Della questione epica

To mark the occasion of the release of Giorgetto Giorgi’s anthology volume on Les poétiques de l’épopée en France au xviie siècle, the article focuses on the advancement of critical studies related to the epic genre in the 17th century, the influence of Tasso’s theoretical writings on French treatises, the as yet insufficiently recognized elaboration of a modernization project by the Modernists in France and the frequent contradictions between the authors’ statements in the preliminary texts and their literary products, or rather, between poetics and poems