Molière’s Critics, from Rousseau to Baudelaire: Ideology, Psychology, Aesthetics

Abstract

This paper deals with a number of interpretations that have been given to Molière’s work, namely that undertaken by Rousseau in his Lettre à d’Alembert sur les spectacles and those attempted by Baudelaire in fragmentary form in many of his writings. Rousseau’s and Baudelaire’s perspectives are ideologically divergent, but a closer reading reveals also psychological and aesthetic differences. The shifting perspectives between these authors are all the more surprising because Baudelaire was not only a critic of Molière but also a critic of Rousseau, yet he drew inspiration from the writings of both in his poems. The binary, linear hermeneutic is overcome here in favour of a triangular, or even plural, reading, as voices such as Sainte-Beuve’s or Nietzsche’s are occasionally summoned to diversify the possible points of view.