Description: Michèle Longino examines the ways in which Mediterranean exoticism alters the themes in French classical drama through the exploration of such plays by Corneille, Molière and Racine as Le Cid, Médée, and Le bourgeois gentilhomme among others. She considers the role that the staging of the near Orient played in influencing French colonial identity. Drawing on histories, travel journals, memoirs and correspondence, Longino depicts these dramatizations in the context of French-Ottoman relations at the time of their production.
Review Quotes: "Longino's work makes a convincing case for the importance of new readings of old texts. Although it deals with a rich array of information from both cultures' theoretical and practical fields, this book is surprisingly accessible to a wide range of readers, from scholars to the general public." The Comparatist