Birth Marks: The Tragedy Of Primogeniture In Pierre Corneille, Thomas Corneille, And Jean Racine; Author: Goodkin, Richard E.; Hardback; Book

Author: Goodkin, Richard E.
New Cultural Studies; Hardback; Book
281 pages
Published: June 2000
University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812235509

Birth Marks reexamines the body of French classical tragedy from the perspective of recent theories about the sibling bond and, in particular, birth order. Through a study of the evolution of inheritance issues in seventeen tragedies written over the course of half a century by the Corneille brothers, Pierre and Tomas, and by Jean Racine, the book questions the pervasive assumption thatclassical tragedy, a form written for the aristocracy, is informed exclusively by an aristocratic thic.Instead, a fresh reading of both canonical and noncanonical texts demonstrates that even the most formal body of literature produced by French classical writers expresses a conflict between a declining aristocratic hierarchy based on inherited privilege and a rising capitalistic ethic that favDespite barriers to penetrating a sociocultural context so alien to our own, Goodkin (French, U. of Wisconsin) believes that a foray into 17th century French Classical tragedy written for the Versailles Court warrants the time warp. The author adopts primogeniture, the practice of the oldest son inh