Documents found
-
41.
-
44.More information
Characters in novels sometimes change colour several times in the throes of violent emotion: they blush and then pale, or pale and then blush. Could these “changes in colour” (Descartes) be topoi ? This hypothesis is analysed in the eighteenth-century French novel, and more specifically in Marivaux’s La Vie de Marianne and the work of Stéphanie de Genlis. As the understanding and the representation of emotion was changed transformed by the shift from passion to sentiment, these phenomena of blush and pallor together testify to the emergence of a new visual epistemology and advances in descriptive writing, but perhaps also to the difficulties of inventing and disseminating a new topos.
Keywords: rougeur, pâleur, émotion, topos, Marivaux, Genlis, blush, pallor, emotion, topos, Marivaux, Genlis
-
45.More information
Some of the first names given to Anouilh's characters or mentioned in his dialogues are known from literature, whereas others bring celebrities to mind. Yet very few are created by the author. Instead, they are chosen according to a character's age, era, social standing or personality. However, Anouilh's surnames, some of which also come from literature or the real world, are more often than not a fabrication reflecting the author's whim. Be they foreign, noble or Jewish, or those assigned to his spokespersons, these surnames illustrate his perception of the world.
-
46.
-
49.More information
The question of historical decor in cinema is often approached from the perspective of verisimilitude and authenticity: whether the interior decor and the furnishings are in keeping with the styles and uses found in the period of the story, and whether the objects handled by the characters, like their costumes and postures, respect “historical reality” and document facts as much as they do ambiences. In this article the author adopts a different approach: that of the role of cinema in understanding bygone material culture. By examining the logics which emerge from the processes of creating Ancien Régime decors, it appears that film art, with its many visual, narrative and emotional possibilities, gets quite close to the relations men and women maintained in this era through their decorative objects. Drawing on a selection of classic French, Italian and American films, the author suggests avenues of approach and a perspective for researchers in film studies and art history to consider in their encounters.