La critique romantique face au Moyen Âge : La Harpe, Villemain, Nisard et Sainte-Beuve
The nineteenth century rediscovered, in a context of rupture with the Ancien Régime's aesthetic, the middle Ages' literature and its prolongations. That literature has been received in different ways, according to the position of each critic in the quarrel of the romantics. This quarrel thus modulated the reception of the works from before the XVIIth century: those became an example to follow for some; or were only, for others, mere examples of the French civilisation's childhood. That new taste of romantics for works neglected by the two preceding centuries brought a questioning about the literature in general, in a new perspective of its historicity. From now on, literature had to be regarded as an expression of a particular and ever changing civilisation. In this context, a new discipline appeared soon: the history of French literature; history still mixed with subjective evaluations and didacticism. We'll delve therefore on the reception that the literature before the XVIIth century received from the most famous and the most representative critics and historians of the nineteenth century, i.e. La Harpe, Villemain, Nisard and Sainte-beuve. We'll study how the literary doctrines of each critic influenced theirs judgements; and will see how the Middle Ages' works has been sometimes used to defend the aesthetic contentions of its judges. We'll analyse as well the variety of the judgements that happened to occur over the years within the framework of a same trend.
La Harpe Villemain Nisard Sainte-Beuve Middle Ages Romanticism