L’inceste romanesque au siècle des Lumières: de la Régence à la Révolution (1715–1789) by Jacqueline Chammas (review)

Reviews 207 extended reflection on the theme of marriage, sacrifice, and suicide in Andromaque, Mithridate, and Iphigénie. In chapter 3, Bruyer provides a nuanced analysis of the significance of the different methods characters use to end their lives; his treatment of Phèdre’s use of poison is particularly compelling:“Les protagonistes masculins échouent à se tuer dignement ou meurent d’une mort infâme à caractère féminin alors que les héroïnes raciniennes vont au bout d’un itinéraire passionnel dont le paroxysme coïncide inéluctablement avec la mort” (165–66). In part 2, Bruyer turns to the question of dramaturgy;chapter 4 discusses sixteenth- and seventeenth-century dramaturgical theories on denouement, and how they address (or do not address) suicide. Chapter 5 then focuses on analyzing the use of suicide in the denouement of Iphigénie and that of Bajazet through the lens of classical rhetoric, insofar as the former exemplifies both imitatio and inventio, and the latter, inventio. Chapter 6 contrasts La Thébaïde and Bérénice—an ingenious approach, since one play features multiple suicides while in the other, no one dies, let alone commits suicide. Rather, the common thread connecting these two apparently dissimilar plays lies in how characters use suicide as a rhetorical weapon, with significant consequences for Racinian tragedy and its use of irony. In the conclusion, the author addresses the connections between suicide and heroism in Racine, with some interesting points about masculine versus feminine heroism, before taking up the broader context:“La tragédie racinienne s’interroge certes sur ces crises qui traversent l’âge classique, mais c’est avant tout un lieu où s’élabore une esthétique de la mort incompatible avec l’idée chrétienne selon laquelle le suicide est acte de pécheur” (304). This study should be of interest to scholars who work on Racine (obviously), but also to those who work on early modern dramaturgy; it also opens the door for further scholarship on heroism, death, and the nature of tragedy. University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth Stephanie O’Hara Chammas, Jacqueline. L’inceste romanesque au siècle des Lumières: de la Régence à la Révolution (1715–1789). Paris: Champion,2011. ISBN 978-2-7453-2274-6.Pp.433. 90 a. This study repositions “incest” from a seemingly minor, specialized topic in the French eighteenth century to one of major importance. Detailed and broad historical, theoretical analysis places the motif of incest within the context of diverse libertinisms that inform and are informed by the most significant Enlightenment issues. Thorough examination of texts by well-known writers (Montesquieu, l’abbé Prévost, Diderot, Mercier, Casanova, Restif de la Bretonne, Mirabeau, Sade, etc.) and less well-known (Maubert de Bouvest, Mme Falques, Tiphaigne de la Roche, Andréa de Nerciat, etc.) contributes to an understanding of how fiction fleshes out the philosophical, social, and political preoccupations of the period. Chammas provides an overview of incest as that taboo which from Roman times persists in eighteenth-century“droit canonique,” “droit civil,” and is confirmed by “les droits de la nature.”Whereas in the first third of the eighteenth century, ultimate penalties apply, “dans les décennies qui suivent, les sentences de mort sont commuées en envois aux galères [...]. De même, les durées d’emprisonnement sont généralement à la baisse” (25). The evolution of incest as a crime punishable by death to lesser punishments finds a parallel in the importance of incest as a theme. Until the Revolution, writers and philosophers “ne cesseront de revenir sur ce sujet”(127).Why, how, does this topic flourish in fiction? Lightening of the death penalty for incest“est parallèle à la naissance de l’opinion publique”(25). The rise of public opinion and critical debate allowed challenges to traditional religious, social, and political codes. Most importantly, it included reflection and imagination that used fiction as“laboratoires”(181) to explore new modes of sexual, familial, social life—imaginary, even extreme, models, but that envisaged real social reform:“Que ce soit dans le faste des palais de Bagdad ou dans le dénuement des tribus amérindiennes, en Orient ou en...