Folly's Family, Folly's Children: [Actes de la XIVe Table ronde sur le Théâtre Tudor, Tours, les 3-4 septembre 2015]

Résumé En

The twelve essays in this volume address from a variety of angles the associations and affiliations of pertinent characters with folly, or aspects of that motif, in works ranging from medieval morality plays to the comedies of Ben Jonson. In certain fifteenth-century moralities, one finds, among allegorical figures of evil (devils, sins, vices, figures of temptation) groups of figures more or less hierarchised and suggestive of lineage or family. To the extent that evil in such moralities is regularly characterised as at once comic and non-sensical – because contrary to divine reason – there is an obvious link, however variable and tenuous, between such elements and the discourses and behaviours associated with folly in the Tudor and Stuart theatres. That point has often been developed. But it is apparent, as well, that later stagings of folly often likewise foreground groups and affiliations. In the Tudor interludes, the Vice-function is frequently multiplied or seconded. In the later drama, folly may frankly advertise its different forms and expressions, while the relations among characters who exemplify it may become an instrument of signification in itself. Collectively, these essays in effect sketch out a chronological typology of the phenomenon which sheds light not only on dramaturgical practices but also on larger questions of genre, culture and ideology.