Mérimée's Romantic Theater: The Present State of Scholarship

Surveying the critical literature of the past twenty years, this article reviews scholarship devoted in whole or in part to Prosper Mérimée's romantic dramas: Le Théâtre de Clara Gazul (1825-1830), La Jaquerie, scènes féodales, and La Famille de Carvajal, drame (both of 1828). Saved from total oblivion by their historical and chronological position, these plays are shown to have elicited a significant, if not substantial, number of studies. Most follow traditional literary-critical modes (literary biography, source studies, literary history, etc.); a few open new vistas still to be fully explored. In addition to the brief summaries of the extant scholarship on this topic, some suggestions are offered for future investigations. (BTC)