Les procédés satiriques du libertin érudit, dyrcona, dans "L'autre monde"

Author

Anouk Bourrat

Date of Award

5-1999

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

French

Major Professor

Edmund Campion

Abstract

While everyone has heard of Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac, almost no one knows the real Cyrano, who lived in the seventeenth century. The following question has guided my research: who was this man? To answer succinctly, he was an erudite libertine and an obscure writer. Indeed, L'Autre Monde was not published during his lifetime; the posthumous edition of 1657 is a bowdlerized version of Cyrano's manuscript. Two original manuscripts found at the beginning of the twentieth century reveal quite a different workIn this version, Dyrcona, the narrator-hero, travels to the moon. His lunar encounters and experiences strike the reader as both comic and disturbing.

In my essay, I examine the two main strategies used by Cyrano / Dyrcona to satirize the society of his time. The first is the juxtaposition and opposition of science and religion; the second, the use of standard comic strategies such as parody and irony. The analysis of these strategies allowed me to understand better the hidden message of this fantastic trip, unknown to the public for so long.

Recommended Citation

Bourrat, Anouk, "Les procédés satiriques du libertin érudit, dyrcona, dans "L'autre monde". " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 1999.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/9778