Author Description

Product Description Part One of George Poe's study proposes a working definition of «rococo» for the various arts and then provides a detailed look at the critical development of the so-called rococo littéraire since the 1920s. Part Two is a parallel reading of rococo decor (for the rococo is an originally French interior-decorative art) and of a contemporary literary corpus (Marivaux's comedic art) showing formal convergences between these two types of cultural texts as well as mutually operative aesthetic principles. The formal patterns can be seen as representing creative responses of the same general nature to consonant psychocultural demands. The aim, then, is to strengthen the case for extending the «rococo» label beyond the decorative arts to the Kindred patterns found in eighteenth-century French literary expression. Review «The author's rare combination of balanced judgement and independence of mind is particularly admirable. And his thirst for rigor is most productive. Professor Poe's knowledge of the critical history of the subject is remarkably complete and his treatment of it is lively and eminently readable-which is something of a tour de force.» (Patrick Brady, Rice University)