Plaire et instruct

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vers a la louange du roy pour estre recitez a la fin de la tragedie, qui sera représentée au college de Louis le Grand , Library of the Sorbonne , NuBIS , HJR 4 = 55, pièce 41.

The formula des plaire et instruire , in German "to delight and instruct", defines the desired function of a literary work in the French classical period (17th century).

definition

The formula des plaire et instruire (French: to delight and instruct) is one of the basic principles in the normative poetics of French classicism (17th century) and defines the demands on the effect or function of a literary work. Classical works, such as the plays by Molière , Jean Racine or Pierre Corneille , but also the fables of La Fontaine , should therefore be both entertainment ( plaire , i.e. to please or divertir , i.e. to entertain) and education ( instruire or enseigner i.e., teaching) serve the audience.

origin

For this principle, as in many other cases, the French classical period falls back on ancient poetics and rhetoric. The term "plaire et instruire" goes back to Horace , who in his Ars Poetica ( Poetics ) writes about classical Roman theater :

Aut prodesse uolunt aut delectare poetae
aut simul et iucunda et idonea dicere uitae.

That means: The poets either write to please, or to teach, or to do both together. "While Horace gives the possibility of an alternative, in the French classical period both are always defined together, delighting and teaching, as a normative principle.

In addition, the principle of plaire et instruire can be understood as a subset of the three basic modes of operation of literature, which are differentiated in ancient rhetoric : docere (instruct), delectare (delight) and movere (move, stir), which also in France im 17th and 18th centuries are important (French: instruire , divertir , toucher ).

Even in the 18th century, this principle was preserved, now in the spirit of the Enlightenment .

See also

Web links and literature

  • GJ Mallinson, "Fiction, Morality, and the Reader: Reflections on the Classical Formula plaire et instruct", in: Rethinking Classicism: Overviews , ed. by David Lee Rubin. New York: AMS, 1989, pp. 203-228.
  • Plaire et instruire: Le Spectacle dans les collèges de l'Ancien Régime , ed. by Anne Piéjus. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2007. (French)
  • René Bray, La formation de la doctrine classique en France , Paris: Nizet, 1966.
  • Jürgen Grimm, French Classic . Stuttgart: Metzler, 2005. (Chapter: "On the problem of the doctrine classique" and "Aesthetic basic concepts".)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Horace, Ars poetica , on Wikisource , Ars poetica , verses 333-334.
  2. ↑ See Wikipedia article Rhetoric , section "Effects of a speech".
  3. ↑ See for a section Plaire et instruire: Le Spectacle dans les collèges de l'Ancien Régime , ed. by Anne Piéjus. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2007.