Introduction

Abstract

This study aims to redress the balance of those studies of Racine which focus entirely on the literary aspects of his play. It endeavours to shed new light on the spectacle offered by his plays, with particular reference to the audiences for whom Racine wrote in seventeenth-century France. Because of the number of studies devoted to the literary reading of Racine's plays, this study of the theatrical reading of Racine's plays concentrates on the theatrical language of visual spectacle which embraces both verbal and visual effects. The primary source of this study is the text of Racine's plays which contain implicit and explicit stage directions. The method adopted in this study is the identification of the elements of Racine's theatrical language and his plays' recurrent theatrical features by closely examining his texts.