralistic purpose. Scholars of other disciplines such as performance studies, film studies, and gender studies will also benefit from the multidisciplinary and trans-historical study engaged here.-- "French Review" " In the Wake of Medea considers how violence shapes a panoply of major and minor works in the classical canon. Using Corneille's Médée as a template, then working with authors diverse as Rotrou and Fontenelle, Juliette Cherbuliez sorts through conflicted expression of incertitude, anger and contrition. Written with force and elegance, this timely study unsettles and inspires" ---Tom Conley, Harvard University, "Cherbuliez's attention to the psychopolitical resonance of theatrical materiality is a thrill. This gripping account will appeal to readers unfamiliar with French tragedy but interested in its wider implications." ---Katherine Ibbett, University of Oxford, About the Author Juliette Cherbuliez is Professor of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, and Director of its Consortium for the Study of the Premodern World. She is the author of The Place of Exile: Leisure Literature and the Limits of Absolutism (Bucknell, 2005).