Description | Despite the fixed and narrow sensibilities we associate with French Classicism, the second half of the 17th century in France was, in fact, an age of striking cultural ferment, which redefined the nature of literature. Nowhere was this more apparent than in a vibrant new book market, reflecting rapidly expanding publics (both print and theatre), the central role of women in cultural life, and fashion as a fundamental cultural and marketing paradigm. This talk explores the new products, innovative uses of the book and resulting quarrels that shaped and defined this market, as way of discovering new approaches to early modern French literature. Christophe Schuwey is maître assistant [assistant professor] at the University of Fribourg, in Switzerland and developer in digital humanities at the University of Lausanne. His thesis, defended at Paris-Sorbonne University, focused on Jean Donneau de Visé as an “Entrepreneur des lettres.” His research focuses on the book market, print studies, marketing and social networks as well as cultural transfers in seventeenth-century France. His publications include Peindre le siècle en comedies. Une introduction au Misanthrope et au Tartuffe de Molière (2016), numerous articles, as well as digital editions of the Nouvelles Nouvelles from Jean Donneau de Visé and of the Alcoran de Louis XIV, a pamphlet he is currently editing with Kathrina Laporta (NYU). |
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