LE DRAMATURGE DISSIDENT. LE THÉÂTRE DE LOUIS LEMERCIER ENTRE LUMIÈRES ET ROMANTISME (SUIVI DE L¿ÉDITION CRITIQUE D¿AGAMEMNON ET PINTO, OU LA JOURNÉE D¿UNE CONSPIRATION)
The dramatic productions of Jean-Fran\ue7ois-Louis N\ue9pomuc\ue8ne Lemercier (1771-1840) reveal a transition between Neoclassicism, Preromanticism and Romanticism. This writer and academician witnessed the political and social upheavals that characterized France from the twilight of the Enlightenment until the July Revolution and thereafter. The span of his life and works amply exceeds the "long Eighteenth Century" that literary historians have extended to 1820 (Claude Pichois). This dissertation includes two main parts: a monographic study of Lemercier\u2019s dramatic production and a critical edition of the playwright\u2019s major works, Agamemnon (1797), one of the most successful tragedies during the \u201cDirectoire\u201d and to 1826; and Pinto, a \u201chistorical comedy\u201d composed between 1798 and 1800, and which was seen as a \u201cromantic\u201d triumph in 1834. Lemercier has often been regarded as the author of one of the last classical tragedies (Agamemnon i.e.); nevertheless, in spite of being, at times, one of Romanticism\u2019s fiercest detractors, he emerges in Nineteenth century criticism \u2013 and above all in Schlegel\u2019s writings \u2013 as one of the most influential pioneers of romantic drama. The intrinsic ambiguity of Lemercier\u2019s dramatic production reveals the uncertainties of this transitional age. This ambiguity thus demands a holistic approach: the context of Lemercier\u2019s literary works will be analyzed from an esthetic, historical and political point of view, emphasizing their intricate relationships with literary and political authorities and censorship issues throughout the period
