French reception of Shakespearean Tragedy : Between Liberty and Memory » (Chapter 44)

International audienceWhether irreverent, excessively respectful, destructive or regenerative, the reception of Shakespearean tragedies in France involves a double dialogue: namely a vertical one ‘between the past and the present, and also ... some lateral dialogue in which crossing boundaries of place or language or genre is as important as crossing those of time’. The vertical form of dialogue is part of the creative process of realizing a Renaissance work of art and gives it its timeless flexibility. However, the power of their reception on the French stage is best expressed in the lateral form of dialogue. This chapter will treat the vertical, historiographical dialogue as both a natural cause and consequence of the lateral dialogue, which takes four shapes: the critical reception of Shakespeare’s tragedies, their linguistic reception, their stage reception, and finally their refiguration or metamorphosis into an alphabet for new works. The dialogue between the past and the present will form the thread of each lateral form of reception. Starting with the critical reception, the chapter will show how Shakespeare’s tragedy became the instrument of a reflection on Liberty. The stage dynamic of destruction and regeneration of Shakespearean tragedies called for new liberated approaches to French dramatic language. Shakespeare thus became a laboratory where translators, adaptors, stage directors and actors would put their trade to the test of a protean script and free themselves from the strictures of tradition