Formation of Literary-Critical Judgment in the 17th-century France. Prefaces by Jean Chapelain

Abstract

The article examines the formation and development of French literary criticism in the first half of the 17th century by addressing the texts of Jean Chapelain as its notable representative. Our analysis of literary processes takes into account historical and social conditions (in particular, the strengthening of absolutism, the flourishing of salon culture, the appearance of a scholarly-minded public). We consider the influence of ancient literature and theory, mainly the reception of genre models. The focus on literary polemics allowed us to highlight the specifics of normative literary criticism, to which Chapelain belongs. The article discusses the characteristic features of the genre of Preface, which allowed this genre to come to the fore on the French literary avant-scene of the early 17th century, despite the lack of national poetics and major theoretical treatises. At the center of this study there is the figure of “critic&8j1; in his interaction with “author&8j1; and “reader&8j1;, as well as some issues of readers’ reception. Our focus is on Chapelain's intellectual writings, on his critical manner. Chapelain's Preface to Marino's poem “Adonis&8j1; is analyzed in detail, with particular attention to his views on the genre theory. In the Preface to “Adonis&8j1;, Chapelain positions himself as a literary critic, celebrating the classical poetics and theorizing about genres, setting forth the classicist concepts of ‘truthfulness’ and ‘usefulness’, and simultaneously justifying artistic experimentation, which takes into account the aesthetic concerns of contemporary society. The flexibility of Chapelain's critical discourse is discussed. The article argues that the emerging normative system of classicism was never fixed or rigidly established; instead, it was able to accommodate itself to changing literary and social milieu, reflecting both the need to exert authority and to demonstrate certain authorial liberty.