La construction de la masculinité au xviie siècle. Le rôle de l’irrévérence et de l’offense verbale chez Molière et Regnard

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This article shows how the use of offensive and improper words reveals codes relating to gender in seventeenth-century society and theatre. Disrespect and rudeness were not only markers of masculinity but also attempts to display hard masculinity, characters trying to show leadership and manliness. Common characteristics expressing masculine identities which go beyond social divides (that is status and social class), can be found on stage. Examining comedies by Molière and Jean-François Regnard gives for instance insight into the way masculinity is constructed both socially and theatrically during the period. Crude language, swearing and insults reflect hegemony and masculine domination, as well as a way to gain self-confidence in public. Displaying aggressive manhood proved to be pivotal in the plays I look at, even though gentlemanly behaviour, which symbolized soft masculinity, was promoted through the ideal of the ‘honnête homme’ in bourgeois and aristocratic spheres at the turn of the seventeenth century. However, playwrights ridiculed male characters’ excessive manliness. They developed new forms of comic by distancing themselves from the classical rules and the notions of etiquette and accepted behaviour.