A Pact with Silence: Art and Thought in the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine

Title

en_US A Pact with Silence: Art and Thought in the Fables of Jean de La Fontaine

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US This book has a dust jacket (book cover)

en_US First printing

en_US David Lee Rubin

Creator

en_US Rubin, David Lee

Date

2016-01-25T20:15:39Z

en_US 1997-06

en_US 1991

Date Available

2016-01-25T20:15:39Z

Date Issued

en_US 1991

Abstract

en_US It has been almost exactly fifteen years since I found this book. Well, I am glad to get to it now! Rubin writes in his introduction that he sets out to assess the revolution occurring since the early 1960's in the study of La Fontaine's Fables. The new wave was pioneered by Couton's La Poétique de La Fontaine. The introduction goes on to review the steps in the revolution through the critical literature both French and English. From the many issues raised, Rubin selects three problems for treatment here. First, what is fable? What are the constants and the variables in this genre? Secondly, how does La Fontaine stand in relation to Lucretius, his Epicurean source? My second essay will argue that La Fontaine was by turns orthodox, elaborative, and revisionist in his lucretian epicureanism (xv). And thirdly, what is the underlying principle of structure in the individual books of La Fontaine's 'Fables'? (xv). The author sets out to do the kind of tracking that can establish a contour for each individual book. A final essay asks the question What place does this masterpiece occupy in the history of the seventeenth-century French lyric? (xvi). His answer includes the assertion that the fables may be best understood as a final elaboration of the baroque poetic, as well as a companion piece to Boileau's 'Satires' (xvi). His trust is that a reading of La Fontaine invariably begins in delight and ends in wisdom (xvi). I am eager to jump into those four essays the next time I have the opportunity to teach La Fontaine's fables!

Identifier

en_US 9780814205433 (alk. paper)

en_US 8179 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/83420

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Ohio State University Press

en_US Columbus

Subject

en_US PQ1808 .R8 1991

en_US Jean de La Fontaine

en_US Title Page Scanned

Type

en_US Book, Whole