The cultural battle known as the Quarrel of the Ancients and Moderns served as a sly cover for more deeply opposed views about the value of literature and the arts. One of the most public controversies of early modern Europe, the Quarrel has most often been depicted as pitting antiquarian conservatives against the insurgent critics of established authority. The Shock of the Ancient turns the canonical vision of those events on its head by demonstrating how the defenders of Greek literature—rather than clinging to an outmoded tradition—celebrated the radically different practices of the ancient world. At a time when the constraints of decorum and the politics of French absolutism quashed the expression of cultural differences, the ancient world presented a disturbing face of otherness. Larry F. Norman explores how the authoritative status of ancient Greek texts allowed them to justify literary depictions of the scandalous. The Shock of the Ancient surveys the diverse array of aesthetic models presented in these ancient works and considers how they both helped to undermine the rigid codes of neoclassicism and paved the way for the innovative philosophies of the Enlightenment. Broadly appealing to students of European literature, art history, and philosophy, this book is an important contribution to early modern literary and cultural debates.

The Shock of the Ancient: Literature and History in Early Modern France

Literature & Fiction

Norman, Larry F.

History & Criticism

University of Chicago Press

The Public Mirror: Moliere and the Social Commerce of Depiction

Though much beloved and widely produced, Molière's satirical comedies pose a problem for those reading or staging his works today: how can a genre associated with biting caricature and castigation deliver engaging theater? Instead of simply dismissing social satire as a foundation for Molière's theater, as many have done, Larry F. Norman takes seriously Molière's claim that his satires are first and foremost effective theater.Pairing close readings of Molière's comedies with insightful accounts of French social history and aesthetics, Norman shows how Molière conceived of satire as a "public mirror" provoking dynamic exchange and conflict with audience members obsessed with their own images. Drawing on these tensions, Molière portrays characters satirizing one another on stage, with their reactions providing dramatic conflict and propelling comic dialogue. By laying bare his society's system of imagining itself, Molière's satires both enthralled and enraged his original audience and provide us with a crucial key to the classical culture of representation.

Dramas & Plays

Though much beloved and widely produced, Molière's satirical comedies pose a problem for those reading or staging his works today: how can a genre associated with biting caricature and castigation deliver engaging theater? Instead of simply dismissing social satire as a foundation for Molière's theater, as many have done, Larry F. Norman takes seriously Molière's claim that his satires are first and foremost effective theater. Pairing close readings of Molière's comedies with insightful accounts of French social history and aesthetics, Norman shows how Molière conceived of satire as a "public mirror" provoking dynamic exchange and conflict with audience members obsessed with their own images. Drawing on these tensions, Molière portrays characters satirizing one another on stage, with their reactions providing dramatic conflict and propelling comic dialogue. By laying bare his society's system of imagining itself, Molière's satires both enthralled and enraged his original audience and provide us with a crucial key to the classical culture of representation.

After the construction of the first permanent theater buildings since Antiquity in mid sixteenth-century Italy, drama triumphed throughout Europe, especially in seventeenth-century France, Golden Age Spain, and Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Restoration England. How did the growth of the book industry interact with the evolution of the theater? The Book in the Age of Theater answers this question by exploring the relationship between performance and printing, viewing Renaissance and baroque theater as a unique intersection of social spectacle and literary activity.

The Book in the Age of Theater, 1550-1750

Arts & Photography

Performing Arts

The University of Chicago Library

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Norman, Larry F.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Norman, Larry F.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Norman, Larry F.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Shock of the Ancient: Literature and History in Early Modern France

The Public Mirror: Moliere and the Social Commerce of Depiction

The Public Mirror: Moliere and the Social Commerce of Depiction

The Book in the Age of Theater, 1550-1750