ABSTRACT
His work is written in honor of the already classical article by Benzaquen de Araujo & Viveiros de Castro (1977) on Romeo and Juliet, in which the authors argue for the Shakespeare play as explaining the making of the Modern State as above private interests, from then on melded into a legally undifferentiated civil society. We argue that such a making of Civil Society does not in itself explain a mode of resolution for the struggle between various interests, a task historically assumed by Absolute Monarchy. The play by Corneille, Le Cid, which we examine as an ideal case, deals with this resolution mode by means of a story of both love and feud. We conclude by explaining how both Shakespeare and Corneille partook of the same notion of the “managed” individual.
Keywords:
French Classical Drama; Absolutism; Modern State; Pierre Corneille; Le Cid