Своеобразие политической проблематики в трагедии Ж. Ротру «Ифигения в Авлиде» (1640)

Abstract

The article examines J. Rotrou’s play “Iphigenie in Aulis” (1640), which ends the early period of the playwright’s tragic work and, along with Corneille’s “Horace” staged in the same year, marks a new stage in the development of French classic tragedy. In “Iphigenie” one can clearly see the consolidation of the poetological principles of the “correct” tragedy (organization of action in accordance with the rule of “three unities”, stylistic and linguistic homogeneity, construction of a discursive and rhetorical structure in relation to the main ideological and semantic – essentially political – contradiction). The analysis of “Iphigenie” allows us to observe one of the main distinctive features of Rothrou’s mature dramatic writing: the semantic complication of the conflict of duty and feelings (along with the meanings of political power) up to its insolubility. Rotrou deepens the contradiction between the idea of heroism, state interest – and the personal truth of a person whose suffering is caused by the requirement of public benefit. In this historically determined clash as direct moral and physical violence, without convincing justification, as a social phenomenon catastrophically provocative, the playwright discovers a new principle of tragedy. The transitional nature of “Iphigenie” between the early and late tragedies of Rotrou is revealed in the dependence traced in the text of the play on the mythological model that levels out the semantic contradiction, as well as on the Christian idea of divine justice and the providential nature of events.