RACINE, JEAN

in full Jean-baptiste Racine (baptized Dec. 22, 1639, La Fert-Milon, Franced. April 21, 1699, Paris), French dramatic poet and historiographer renowned for his mastery of French classical tragedy. His reputation rests on the plays he wrote between 1664 and 1677, notably Andromaque (1667), Britannicus (1669), Brnice (1670), Bajazet (1672), and Phdre (1677). Ronald W. Tobin Additional reading The standard critical edition of Racine's collected works remains the Oeuvres compltes, ed. by Raymond Picard, vol. 1 (1950) and vol. 2, rev. ed. (1966), both vol. reissued together (198185). A convenient edition of the plays in one volume is Thtre complet, ed. by Jacques Morel and Alain Viala (1980). The only complete English-language collection of the plays is Complete Plays, trans. by Samuel Solomon, 2 vol. (1967); while an edition of three plays, Britannicus; Phaedra; Athaliah, trans. by C.H. Sisson (1987), has much to commend it. The first computerized concordance of any French author was devoted to Racine: Bryant Freeman and Alan Batson, Concordance du thtre et des posies de Jean Racine, 2 vol. (1968).The classic biography is Raymond Picard, La Carrire de Jean Racine, new ed. rev. and augmented (1961). Geoffrey Brereton, Jean Racine: A Critical Biography (1951, reprinted 1973), is also worth consulting. A popularized treatment is Alain Viala, Racine: la stratgie du camlon (1990). Racine's central place in the history of French tragedy is discussed in Jacques Truchet, La Tragdie classique en France (1975). Critical studies accessible to the general reader include John C. Lapp, Aspects of Racinian Tragedy (1955, reissued 1978); Odette de Mourgues, Racine, or, The Triumph of Relevance (1967); Claude Abraham, Jean Racine (1977); David Maskell, Racine: A Theatrical Reading (1991); and Henry Phillips, Racine: Language and Theatre (1994). The most controversial interpretations of Racine (anthropological by Roland Barthes, Marxist by Lucien Goldmann, and psychoanalytical by Charles Mauron) are reviewed with many others by Jean Rohou, Jean Racine: bilan critique, ed. by Alain Pags (1994). Roy C. Knight, Racine et la Grce, 2nd ed. (1974); and Ronald W. Tobin, Racine and Seneca (1971), elucidate Racine's vast knowledge of Greco-Roman antiquity. Rhetoric in the plays has been studied by Michael Hawcrowft, Word as Action: Racine, Rhetoric, and Theatrical Language (1992).