French Literature Reviews - 2026
Styles, Genres, Authors, Vol. 4
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Edited by Françoise Rullier-Theuret and Gérard Berthomieu, Styles, genres, auteurs. Volume 4, La Queste del Saint Graal, Louise Labé, Cyrano de Bergerac, Beaumarchais, Tocqueville, Michel Leiris, coll. "Bibliothèque des styles", PU Paris Sorbonne, 174 p., 20 euros.
The "Bibliothèque des styles" series (UFR de Langue française of Paris Sorbonne University and the "Sens et Texte" research team) presents its fourth volume, dedicated to six works on the syllabus of the literary agrégation exams, arranged in chronological order: La Queste del Saint Graal, Debat de Folie et d'Amour, Elégies, Sonnets by Louise Labé, L'Autre Monde ou les États et Empires de la Lune by Cyrano de Bergerac, Le Mariage de Figaro by Beaumarchais, De la démocratie en Amérique II by Tocqueville, and L'Âge d'homme by Michel Leiris. The chosen angle of study may be a rhetorical figure, a concept, a characteristic turn of phrase, a marker of enunciation, or an aesthetic trait; each contribution addresses the major questions raised by the discovery of a style, its personal markers, its relation to a genre, and its inscription within a historical context.
Gérard Berthomieu
Introduction
LA QUESTE DEL SAINT GRAAL
Danièle James-Raoul
The Poetics of Vagueness in the Queste del Saint Graal (147, 1-210, 28): Elements of Style
LOUISE LABÉ
Vân Dung Le Flanchec
Designation and Allegory in Louise Labé's Debat de Folie et d'Amour
Jean Lecointe
“Punta d'un scorpio”: Petrarchan Wit and Epigrammatic Structure in the Sonnets of Louise Labé
CYRANO DE BERGERAC
Florence Balique
Metaphor as a Figure of Insolence in Cyrano de Bergerac's L'Autre Monde ou les États et Empires de la Lune
BEAUMARCHAIS
Violaine Géraud
Inventing a New Comic Style: The Beaumarchaisian Archiethos
Anne-Marie Paillet
Answer My Questions? Interrogation in The Marriage of Figaro
TOCQUEVILLE
Fabienne Boissiéras
Tocqueville's Other Style: Volume 2 of Democracy in America
Joëlle Gardes Tamine
Between Descartes and Pascal: Objectivity and Subjectivity in Tocqueville
MICHEL LEIRIS
Thomas Clerc
Quotation Marks in L'Âge d'homme: "Lodges of the Soul"
Pierre-Henri Kleiber
Fragments of an Autobiographical Discourse: The Glossary of L'Âge d'homme
This volume belongs to the Bibliothèque des styles series, published by PU Paris Sorbonne in collaboration with the UFR de Langue française and the Sens et Texte research team. It gathers contributions examining texts prescribed for French literary competitive examinations across various historical periods. The collection focuses on stylistic analysis, considering how individual authors shape language within specific literary genres and historical moments. Contributors address questions regarding personal markers of style, rhetorical figures, aesthetic traits, and the interplay between textual enunciation and broader cultural traditions.
The studies collected here cover six major French texts ranging from medieval chivalric romance and Renaissance poetry to classical drama, political philosophy, and modern autobiography. Each contribution investigates specific formal features, such as metaphor, allegory, interrogation, and quotation marks, while offering close readings of individual authors. Readers interested in French literary history, stylistic criticism, and the agrégation syllabus may find this collection relevant.