Le Drame romantique

This article is a condensation of a Special Session of the MLA, which took place on 29 December 1977, organized and presided by Fernande Bassan. It contains the synopses of five papers, of the comments of the discussants, and of the answers of the lecturers. The five papers study five of the main Romantic playwrights. First Pierre H. Dubé examines Moïse (1831) by Chateaubriand; this work marks the transition between the Classic and the Romantic French theater. Then Sharon L. Fairchild, studying how Victor Hugo's dramatic theories, expressed in the Preface of Cromwell, have been applied by him in his own plays, demonstrates that he used them rather freely. Laurence M. Porter analyzes next the "Body Language in Vigny's Theater": "Vigny's moral vision was translated through kinetic metaphors." Then Richard S. Stowe comments on the first four historical dramas of Alexandre Dumas père, who transforms history to make it more dramatic, while evoking in a vivid way the atmosphere of the time. Lastly, Steven Taylor considers that in his libretti of ballets, Théophile Gautier has transposed Romantic dramas. (In French & English) (FB)