Influence and Circulation of Scottish and ‘Pre-Scottish’ Myths and Facts in 19th-Century French Drama
This study intends to investigate the influence of Scottish and pre-Scottish myths and facts —reported in various chronicles and histories— on the arts of the early modern period, the enlightenment and the 19th century through a few graphic examples. It will focus on the transtextual and intersemiotic circulation of representational figures and symbols. Their analysis will help decipher the presence of Angus and Marie, as well as that of Fingal…, main characters in the playtext and on engravings composing François Coppée’s Les Jacobites. The dialogical and ekphrasic relations between texts, pictures and contexts will be exploited to revisit networks. Portrayal and onomastics recall ‘historical’ people from the Pictish and Scottish past. The paper will deal with the poetics and mythopoe(t)ics of the French Parnassian author (a member of the French institutions of the Académie Française and the Comédie Française) whose Celt bard Ossian’s (3rd century AD) influence cannot be denied. The interpretation of graphic signs will also lead to the decoding of the political meaning of Coppée’s dramatic piece at the time of its production at the Parisian Odeon Theatre.
Danièle Berton-Charrière, POURPRE, IHRIM-CLERMONT, UMR 5317, CNRS, France