Le traitement de la folie et des passions amoureuses chez les traducteurs et imitateurs français de l’Orlando furioso de l’Arioste (1544-1601): construction d’une tradition littéraire
a successful book in Italy and then beyond the Alps. While the literary reception of Ariosto inFrance has already been widely studied since the work of Alexandre Ciorănescu and SijbrandKeyser, this PhD dissertation consists of an analysis of the diffusion of this masterpiece throughthe prism of the loving passion. In the sixteenth century, during the first French reception, readers and authors felt passionately about amorous episodes, and more specifically ones about the madness of desperate lovers. French authors took several figures of unfortunate lovers from the abundance of characters in Orlando furioso. Besides, thanks to its plasticity, Ariosto’s text was able to inspire most literary genres. We study the evolution of this representation of passion in French translations and imitations, both through a diachronic analysis and an analysis by literary genre. While in the first translations the French transposition can sometimes influence the representation of passion, the love poetry adopted more aesthetical an approach of these episodes. We insist on the 1570s, as they demonstrate the presence of remake in the epic genre but also of many partial imitations. Thus, the representation of the sentiment amoureux will progressively be depicted with more diversity and complexity until the beginning of the seventeenth century when it evolved towards a more psychological approach.Medieval and Early Modern Studie
