Political tragedy by J. de Rotrou “Cosroes” (ideological dispute with P. Corneille’s theater)

Abstract

Using the example of the play “Cosroes” (1648), the article reveals the specifics of the late tragedies of J. de Rotrou, who under the influence of the Corneille theater of the 40s turned to the development of political issues. One of the main tasks solved in the article is to present Rotrou’s dramaturgy within the framework of the established classicist poetics, by comparing the ideological and stylistic positions of Corneille and Rotrou, in light of the principle of constructing the discursive-rhetorical structure of tragedies on a political plot, to trace the features of the development of French tragedy in the first half of the 17th century. In “Cosroes”, Rotrou turns to be closest to the Cornelian tragedy, the ideological center of which, defining the main conflict, is political interest. Rotarou borrows from Corneille a mechanism for the development of intrigue, which involves the problematization of attitude of person to power, his role in power, as well as the clash of various opposing forces, just like the contradiction of personal and official role. However, in “Cosroes” we can observe the essential difference between the tragic writing of the two playwrights, exactly, the different vector of the unfolding of value-significant meanings: Corneille seeks to consolidate the coincidence of moral, ethicalт and political grounds, while Rotrou, having grope the inevitability of a contradiction between them, seeks to their accentuated separation. In “Cosroes”, like Corneille, Rotrou justifies the principle of legitimate, essentially humane, fair power, but at the same time shows the catastrophic impossibility of its implementation within these rationally reasonable, morally justified limits. In Rotrou’s text, concepts such as “order,” “law,” “right,” and “power” are completely compromised.

Keywords:

political tragedy, ideological dispute, conflict, power, classicism