Le Triomphe de l'amour: Cross-Dressing and Self-Discovery in Marivaux

Abstract

The last decade or so has seen a renewal of interest in Marivaux's theater, especially in the United States. One of the plays which has been newly translated and often performed in the recent past is Le Triomphe de l'amour, 1 a comedy with strong romance overtones that does not belong to the traditional canon of the handful of plays which have ensured Marivaux's reputation as a playwright (La Double inconstance, Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard, Les Fausses confidences, to name only the most famous). This rediscovery of Le Triomphe de l'amour is probably due in part to the contemporary interest in the motif of cross-dressing and in questions related to gender identity in general. I would like to show here, focusing mainly on the plays labeled "comédies d'amour" in Marcel Arland's classification of Marivaux's theater, 2 how cross-dressing fits into Marivaux's particular brand of comic theater and how it reflects his general approach to comedy in these plays.